The Warriors open their first road trip of the season with an overtime loss to the Charlotte Hornets
Steve Kerr chases a win, the Nickname Lineup stinks and then redeems themself, only to fall apart defensively in the most important moments of the game, James Wiseman is benched, and more,.
On the first night of a five-game road trip, as well as the first night of a back-to-back, the Warriors key players played big minutes, as well as an overtime period, against a depleted but surprisingly solid Charlotte Hornets team. The Warriors, unfortunately, lost this game in overtime as they were only able to muster two made buckets during the period, both of which were layups by Draymond Green. Tomorrow evening, the Warriors will play an even lowlier (is that a word???) Detroit Pistons game on the road. Given the big minutes load of their veterans, it’s probably safe to assume that tomorrow night’s game will be a rest night for the vets and a test for the Warriors’ young core.
Tonight, the Warriors’ young core was mostly absent from the game, save for Moses Moody, who played 14 mostly solid minutes. James Wiseman was ineffective and practically invisible in his four minutes, save for his three fouls trying to contain Hornets’ backup center, Nick Richards, and Jonathan Kuminga played nearly three minutes tonight and only registered a steal and an offensive rebound in the box score. The Warriors will need at least one of Kuminga or Wiseman to provide useful rotation minutes and hopefully, that’s sooner rather than later. But tonight, Steve Kerr was chasing a win to set the tone for this road trip, and he went with his veterans, which is his right to do.
While the Warriors’ vets did put together an impressive third-quarter run to take their first lead of the night, they fouled like a younger, more inexperienced team for much of the game — the Hornets shot 31 free throws to the Warriors’ 16 — and made costly defensive breakdowns in overtime that gave the Hornets the win. Much will also be made by Twitter reactionaries of the poor shooting of Klay Thompson, who played 31 minutes and went 5/14 from the field and 1/7 from three. Steve Kerr already expressed post-game that he’s not worried about Klay as he gets his feet under him, but if the Warriors aren’t going to get much out of their young and inexperienced bench players, they’ll need the veterans to bring it every night, lest their leads keep falling apart in the early minutes of second and fourth quarters.
A few stray thoughts and observations before we get into rotation watch:
The Warriors’ Nickname Lineup was really bad in its second-quarter minutes, quite good in its third-quarter minutes, and then uneven in overtime. I’m inclined to say the Nickname Lineup ran out of gas in overtime, but their defensive mistakes were jarring.
Draymond Green was aggressive on offense tonight and really brought it defensively. I was most impressed by his courage in overtime as he defended with 0 chill despite having five fouls a the start of the period.
Jordan Poole only registered four assists in the box score, but his passing was quite impressive. It seemed as if he was often tasked with bringing the ball up the court and initiating offensive possessions when the Nickname Lineup was on the court, which might be a bit surprising, but actually makes sense the more you think about it — dial up a high pick-and-roll for Poole to get downhill and if there’s not an open shot at the rim available, he can kick it out and the Warriors can begin to read and react and force defenders to rotate chaotically all over the court.
Ty Jerome got 15 minutes of playing time tonight, which was more than James Wiseman and Jonathan Kuminga combined to play. I’d like to see Kuminga get some playing time alongside the starters, but right now it seems like Steve Kerr wants to give those minutes to James Wiseman. Beyond that, Kerr has had Kevon Looney stabilize the defense of the second unit in the last two games and he doesn’t seem inclined towards playing JaMychal Green significant minutes at the 5, which in turn, makes it harder to find minutes for Kuminga. The idea of Jerome is theoretically annoying, if only for what he symbolizes in Steve Kerr’s mind — ball security prioritized at the expense of minutes for higher-potential players — but tonight was solid in his first-half minutes.
Rotation watch:
1st Q:
12:00 — Curry/Thompson/Wiggins/D. Green/Looney: 0-0, tie game.
5:41 — Curry/Poole/Wiggins/D. Green/Wiseman: 13-18, Hornets lead.
4:00 — Curry/Poole/Moody/J. Green/Wiseman: 15-23, Hornets lead.
2:28 — Jerome/Poole/Moody/J. Green/Wiseman: 17-26, Hornets lead.
0:57 — Jerome/Poole/Moody/Kuminga/J. Green: 21-30, Hornets lead.
I believed this game was starting at 7:30 PM EST, so by the time I turned the game on, it was only a few minutes before Steve Kerr made his first sub of the night. James Wiseman and Jordan Poole came into the game at the 5:41 mark, only a few possessions after Kevon Looney struggled to create a good shot or pass against a surprisingly stout Hornets’ defense. The Hornets expanded their lead to 11 points by the end of the quarter and in the final minutes of the period, James Wiseman had been subbed out with foul trouble in favor of Jonathan Kuminga. Wiseman was ineffective in his minutes, which began with this sequence:
Wiseman looked increasingly competent sliding his feet in perimeter isolations, but the Hornets created open looks against him in the pick-and-roll, and Nick Richards scored and grabbed offensive rebounds at Wiseman’s expense.
2nd Q:
12:00 — Jerome/Poole/Wiggins/J. Green/Looney: 23- 34, Hornets lead.
6:05 — Curry/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/Green: 40-43, Hornets lead.
5:05 — Jerome/Curry/Thompson/Green/Kuminga: 40-47, Hornets lead
3:13 — Cury/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/Green: 42-50, Hornets lead.
2:08 — Curry/Thompson/Wiggins/Green/Looney: 43-56, Hornets lead.
After subbing in late in the first period, Jonathan Kuminga was not on the court at the start of the second period. Instead, Steve Kerr turned to the JaMychal Green/Kevon Looney frontcourt alongside a backcourt trio of Jordan Poole, Ty Jerome, and Andrew Wiggins. About two minutes into the period, the Hornets called a timeout after their lead had been cut to four points. Ty Jerome hit a floater and an open three in those minutes, Andrew Wiggins hit another timely three — I can’t believe I’m growing to expect him to take control of games now! —and Kevon Looney played solid defense against Nick Richards, which Warriors’ announcer, Bob Fitzgerald, took note of after an out-of-control hook shot by the Hornets’ center.
By the time the Warriors’ Nickname Lineup played its first minutes of the night at the 6:03 mark, the Warriors were within three points. That lead evaporated quickly — in just a minute, the Hornets scored five points, which prompted Kerr to bring in Ty Jerome and Jonathan Kuminga to replace Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole for a brief stint. The Nickname lineup made its return at the 3:13 mark trailing by only 8 points. A little over a minute later, the Hornets' lead was up to 13 points and Kevon Looney checked in for Jordan Poole, who had just picked up his third foul of the game. This sequence by Kevon Looney was a rare highlight of a first half that ended with the Warriors down 12:
3rd Q:
12:00 — Curry/Thompson/Wiggins/Green/Looney: 50-62, Hornets lead.
8:56 — Curry/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/D. Green: 50-65, Hornets lead.
5:03 — Curry/Poole/Moody/Wiggins/D. Green: 64-72, Hornets lead.
3:15 — Curry/Poole/Moody/Wiggins/Looney: 74-78, Hornets lead.
2:26 — Curry/Poole/Moody/J. Green/Looney: 77-78, Hornets lead.
1:37 — Jerome/Poole/Moody/J. Green/Looney: 80-80, tie game.
At the 9:09 mark of the third quarter, PJ Washington made the first field goal of the half by either team. For much of the first three minutes, the pace of the game was choppy and various Warriors nearly lost their dribble several times. At the 8:56 mark of the period, Kerr turned to the Nickname Lineup to speed up the game and the results were instant. Draymond Green drove into the chest of Hornets’ center, Mason Plumlee, for a layup at the hoop, and on the next possession, the Poole/Green pick-and-roll created an easy layup for Andrew Wiggins:
After that Wiggins layup, the Warriors held the Hornets scoreless for over two minutes and back-to-back threes by Klay Thompson and Steph Curry got the game within 7 points before the Hornets took a timeout. The Warriors got the Hornets’ lead down to five points twice, but timely threes by Dennis Smith Jr. and Gordon Hayward blunted the Warriors’ momentum, at least temporarily. Steve Kerr did not bring in James Wiseman at any point in the quarter. Instead, he brought in Moses Moody to fill in for Klay Thompson with the Nickname Lineup and when Draymond Green subbed out, it was Kevon Looney came back in. Shortly after, Jordan Poole got the Warriors within a single point, which kicked off an impressive string of... defensive stops by... Jordan Poole. You’ll have to see it to believe it:
The Warriors finally took their first lead of the night at the 2:09 mark when Jordan Poole hit a three assisted by Kevon Looney and at the end of the period, Moses Moody rimmed in a shot from deep, which gave the Warriors an 83-80 lead to finish the quarter.
4th Q:
12:00 — Jerome/Poole/Moody/J. Green/Looney: 83-80, Warriors lead.
8:10 — Curry/Moody/Wiggins/J. Green/Looney: 85-88, Hornets lead.
7:28 — Curry/Thompson/Wiggins/D. Green/Looney: 88-89, Hornets lead.
5:25 — Curry/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/D. Green: 91-95, Hornets lead.
1:02 — Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/D. Green/Looney: 107-103, Warriors lead.
0:54 — Curry/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/D. Green: 107-105, Warriors lead.
The Warriors scored just two points in the first 3:50 minutes of the fourth quarter against the Hornets’ 8 points. Jalen McDaniels and Theo Maledon each hit well-contested mid-range jumpers and Kelly Oubre Jr. had a fast break dunk after a steal against the Warriors’ halfcourt offense. Steve Kerr’s second unit looked out of sorts in the minutes it played together, particularly on offense as they missed all but one field goal attempt and made two ugly turnovers. At the 8:10 mark, Kerr brought in Steph Curry and Andrew Wiggins to replace Poole and Jerome, and shortly after, Moses Moody hit another timely three.
But as was the case earlier in the game, the Hornets kept finding ways to pull ahead. Kelly Oubre Jr. made a free throw, assisted (!) a Nick Richards layup, and hit a well-defended catch-and-shoot three to put the Hornets up 6 points with a little over 6 left in the game. The Hornets’ physicality also gave them an edge, in theory at least — the Hornets were in the bonus by the 5:51 mark, which prompted Steve Kerr to hack-a-Mason-Plumlee, who recently switched shooting hands on free throws. Plumlee’s trips to the line resulted in 2/6 free-throw shooting and when the Nickname Lineup got its first fourth-quarter run at the 5:25 mark, the Warriors only trailed by five points.
At the 3:15 mark of the period, Steph Curry picked up his fifth foul of the period. This one came after he missed a floater and barreled into Dennis Smith Jr., which led to free throws on the other end. By my count, that was at least the third rebounding foul that the Warriors committed in the period, on top of four moving screen violations at various points in the game. Hornets’ coach, Steve Clifford, subbed Plumlee out in favor of a small lineup and they proceeded to go up 5 points. But after a Steph Curry three cut the lead to two points, Jordan Poole tied the game with a huge three, which you can see below, and Steph Curry followed that up with a layup to put the Warriors up two:
The Warriors got their lead up to four points after a Draymond Green layup, but a Green foul of Gordon Hayward got the Hornets two free throws, and then with a little more than a minute left in the game, Draymond turned in one of those two-way sequences that made me feel like the game was over for good:
Credit to the Hornets: that’s the type of demoralizing sequence that lots of teams wouldn’t recover from. But back-to-back buckets by PJ Washington and Dennis Smith Jr. tied the game up for one final Warriors possession after Steve Kerr elected not to use a timeout. When Steph Curry dribbled out the clock and tried to go to a step-back three, DSJ defended him in isolation about as well as you’ll see and Curry missed an ugly three, which sent the game to overtime.
OT:
5:00 — Curry/Poole/Thompson/Wiggins/Green: 107-107, tie game.
0:22 — Curry//Moody/Thompson/Green/Looney: 113-120, Hornets lead.
At the start of overtime, Bob Fitzgerald and Kelenna Azubuike reminded fans that Steph Curry and Draymond Green both had five fouls. The Hornets went out of their way to attack both players during overtime, with varying results — attacking Green is never the most prudent of options. Curry was more cautious about avoiding contact than Draymond, who kept going for steals and nearly pulling them off, but most of the big buckets the Hornets scored in overtime involved at least one of Steph and Draymond, including this three by Jalen McDaniels where Curry makes a costly mistake:
That three was the only one made in overtime by either team. Draymond Green scored the Warriors’ only two made field goals during overtime. These buckets came out of pick-and-roll actions, but nothing else really manifested for the Warriors' offense. Steph Curry did hit a pair of free throws after being fouled on a drive with 1:11 left in overtime, but none of their three-point attempts went down and after a PJ Washington layup at the baseline with 45 seconds left in the period, the game was effectively over.
James Wiseman Watch:
Matched up primarily against fellow 2020 draftee, Nick Richards, James Wiseman played only four minutes in the game and did not play a single minute in the second half. Wiseman did not grab a single rebound or score a single bucket. He missed his only two field-goal attempts of the night and picked up three fouls on a night when the Warriors needed more.