Golden State Warriors

Warriors Look to Get on Track vs Hornets

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In the aftermath of Saturday night’s inexplainable loss against a James Harden-less Houston Rockets team at home, the Golden State Warriors are in Charlotte to take on the Hornets in the first game of a brief east coast road trip.

Granted, the Warriors won 17 out of their last 20 games. However, lingering issues such as poor starts and defense are causes for concern. Warriors coach Steve Kerr believes his team have been suffering from an All Star hangover.

“We’ve been on the All-Star break until late last night,” Kerr told the Chronicle’s Connor Letorneau. “We finally got of the All-Star break at like 8:30 last night, so we got back to work tonight, and I’m excited to get back on track.”

Setting the Tone

Golden State’s trend of slow starts may have hit rock bottom against Houston, but before spotting their conference irritant the game’s first 15 points, they fell behind 31-15 against Phoenix and 29-12 to the Heat. Despite their record, the Hornets are a dangerous team that has the potential to jump out to early leads, but struggle to sustain them. For example, in their game against the Clippers on Feb. 5, they were up by 20 going into the fourth quarter before collapsing. Regardless, the Warriors would want to avoid another lackluster start to a scrappy Hornets team that’s fighting for their playoff lives.

Lineup Woes

In eleven games together, the Warriors five All-Star line up is averaging a cumulative plus-minus of minus-1 on the season. The lineup is averaging an offensive rating of 113.9 and a defensive rating of 114.2. They’ve scored 345 points and gave up 346. The biggest culprits for this shocking statistic? Poor shooting and defense. In eight February games, Stephen Curry has attempted 40 first quarter shots; only making 12 of them. Strangely enough, a mini-slump before the all star break is nothing new to Curry. However, it’s part of the reason why this lineup is underachieving none the less.

In addition to Curry’s mini-slump, the Warriors are still struggling in effectively implementing DeMarcus Cousins in their system offensively. Cousins is well meaning in his game. When he’s struggling to score, he hustles for rebounds and tries on the defensive end. But implementing Cousins is still a process that will take more than just 11 games.

Defensively, the Warriors tend to struggle with perimeter and transition defense, but what stands out is how vulnerable they are in defending the pick and roll. Before injury, Cousins struggle against the pick and roll. After his injury, the struggles tend to not only linger but intensify. Opposing teams draws Cousins out of the paint, and he doesn’t recover in time to contend shots in the paint. The Warriors must find more ways to account for Cousin’s struggles in this area.

Green’s Injury

According to the Athletic’s Anthony Slater, Draymond Green is listing himself as probable for tonight’s game against the Hornets. Green sustained a minor ankle injury against the Rockets, and he didn’t return for the fourth quarter. However, Green was seen at shoot around.

If theres a drastic change between shoot around and tip off, look for Kerr to potentially start Jordan Bell in Green’s place.

We’re Talking About Practice?

After Saturday’s loss, Green alluded to not being prepared and having a poor practice before tip off

Kerr further elaborated on Green’s assessment, explaining what made the practice horrible.

In the tweet, Kerr cited a “soft walk through,” film “glitches” and not enough of on-court work. Since the league is quickly catching on to what the Warriors are doing, maybe these slow starts and Saturday’s loss may be the catalysts for Kerr and the coaching staff to switch up their routines. The practices may need to be more comprehensive and more detailed since the remaining games are the most critical of the regular season.

Jannelle Moore

Jannelle Moore

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