Golden State Warriors Players Reacts To Blame By Coach Steve For The Loss Against Knicks.
It feels like the Golden State Warriors and the Los Angeles Lakers are fated to play a game of hot potato with the 10th and 9th seeds this season.
After beating the Lakers two nights ago to climb back up to 9th, they have fallen back to 10th after losing to the New York Knicks at home, while the Lakers took care of business by blowing out the Atlanta Hawks — not exactly the sequence of events they were hoping for upon returning home.
It also makes the possibility of them climbing up to the 7th/8th play-in bracket much murkier. They are three games behind the Dallas Mavericks and the Phoenix Suns; their only hope of climbing the standings rests on a combination of luck being on their side and taking matters into their own hands.
At this point, the Warriors shouldn’t worry about everything else going around them and focus on what they can control. But as this game against the Knicks showed everyone, even that is looking like a tough proposition for a team that hasn’t felt likeGolden Stat they’ve been in control for most of the season.
Starting games out strong and establishing concepts on both ends of the floor are always key to winning games; some of the Warriors’ losses this season have involved a glaring absence such. The Knicks’ defense did an excellent job taking away what the Warriors wanted to do on offense: jumping passing lanes, picking the correct coverages and executing them near flawlessly, screen navigation, and running shooters off the line.
Their counterparts did the exact opposite: coverages that were picked apart by Jalen Brunson, breakdowns at the point of attack that led to breakdowns on the backline, late closeouts, and being beat on cuts and slips.
The Warriors couldn’t afford to have nights of poor execution and lack of attention to detail — which is exactly what happened tonight.
After the game, Steve Kerr emphasized the part about being beat on backcuts, which typically happens because of a certain ball-watching habit. Proper off-ball fundamentals on defense involves the concept of seeing both the ball and your own defensive assignment — doing so by keeping one’s head on a swivel and shifting one’s gaze constantly between the on-ball action and the person being guarded.
A second or two of lingering on one end of the spectrum can be detrimental. Spending too much time looking at your man takes you out of the play completely and doesn’t allow you to help on any breakdown that may occur up front.
On the other hand, a prolonged gaze toward the ball runs the risk of completely losing sight of your man, who may have already relocated somewhere else by the time you become aware.
Not every breakdown on defense was as egregious as the ones above. But each one of them were equally damaging.
For instance: a failure to contain actions up front involving the ball is almost always the culprit behind what happens behind it. The Warriors are notoriously known for their overhelping habit. Some of it is due to outright unnecessary risks and gambles, while others are due to a breakdown at the point of attack that results in clean driving lanes and open rolling lanes.
When those happen, backline defenders are compelled to step up and help, which then requires a chain reaction of help rotations that becomes moot if the execution behind it is below near perfect