Why Warriors’ second-unit puzzle will be difficult to solve

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Why Warriors’ second-unit puzzle will be difficult to solve originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors have reached the team-meeting stage, so the rhythmic reggae sounds that carried them deep into November have been replaced by horns, alarms and piercing sirens. They’re at cliff’s edge, and that didn’t happen in a day. Or even a week.

It took them a full month to stumble so far down the rugged Western Conference mountain, and the factors are many, with two above the others.

One is defense. When the Warriors were 12-3 and atop the conference standings, their 105.8 defensive rating ranked fourth in the NBA. Over the last 14 games, 11 of which were losses, their 114.9 defensive rating ranks 21st in the league.

In Golden State’s latest loss, 115-113 to the Los Angeles Lakers on Christmas Day, there were too many stretches – including the final seconds, when Austin Reaves slipped past Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga rotating late, for the game-winning layup – when the defense was too soft or not attentive enough.

“We felt like we should have been able to do a better job defensively tonight,” coach Steve Kerr said. “I just I didn’t think they ever really felt us. They had 9 turnovers for the game. We have prided ourselves on being a feisty defensive-minded team.”

The Warriors have proved capable of getting multiple stops in succession, so this should be fixable.

The second and more vexing factor is their rotations. There are times when it seems Kerr is resorting to pulling names and lineups from a hat held by general manager Mike Dunleavy. The value of the bench has dropped from gold to junkyard scrap metal.

This has no simple fix.

“In fairness to our guys,” Kerr conceded, “we’ve been all over the map this year rotation-wise. I’ve had a million different starting lineups. Guys are in and out of certain roles, rotations. I’m well aware of that. And that’s hard as a player, to not know how many minutes you’re going to get, what minutes you’re going to get.”

This has been the way of the Warriors. Kyle Anderson, a summer acquisition hired to be a solid interior defender and…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/why-warriors-second-unit-puzzle-155820714.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-12-26 15:58:00

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