The Warriors will roll into the All-Star break with the NBA’s second-best record. Draymond Green is expected to return in a couple of weeks. All things considered, Golden State (42-16) is in good shape with one more home date against the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday before a much-needed eight-day break between games.
Still, it’s impossible not to notice the cracks that are showing in the Warriors’ defense without their middle linebacker Green roaming the post. The Los Angeles Clippers outscored the Warriors by 15 points Monday night in a 119-104 win when they outscored Golden State by 14 points (54-40) in the paint.
“It’s hard to win in this league when you’re looking like we are defensively, with so many holes in our game,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Tonight it was just on-ball defense. They just spent the entire game at the front of the rim.”
It’s easy to point at Clippers big man Ivica Zubac’s efficient night (8-of-10 FG) en route to 18 points and eight boards. But 16 of Terance Mann’s career-high 25 points came in the paint and Reggie Jackson added 10 of his 19 points in the paint. That’s not what you want to see from two slashing guards.
The big nights from Mann and Jackson highlighted the Warriors’ defense that lacked any interior bite. Golden State has been outscored by an average of 5.8 points in the paint per night in the 20 games since Green has been sidelined, only outpacing their opponent in the category on five occasions in that span. By comparison, the Warriors outscored opponents by 4.7 points in the paint in the 38 contests before Green's calf/back injury on Jan. 9. That's a 10.5-point swing.
As Kerr noted, the Warriors still lead the league in defensive rating (104.4) but he said, “we’re not right now. Those numbers are inflated by what we did early in the season,” AKA when Green was on the floor.
Whereas the Warriors struggled with off-ball defense, preventing back cuts and offensive rebounds during the most recent defensive lull – which started four games ago in a 111-85 loss to the Utah Jazz – Golden State’s defenders couldn’t stay in front of their man Monday night. Mann and Jackson pretty much had their way getting into the lane, either scoring or setting up easy buckets for their teammates en route to 15 combined assists.
“Tonight didn’t feel like it had anything to do with size,” Kerr said. “They just went right around us. Point of attack defense was the main issue tonight, but it’s been something different each night.”
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It started on the perimeter, but players like Nemanja Bjelica and Otto Porter Jr. didn’t offer much secondary support once the Clippers got into the lane. Golden State’s lone true big man Kevon Looney subbed out of the game with 3:42 left in the third quarter and didn’t return. He also took responsibility for letting Zubac dominate the game early.
“I let Zubac get a few offensive rebounds and let him roll to the paint kind of easy,” Looney said. “I think it’s my job – especially to start the game – to set the tone. I don’t think I did a good job of that tonight.”
Looney – who has started all 58 games for Golden State this season – will have one more test against MVP candidate Nikola Jokic Wednesday before hitting the reset button.
“We only got 20 something games left,” Looney said. “We want to start building back good habits on the defensive end, because we gotta get ready for the playoffs.”
Offensively, the Warriors didn’t give much help to Steph Curry, who finished with a masterful 33-point performance that included 8-of-13 from 3-point land. Klay Thompson struggled (3-of-14) while Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole each scored 13 points apiece as the second-leading scorers.
Curry said the team needs to figure out the defensive problems without waiting for Green to get back on the floor.
“Everybody being accountable for their role in terms of a five-man defense,” Curry said. “That’s [being] locked in on gameplan discipline.”
