You can make an argument that the final 42 minutes of Wednesday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets were garbage time. It was that bad at Barclays Center.
By the time Warriors coach Steve Kerr called a timeout with 6:22 left in the first quarter, the Nets held an insurmountable 25-10 point lead. Insurmountable because the Dubs looked inept as ever.
Defense seemed optional on Wednesday, as the Warriors gave up a historically bad 91 points in the first half en route to a 143-113 whooping. Mercifully, Golden State’s horrid 1-5 road trip is over. They left with brimming confidence after beating the Boston Celtics, but came back limping and with an injured Steph Curry.
The Nets made their first 9-of-10 field goals, including five 3-pointers, while running away with the game in the first quarter. By halftime, the Nets put up the third-highest scoring half in NBA history (91 points), the largest in Brooklyn history and worst allowed in Warriors history.
Golden State was shorthanded, as Curry (shoulder), Andrew Wiggins (adductor strain), Klay Thompson (knee soreness), Donte DiVincenzo (non-COVID illness) and JaMychal Green (health and safety protocols) were all sidelined. Still, there’s no excuse for the first half of Wednesday’s game.
It’s become apparent that the young Warriors can’t keep up their end of the bargain on defense. The starting five of Jordan Poole, Moses Moody, Jonathan Kuminga, Draymond Green and Kevon Looney got absolutely cooked to begin the game. We’ve seen Green and Looney succeed with Curry, Thompson and Wiggins on the floor, but it’s a different story with the youngsters, who are often caught out of position defensively and late to close out.
The Warriors went on a 26-8 run to cut it to 18 with less than 10 minutes left but never really threatened in the second half. Green and Looney went to the bench midway through the third quarter, as Kerr waved the white flag early. Combined with Tuesday’s 38-point shellacking by the Knicks, the Warriors have been outscored by 68 points in the span of about 24 hours.
About the only promising development throughout the evening was the offense from James Wiseman and James Baldwin Jr.
In perhaps the most efficient offensive game of Wiseman’s career, the third-year center finished 12-of-14 for a career-high 30 points in 28 minutes. Baldwin showed off his shooting stroke in front of Kevin Durant, finishing with a career-high 17 points on 6-of-10 shooting in 23 minutes.
The scoring numbers are nice, but they don’t matter if you’re down by 40 at halftime. Poole, Moody and Kuminga simply looked lost defensively to start the game. There’s a lot for the second timeline to learn.
Wiseman still got exposed on defense and still occasionally looks out of position when trying to create space for his teammates, as he often gets in their way in the paint. You’d also like to see more overall rebounding awareness and better handiwork from Wiseman, though he grabbed a solid six rebounds Wednesday.
With Baldwin’s ability to space the floor and stroke it, maybe the 2022 No. 28 overall pick showed enough where he can challenge two-way player Anthony Lamb for rotation minutes.
For now, the promising young Warriors core looks like a bunch of question marks. Poole is a rising star but still capable of duds like Tuesday night, when he scored 13 points on 17 field goals and played suspect defense. Moody scored 17 points on 7-of-11 shooting and didn’t play too badly, but Kuminga went 1-for-9 for four points with six rebounds and four assists. That type of production isn’t gonna cut it for the young Dubs.
If the Warriors want their two-timeline approach to work, it’s time for the next wave to show they’ve arrived. It might be too late by the time Curry returns from his injury in a few weeks.
