The Golden State Warriors needed this win, not for any other reason but to keep their season alive. This game was a mirror of how badly their season went with Draymond Green’s antics, Stephen Curry‘s built-up frustration with the squad, and some questionable rotational calls by Steve Kerr. Eventually, everything had to reach a boiling point. Unfortunately, it happened in the NBA Play-In Tournament against the Sacramento Kings‘ lethal duo of De’Aaron Fox and Domantas Sabonis.
When a season is on the line, one would think that it would always go to the last seconds of the 48th minute and then some. But, it looked the Warriors’ season ended at the start of the second half. The Stephen Curry-led squad was just down with a 50 to 54 scoreline and had every capability of making a run to even notch the lead. But, the walls came crumbling down and eradicated all of the Warriors’ hopes of getting past the NBA Play-In Tournament.
Who’s to blame?
Well, the Warriors did have the personnel. But, the calls for timeouts, schemes to run on defense, and even substitutions were wonky. Coach Steve Kerr had a hard time out scheming Coach Mike Brown and it was evident. Everyone on the Kings was firing on all cylinders. Five players were able to score more than 15 points. If the Warriors did trap one of Domantas Sabonis or De’Aaron Fox, passing lanes were easily accessible.
This may make it sound like it was Steve Kerr’s fault for not having a better response on offense. Well, a part of that is true. Moses Moody knocked down five out of his eight field goal attempts in just 15 minutes for 16 points. The rotational call? It was to have him sit while guys like Chris Paul, and Brandin Podziemski got to play more minutes.
The more horrid part was that one of the Warriors’ better scores against the Kings was sat. This was such that Klay Thompson could play. While there have been sparks of the second splash brother’s prime which were on display this season, this NBA Play-In game was just not it. For a good 32 minutes, Thompson had a very good night of doing cardio exercises while not knocking down a single one of his 10 field goal attempts. He also went zero for six in his three-pointers.
While it was a bad night for Thompson, the blame may still go back to Kerr for not trusting his younger guys more. They needed an offensive boost in the second half and only Moody could have given them a shot. When a team gets outscored 37 to 26 in the third quarter, the expectation is that a run could be made in the final stretch of the matchup. But, the inability to adapt forced the Warriors to get knocked out of NBA Championship contention three minutes into the fourth.
Stephen Curry’s future with the squad looks very uncertain given how much he gave just to lose this early. Maybe it is time to accept that the Warriors dynasty has already passed.
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