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Oh, so this is how the other 29 NBA teams have been living.
They’ve been balancing their moments of brilliance with equal, counteracting instances of ineptitude.
They’ve been scrapping for everything they get and find themselves at the mercy of 3-point variance on a near-nightly basis.
They’ve been lacking rhythm, verve, and joy.
And their seasons are an exhausting grind. Frankly, it’s amazing how 15 of them have any energy for the playoffs.
But since Steve Kerr took over as head coach ahead of the 2014-15 NBA season, the Warriors had not lived in that world — their regular seasons have been drawn-out preludes or coronation ceremonies, depending on how you want to view it. Over the last few years, the Warriors have taken off more regular season games than they’ve been pushed in, because, frankly, they’re that much better than the rest of the league.
But without Stephen Curry and a healthy Draymond Green in the lineup, these Warriors look like just another NBA team. Maybe they’d be the six seed in the Western Conference Playoffs — maybe worse.
Either way, it’s pretty jarring to see.
Curry has been out for the last six games, Green the last two, and Golden State has now lost three straight and five of seven.
Even with Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson — two future Hall of Famers and current All-Stars — in the fold, this team finds itself in a funk — a deep one — that has no end in sight.
Given last Monday’s much-ballyhooed sideline tiff between Durant and Green, the Warriors’ recent slide will be cited as confirmation of the end days for the Warriors.
It isn’t that — though no one would dare call this stretch encouraging.
No, this is the byproduct of Curry and Green being out of the lineup.
We’ve known for years how important both players are to this team — they’re revolutionary forces on different sides of the court: Curry ushered in the 3-point revolution while Green should be seen as the key harbinger of the era of positionless basketball — but we’re now finding out exactly how important they are.
Without those two players, the Warriors simply aren’t The Warriors.
Like all things Warriors, we must start with Curry, the most impactful player since Shaquille O’Neal.
When Curry is on the court, shooting rapid-fire 3-pointers from preposterous range and finishing at the hoop with a similar efficiency to LeBron James, it requires a concerted five-man defensive effort to stop him.
You know who that makes life easy for? The four other Warriors on the court.
Curry’s “gravity” is so immense that it’s like his teammates are playing a different sport when he’s between the lines. There’s space for days, the ball moves around with ease, and every shot seems to be wide open.
The Warriors play the beautiful game with Curry.
Without him, the Warriors look constipated. Forgive the word-choice, but it’s apt.
Kerr has said that the Warriors get too much credit for the five-out style of basketball that’s becoming ubiquitous around the NBA in recent seasons — they’ve never really been a five-out team, they just have two of the greatest long-distance shooters of all time so it hides the fact that they’re often playing two-in.
Well, without Curry — the greatest shooter of all time — it’s pretty obvious that this team has problems getting up and making shots from distance. What are they, a two-out team (at best)?
The Warriors have played 470 minutes without Curry this season. During that stretch, they’ve posted a negative net rating (-0.9) and have played a glacier-like pace (97.83).
That’s because so much of the offense when Curry is out is Durant post-ups and Thompson floppy actions — the Warriors are putting their success solely on the hope that those two players will not just be prolific, but efficient, too.
Again, this how some teams exist between October and April. What a world…
But in 399 minutes with Curry this season, the Warriors have an outstanding 119 offensive rating, a net rating of 13.5, and play at a pace of 106.2.
The 3-point shooting numbers are stark, too. The Warriors average nearly seven fewer 3-point attempts per 100 possessions when Curry isn’t playing and they shoot nearly 10 percentage points worse from beyond the arc.
In the modern NBA, that kind of disparity — that kind of ineptitude — from 3 is death.
When it comes to offense, Curry is the Warriors’ sun — his presence separates night and day.
Add in the loss of Green, whose absence over the last two games has been evident in every missed rotation and uncovered back-cut, and the Warriors look downright pedestrian as of late.
“We’ve lived a charmed existence… this is the real NBA,” Kerr said Sunday. “We haven’t been in the real NBA the last few years. We’ve been in this dream. And so now we’re faced real adversity and we got to get out of it ourselves.”
Some of this is to be expected — the Warriors’ bench has played well this season, but in year three of the four All-Star-era (soon-to-be five) the Warriors are as top-heavy as ever. Alfonzo McKinnie being out for the last two games was evidenced in the team’s play… You don’t miss Alfonzo McKinnie unless you’re really lacking a middle class to your roster, but that’s what happens when you have this much star power (and pay them market value).
Some of this is Durant being in his own head. That altercation with Green last Monday really messed him up, but now he’s being asked to carry the load? That has bad news written all over it. Cue the hero ball and mid-range jumpers.
The unflappable Thompson needs to get in on this less-than-desirable action, too. Outside of his record-setting game against the relegation-worthy Bulls is shooting 26 percent from beyond the arc. He’s simply not himself, and one has to wonder if he even can be without Curry around.
Now, the Warriors had chances to win both Saturday and Sunday night — they didn’t play terribly like they did Thursday in Houston. But those opportunities to win close games weren’t taken. Shots didn’t fall, the whistle wasn’t kind, or a bounce didn’t go their way.
You know, the kind of stuff that happens to other teams, which, by the way, have All-Stars, too.
Perhaps Durant should take note. If he indeed wants out of Golden State at the end of the season, the last few games are the standard of basketball he’ll be playing in the years to come.
Call me elitist if you must, but I don’t know why anyone would have interest in that.
