Once again, the Golden State Warriors find themselves with a .500 record at 18-18 overall following a 114-98 loss to the Miami Heat in San Francisco on Tuesday night. Frustration continues to set in for the Warriors, as their 12-3 start to the season is nothing more than a long-distance memory at this point. With the trade deadline now four weeks away, the Warriors are running out of time to try and save their season.
The bottom line is that Golden State’s offense has completely disappeared around Stephen Curry. Over their last 13 games, the Warriors are averaging just 107.7 points per game while shooting 44.0 percent from the floor as a team. This ranks 26th and 27th in the league, respectively, during this span. The Warriors are also one of the league’s worst free-throw shooting teams this season in terms of getting to and making shots at the line.
After Tuesday’s loss, Steve Kerr was visibly frustrated when speaking with reporters, and he simply laid out the reality that the Warriors are not as good as they think they are on offense.
“Some of that is just personnel. We are way at the bottom of the league in terms of combined layups and free throws. Way at the bottom,” Kerr pointed out, via Anthony Slater of The Athletic. “And so, that’s not from a lack of confidence. We’re not a team that gets to the line. We’re not a team that’s getting easy baskets, and so I think what’s happening is a lot of our confidence issues (are) just based on whether our shots are going in. That’s a really difficult way to survive.”
Outside of Curry, the Warriors as a whole have really struggled to find consistent play on offense. While Jonathan Kuminga has stepped up to pick up the scoring slack at times over the course of the season, his recent ankle injury adds more concern to the idea that Golden State simply doesn’t have the personnel needed to be a true championship team.
Still, Kerr is focused on the roster that has been constructed and believes that this team can find success defensively. As a result, he remains optimistic that becoming a high-level defensive team will result in positive things happening on offense, much like we have seen from Golden State through the years.
“You have to find your confidence at the defensive end. This is why we always preach defense. As much as everyone has wanted to talk about our shooting over the years, this team has been built on a defensive toughness and grit,” Kerr continued. “We started out the season with that. That’s why we got off to a great start, and we have definitely fallen in that regard. For us to lose our edge defensively because we’re missing shots — we can’t have that happen.
“We’re probably not going to get to the line much; we’re probably not going to get a lot of layups. That’s just personnel-based, but I know we can fight, and I know we got the personnel to defend better than we have.”
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