Warriors learning life isn't so easy without Kevin Durant
OAKLAND – As if the Golden State Warriors’ third loss in the five games since losing Kevin Durant wasn’t proof enough that their world has been turned upside down, there was evidence of their new topsy-turvy existence everywhere Wednesday night.
The “MVP” chants at Oracle Arena, a normal occurrence except for one key distinction: they weren’t for back-to-back winner Stephen Curry, or his ailing teammate, the former MVP in Durant, but the Boston Celtics’ Isaiah Thomas (25 points in their 96-88 win).
The normally mild-mannered Curry channeled his inner Kevin Garnett to talk some trash at the end of the third quarter, when he buried a three-pointer over Celtics rookie Jaylen Brown and pointed directly at him after the buzzer sounded. Twelve minutes later, the Celtics had earned the last laugh by holding Curry scoreless in the final period (strangely he only played five minutes and took one shot) and the Warriors to a season-low 12 points (along with eight of their 17 turnovers).
The always-verbose Draymond Green went silent, as he took a rare night off from speaking with reporters afterward.
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The next Warriors script that may soon be flipped? The one where Golden State get its chosen path for a championship by earning the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference.
With a Friday night affair in Minnesota leading into a Saturday showdown in San Antonio, the Warriors find themselves just 1 ½ games ahead of the Spurs with 18 games to go. It sets the stage for the late regular season drama they never wanted, a full-throttle affair in which they’ll have to push until the end in order to avoid the rocky postseason road that might lie ahead.
Suddenly, the prospect of facing a formidable No. 7 seed like Russell Westbrook’s Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round (as opposed to a below-.500 squad like the eighth-place Denver Nuggets) is looking more likely for the Warriors (52-12). Suddenly, the possibility of meeting the Spurs or the third-place Houston Rockets (44-21) before the conference finals is much more real.
The Spurs already won the first meeting, a season-opening rout (129-100) on Oct. 25. A win on Saturday would give them the tiebreaker, before facing the Warriors a third and final time in San Antonio on March 29.
“I mean we talk about (the No. 1 seed), but we need to focus on us in that perspective,” said Curry, who finished with 23 points (2-for-9 from three-point range), six rebounds, five assists and four turnovers. “It’s not about looking behind us. We need to take care of our business, and tonight we didn’t do that.
“We do have a tough schedule. It’s part of the 82 that we play every single year, and you’ve got to be ready for it. A tough back-to-back coming up in Minnesota and San Antonio, so the key is obviously to put this one behind us, get ready for that first stop, take care of business, get back some momentum and see what happens down in San Antonio.”
Standings aside, the Warriors have every reason to worry about life without Durant.
Not only are they 2-3 since the Feb. 28 loss to the Washington Wizards in which Durant went down with a Grade 2 MCL sprain just two minutes in, but they have the league’s sixth worst offense in that span (103.7 points scored per 100 possessions, compared to a league-high 114.1 before then). No one has struggled more since Durant went down than three-time All-Star Klay Thompson, who is shooting just 34.7% shooting overall (34 of 98) and 24.5% from three-point range (12 of 49) while averaging 19.2 points per game.
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Beyond Curry (25.2 points per game, 29.8% from three-point range) and Thompson, only Green (12.8 points per) and Andre Iguodala (10.6) have averaged double-digit scoring during that time. All told, the Warriors are the third-worst three-point shooting team since the ill-fated collision between Durant’s knee and Zaza Pachulia’s head (31.5% as a team).
“We still want the number one seed,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr, whose team will have played 17 of its last 24 games on the road by the time Saturday night’s Spurs game is over. “I won’t run guys ragged to get it. We want it, it would be nice to get, but you have to get through the season in one piece and pace yourselves a little bit.
“With KD’s injury there is a domino effect there minutes-wise and rotation-wise. We have to manage this stretch right here and get through this week. We’ll come back next week, back home, be at home all week guys will be in their own beds and that will be a good thing. We’ll get recharged. We’ll head back out on the road tomorrow, seems kind of crazy, but here we go.”