Warriors' loss to T-Wolves sign team in danger of losing its way

Share

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. -- The All-Star break was supposed to give the weary Warriors a welcome respite from their mounting issues. Time to regroup, recalibrate, exhale and rediscover the focus and effort that has been missing for much of 2022. 

Golden State showed some life in its final game before the break, playing well against the Denver Nuggets before squandering a double-digit fourth-quarter lead. The Warriors exited the break and beat up on the Portland Trail Blazers' tanktastic roster. That was a must. Then, on Sunday, the Warriors jumped all over the Dallas Mavericks through three quarters but gave up a 26-1 run in the fourth to blow a 21-point lead in a brutal collapse. 

That Mavericks loss was the first game in a tough 13-day stretch in which Golden State will face eight playoff or play-in caliber teams. For a team that has been mediocre since the calendar turned to January, it was time to show their championship mettle. 

Instead, the Warriors rolled into the Twin Cities on Tuesday night and laid a dud, losing 129-115 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in a flat performance that should have alarm bells going off. It wasn't just that the Warriors lost or were flat from the opening tip. Not just that they turned the ball over 17 times or gave up 54 points in the paint. 

It was how they did it that shows these Warriors, the ones who started the season 19-4, might be losing their way. 

"Tonight was the first time that I sensed a breakdown in our connection," head coach Steve Kerr said after the loss. "That has to be an exception rather than a rule. So that's the most important thing for me looking ahead to Dallas and the rest of this trip. Our guys need to be connected, and there's just got to be one goal, and that's for us to play together and to win the game. We can't get frayed. I thought we got a little bit frayed tonight."

The Warriors are 14-12 in their last 26 games. They have lost six of their previous eight games. Yes, they are missing Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. Klay Thompson has missed the last two games with a general illness. 

But Tuesday night's loss wasn't schematic to Kerr. It was in the soul. 

"I think all over the place," Kerr said. "But it's more of an intangible than a tangible. It's not as much of a strategic thing as it is just a feeling and a collective spirit. I didn't like the energy and the spirit tonight. "

Steph Curry, who scored 34 points in Tuesday night's loss in a game that looked like a re-run from last season, offered a deeper autopsy of Golden State's demise Tuesday.

"It's really just consistency and focus and IQ and understanding how certain teams are trying to execute against us and what we can do — I'm talking mostly defensively — to counter that knowing we have a lot of different rotations and lineups," Curry said of the Warriors' defensive breakdowns. "We have to make adjustments on the fly, but we have to be more connected, be more in sync as a five-man unit whoever is out there.

"Realize it's how hard it is to win in this league. Say that a lot because I feel like guys who have been around know what it takes. But nights like tonight where you just don't play a good brand of basketball defensively to give yourself a chance to win on the road against a team you allow to have life the whole night. You're not going to win a lot of games like that."

Spirt, energy, focus, IQ, and consistency all are controlled internally. They deal with a team's desire to push through, to grind past tough stretches without some of their best players. 

It looks like these Warriors, who haven't played one minute at full strength all season, might be starting to buckle as the losses pile up and the answers continue to evade them. 

"I feel like we all want the same thing. We just have to want it more," Andrew Wiggins said briefly after Tuesday night's loss. 

RELATED: Wiggins has gone missing when Warriors need him most

Thompson will re-join the team Wednesday in Dallas, although his status for Thursday's game vs. the Mavericks is uncertain. Green also will come to Texas, hoping his presence can help get the ship back on course. 

With 20 games remaining, the Warriors don't have much time for soul-searching. The playoffs are coming fast—the dog days of the NBA season in the rearview mirror. If you're looking for heart and effort, and focus in March, you might not find it before it's too late. 

The Warriors have been waiting to get healthy all season. The campaign was initially split into three parts -- before Klay, integrating Klay and at full strength. 

But a fully-healthy Warriors team might end up just being an idea. Even Curry admitted Tuesday that he doesn't "know if we'll see" the Warriors' "full ceiling" this season. 

The Warriors are in a tailspin, one that's spiraling faster after 48 lackluster minutes in Minnesota on Tuesday. 

Green's return would solve a lot of the Warriors' issues. There's no doubt. There's also the fact that his return is, at the most optimistic viewing, still a few weeks away. 

The Warriors have to quickly find answers to their non-Green specific issues to stabilize a season that is slipping away. 

Golden State can lean on its culture, championship pedigree, Curry, and Kerr. But it's up to each Warrior to rectify a lack of heart currently plaguing them. 

"I have no doubt that we will get re-connected," Kerr said. "This was the exception rather than the rule. We'll bounce back."

RELATED: 'Two-way Wiggs' has gone missing when Dubs need him most

The Warriors need Kerr to be right and for Tuesday night's punchless effort not to become a pattern. They have six weeks to rediscover the identity that made them a title favorite early in the season. 

Most soul-searching journeys take longer than a month. But that's all the Warriors have. If they can't come together and course-correct soon, they are in danger of having their championship dreams evaporate in the same way their will to win has over the last two months.

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast
 

Contact Us