HOUSTON -- For the Golden State Warriors, the All-Star break couldn’t have come at a better time. And at least two of the team’s key players are confident the team will get back on track once the regular season resumes on Tuesday.
The Warriors entered the break on a five-game losing streak, a rough end to the first half of the season that was more successful than even their players envisioned when the year began.
Even after the recent string of losses, Golden State is still firmly in place in the Western Conference playoff picture. Veteran big man David Lee, who was the first player to represent the Warriors in the All-Star game since 1997, is keeping it all in perspective.
“Every team goes through that throughout the course of the season,” Lee said. “The key is to fix it sooner rather than later and get back to the way we’re capable of playing. It’s not like we were just shooting 70 percent from the field or something, we know that we’ve been playing consistent basketball all season long.
“We just had a little dip, and I think we had 10 games in 14 days, a lot of them on the road. I think this break’s come at the perfect time, and we’ll regroup and get our enthusiasm up and be ready to go.”
Klay Thompson, who participated in All-Star weekend’s Rising Stars Challenge game that includes the league’s top rookies and sophomores, said the team needs to get back to doing what it does best in order to turn things around.
“I would say we haven’t been playing Golden State Warriors basketball,” Thompson said. “It’s real disappointing going into the All-Star break on a five-game slide, and it won’t be any easier coming out because we’ve got to go to Utah, which is one of the toughest places to play. Then we take a tough road trip back East.
“We’ve just got to get back to playing with that confidence, that swagger we had before we started losing a little bit,” he continued. “If we do that, it doesn’t matter who we play. As long as we do that, we’ll always be successful.”
Warriors head coach Mark Jackson has command of the locker room, and both Lee and Thompson said that his leadership has been important in keeping the team together during its recent slide.
“He’s been the most positive one,” Lee said of his coach. “After that last loss we were kind of down in the locker room afterwards, and he said for us to keep our heads up, that he’s very excited about the team. The truth of the matter is if you were to tell me we were going to be 30-22 at the All-Star break, all of us would have taken that. So overall, we’ve got to look at what we’ve done throughout the whole season.”
“Mark’s been a great leader,” said Thompson. “He’s a natural leader as a [former] point guard, and he’s really led this team this year. His confidence in us has really made us unselfish and has helped us on the court. And when it comes to that confidence, you go out and play freely, and it’s been a lot of fun.”
Golden State currently sits at sixth place in the Western Conference standings, but as the second half of the season gets started, there are bigger goals in place as the team looks to get right, and get back to playing the brand of basketball that was successful to start the year, and exciting to watch.
“We’re right there with Denver and Memphis fighting for that fourth spot,” Thompson said. “I think we can get there. We’ve got 16 of our last 22 games at home, so we’ve got to protect home court. If we do that, I think we’ll be great.”
