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Warriors Learn Nothing Comes Easy After 'Slap in the Face' to Start NBA Season

Erik Malinowski@@erikmalX.com LogoGolden State Warriors Lead WriterOctober 26, 2016

OAKLAND, CA - OCTOBER 25:  Kevin Durant #35 of the Golden State Warriors looks on against the San Antonio Spurs during the third quarter in an NBA basketball game at ORACLE Arena on October 25, 2016 Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement.  (Photo by Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)
Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

OAKLAND, Calif. — There will come a time during the 2016-17 NBA season when the Golden State Warriors are racking up wins with regular ease, where the offense is smooth and the defense smothering. At their best, they’ll change the way we think a basketball game plan can be conducted.

But there will be other nights, perhaps more than people expect, when it seems like all the gears, normally so in sync, are slipping just enough to throw the machine off stride. The golden egg the Warriors laid on their home court to the rival San Antonio Spurs Tuesday night proved that.

Golden State lost by the very real score of 129-100. The Warriors were out-rebounded by 20, committed more turnovers than the Spurs and took fewer free throws. They lost second-chance points by a disturbing 26-4 margin and only made 21 percent of their three-pointers.

This was no clear improvement over last season’s squad. This was, as Stephen Curry called it, a “nice little slap in the face.”

After earning their place as the spring’s big losers, choking away a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals to the Cleveland Cavaliers, the Warriors were the summer’s biggest winners while plucking Kevin Durant away from Oklahoma City. His presence here, with a lethal outside shot, the ability to space the floor and an incomprehensible 7’5” wingspan, was supposed to supercharge an already radioactive core of shooters—Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green—to unsafe levels.

There were a couple of instances where you could see what the future might hold: Curry missing a three-pointer, Andre Iguodala corralling an offensive rebound (one of only eight on the night for Golden State) and kicking out to Durant, who had a wide-open path to a thunderous slam.

This is the type of play that will not only keep the Warriors in close games but also help build those insurmountable leads they so often distributed last season.

As time goes on, the realization that Kevin Durant (who is one of the best basketball players on the planet) is not Harrison Barnes (who has yet to prove himself as valuable) and that a whole new world of options has been afforded to them will dawn on the Warriors as a collective whole.

That will be a very good and welcome development for the team and its fans.

But that day is not here yet, and there is more than enough homework for the coaching staff over the next few games. Head coach Steve Kerr must figure out how to keep his team’s energy and focus up for 48 minutes. New assistant coach Mike Brown is the primary tactician behind the Warriors’ substitution patterns, and he must figure out a rotational flow that works best for everyone.

Defensive guru Ron Adams, who looked surprisingly calm and collected as he exited the locker room Tuesday night (considering the defensive effort Golden State turned in), must plug up some holes that were glaring against the Spurs. The Warriors lost a significant amount of rim protection and low-post physicality during the offseason when they parted ways with Andrew Bogut, Festus Ezeli and (to a lesser extent) Marreese Speights.

Their replacements—Zaza Pachulia, David West and JaVale McGee, who all came to Oakland via free agency, and now-healthy second-year man Kevon Looney—simply can’t replace the rim protection, so they must forge a new identity, one based on nimble movements and aggressive challenges. There were scant glimpses of that evolution against San Antonio, which was playing without Tim Duncan for the first time since Bill Clinton was in his second term as president yet looked light-years more comfortable.

“You can tell that we are still searching for our rotations and our patterns and who is going to play with whom,” Kerr admitted. “That’s going to take some time. I’m not worried about that. I told the team it’s a long season and we have a long way to go.”

OAKLAND, CA - OCTOBER 25:  Steve Kerr of the Golden State Warriors and Gregg Popovich of the San Antonio Spurs talk after a game on October 25, 2016 at ORACLE Arena in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by down
Noah Graham/Getty Images

Kerr is a coach who doesn’t sweat big or small stuff. If it read as if there were a twinge of confidence in his voice, it’s because he still has a core of superstars that, in real terms, didn’t play all that badly against the Spurs.

Curry, the two-time reigning MVP and defending scoring champ, had 26 points on 18 shots. Durant had 27 points on 18 shots, as well as 10 boards and zero turnovers. Draymond Green had 18 points, 12 boards, six assists and five steals.

But there was no cohesion, none of the flow that made the Warriors so intoxicating last season. Klay Thompson was out of sorts (11 points on 13 shots). Iguodala (two points in 27 minutes) wasn’t nearly the facilitator Kerr needed him to be.

The bench alone was outscored 54-16 by San Antonio’s reserves.

Considering the outcome, the Warriors are a team in need of an immediate gut check. Here’s the good news: They can’t possibly play any worse than this.

And the Warriors had the right attitude about this one-game setback in its aftermath. “We got punched in the mouth,” Green said. “I don’t know if it was quite a bad thing for us.”

You can bet Kerr feels that way. He’s talked about how hard it was last spring to get too worked about the Warriors’ glaring issues when they were winning games at a record clip. Now, he’s got all the game film he needs to show his team just how far they have to go to get where they want to be, which is back on top of the NBA come mid-June.

“We’ll probably win a few games in a row and everybody will say, ‘Wow, they look great and they’re going to win the rest of their games this season,’” Kerr half-joked. “Then we’ll get killed again and we’ll just play this game all season long.”

It’s the best motivational tool a coach can have, that your team knows just how bad it can get when you don’t play with the right intensity and intelligence. A year ago, it took months for that game to finally occur.

In that respect, the Warriors are already far ahead of last season.


WARRIORS INSIDER NOTEBOOK

The Energizer

October 25, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Kevin Durant (left) high fives forward David West (center), and center Anderson Varejao (right) before the game against the San Antonio Spurs at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

As the newest, most hyped addition to the roster, Durant was treated like a hometown hero all evening. In the Warriors’ lineup intro, Durant’s name was called first. (Curry is always introduced last.)

“There’s a lot of energy in the building,” Durant said. “Guys may have been a little tense, but hey, that’s NBA basketball. ... It’s just a matter of us getting better from it, keep learning from it and we’ll be fine.”

What Can Brown Do For You?

Another, far less hyped debut was that of assistant coach Mike Brown, who replaced now-Los Angeles Lakers head coach Luke Walton. Kerr said he doesn’t consider Brown an “offensive coordinator” per se—not in the way Alvin Gentry was during Golden State’s championship season—but instead someone who can handle a little bit of everything he might throw at him.

“I think now that we’re two years in, we really have established our style and who we are,” Kerr said, “so it’s more about Mike adapting to us rather than vice versa, and he’s been great. He’s really smart, he’s very thorough. He’s fun to be around, so I’m thrilled to have him on board.”


Second Unit Chances

David Zalubowski/Associated Press

Kerr’s younger rotation players saw significant playing time in the second half as the game increasingly slipped from the Warriors’ grasp. Ian Clark played 13 minutes and was the leading bench scorer with five points. Highly touted second-round pick Patrick McCaw saw all his action during the second half, as he made one basket in nine minutes of play.

Kevon Looney, a first-round pick from last year who barely played his rookie season due to surgeries on both hips, played a scoreless four minutes.

JaVale McGee scored two points, and his mere presence on the court was perhaps the lone Warriors highlight of the fourth quarter.

Erik Malinowski is the Golden State Warriors lead writer for B/R. You can follow him on Twitter at @erikmal.