The Warriors played bad, scary bad (obligatory Halloween joke).
Golden State of Mind provides their updated link dump for every game and their comprehensive linkage shows that the Warriors struggle lead to their injured point guard Stephen Curry. Several players commented on Curry’s absence:
Monta Ellis on playing without Stephen Curry:
“His presence was missed, but like I said we were getting open shots, they just wouldn’t fall.Jeremy Lin on his performance:
“I’m not going to really talk about what I did personally when we lost by twenty-four. That’s just a tough game to play defending champs in their hometown and without Stephen Curry. But we’re going to learn a lot at different games and we’re just going to get ready for our next game.”David Lee on the Warriors struggles to initiate offense:
“We missed Steph tremendously, but we still should have played better,” Lee said.
The offensive woes ranged from struggles to initiate the offense, to missing wide open jump shots, and repeated turnovers with poor ball handling. On some occasion, the Warriors were just unlikely as the ball just never seemed to bounce the right way as shots rimmed out or tipped rebounds always seemed to find their way into Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol’s hand, which they collectively accounted for 42 points and 26 rebounds.
The Warriors struggles on the defensive end could be attributed to David Lee’s off-night, who from jump never seemed to establish any sort of rhythm on either end of the floor. Attempting only 3 shots, Lee at times struggled to establish position. Against Odom and Gasol, Lee’s post plays turned into turnovers as he was called for travelling and a charge call.