When a team with the second best record in the league comes to town, you know that you’re in for a fight. As the Golden State Warriors hosted the Boston Celtics last night at Oracle Arena, it was a tale of two halves with the W’s taking a tough loss at home 115-93. But after an impressive 3 game winning streak, the loss at home stings a little bit more, because the W’s were playing pretty well as of late. What happened last night that made the W’s look so inept in the second half while the Celtics picked them apart?
One thing that really stood out to me during the game was the large discrepancy between the Celtics rebounding numbers and the Warriors. The W’s were out rebounded by Boston 52-35, getting especially dominated on the defensive glass at 41-24. Rebounding isn’t something that just happens, it’s a commitment. You have to be willing to fight for every ball that comes off the rim. The Warriors already are one of the worst defensive rebounding team in the league, averaging just about 40 a game, and when you end up 16 boards below you usual total, it’s going to show up in the score of the game.
In the post game wrap-up on Warriors.com, the lack of a rebounding effort wasn’t mentioned by Coach Smart or any of the players interviewed. That shouldn’t happen. If I can tell that the team is getting owned on the glass, I sure would think the players and coaches would too. Getting out rebounded leads to things like fast break points (Celtics had 30), points in the paint (Celtics had 54) and demoralizing second chance points. When you go 5-19 from 3 point range that is going to equate to some long rebounds which turn into easy buckets for any team, let alone the Celtics. And When you starting center only grabs 5 boards the whole game, you are going to get dominated (which the W’s were for the most part in the second half).
If the Warriors want to bounce back against the Atlanta Hawks on Friday, they should start by making a commitment to cleaning the glass.