Category: Basketball

Warriors prove most dangerous enemy is themselves in loss to Nuggets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – In the wake of the most disappointing loss as a member of the Warriors, Jimmy Butler III divulged what haunted him but didn’t cast blame and point fingers over what taunted him most. He didn’t have to.

The box score provided all necessary explanation. Faced with a prime opportunity to create space for themselves in the crowded Western Conference playoff race, the Warriors gave it away, donating 24 unearned points.

The Denver Nuggets took the gifts and ran out of Chase Center with a 114-105 victory even they could not have expected insofar as they were without three starters, including three-time MVP Nikola Jokić and his most productive sidekick Jamal Murray.

“All I asked of our guys, going into it, I said, ‘Just compete. Have each other’s backs, just compete,’” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “And did they do that at such a high level.”

Denver outcompeted the sixth-place Warriors, who blew a chance to pull within 2.5 games of the third-place Nuggets but instead are now 4.5 games to the rear.

Being outhustled in defeat bothered every member of the Warriors, players and coaches, as it should. Butler, however, zeroed in one of his pet peeves. One he shares with Golden State coach Steve Kerr.

“Our care for the basketball,” Butler said. “We turned it over way too much. We were very loose with the basketball, careless with it. Got them into the open floor, and they saw the ball go in early and it never stopped.”

Denver’s B team, led by veterans Aaron Gordon (game-high 38 points) and Russell Westbrook (a 12-points, 16-assists, 12-rebounds triple-double), made a mockery of the Warriors’ lax defense, which too often was compromised by live-ball turnovers.

“It hurts me,” said Butler, who had two turnovers in 33 minutes. “I ain’t going to lie to you. I hate turning ball over. I hate when we turn the ball over. We’ve just got to be better at that. If we get shots on goal, we’re a very hard team to beat.

“But you ain’t going to beat many people in this league, no matter who’s on the floor, with 20 turnovers.”

The Warriors are 0-5 when they commit at least 20 turnovers. They are 2-7 when they give away 24 or more points off turnovers.

A high-turnover team in their dynastic seasons, these Warriors, with diminished overall talent, had managed their turnovers relatively well in the first 12 games with Butler on the roster. Over the last five, though, they have returned to an old habit, giving away 118 points off 101 turnovers.

Golden State’s most dangerous enemy is, as Butler implied, itself.

Stephen Curry, moving more carefully than usual due to back soreness, committed seven turnovers in 36 minutes. Draymond Green committed four in 33 minutes. Jonathan Kuminga and Gui Santos each committed three.

“Dumb plays all night,” Curry said.

The accuracy of that comment is pinpoint, which can’t be said of many of the passes the Warriors flung around Chase Center. The kind of passes that sabotaged Golden State’s fourth-quarter comeback.

“It’s hard to win an NBA game when you throw the ball to the other team 10 times,” Kerr said. “That’s what we were facing tonight.”

Trailing by eight with 2:35 remaining, Green hurled a 60-foot pass that was intercepted. Two possessions later, trailing by six, Curry’s underhand lob for Kuminga sailed wide – and led to a Denver bucket that pretty much sealed the outcome.

“I didn’t play great at all,” said Curry, who scored 20 points on 6-of-21 shooting from the field, including 4 of 13 from deep. “Whenever we have the amount of turnovers that we did – and not even the amount but type – that can’t happen. And obviously that starts with me.”

No need for Butler to point fingers. The story of this game was told in black and white. Curry knew it and didn’t try to hide his guilt.

The Milwaukee Bucks are up next, Tuesday night at Chase. A dangerous team, to be sure, but that’s true of any Warriors opponent when they conspire against themselves.

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Coach Steve Kerr said the Golden State Warriors were "awful" as their seven-game winning run came to an end against the Denver Nuggets in San Francisco.

Aaron Gordon scored a season-high 38 points in a 105-114 win for the Nuggets, who were without star centre Nikola Jokic.

It is Gordon's highest points haul since joining the Nuggets from the Orlando Magic in 2021.

"We played poorly out of the gate and never found rhythm and they played great," said Kerr.

"The right team won. We didn't deserve anything. We were awful."

Russell Westbrook, the NBA's all-time leader in triple-doubles, secured his 203rd by scoring 12 points with 11 rebounds and 16 assists.

Jimmy Butler III scored 23 points and Stephen Curry 20 in reply for the Warriors, who lost for just the second time in 14 matches.

Denver remain fourth in the Western Conference, with Golden State occupying the final play-off place in sixth.

• Basketball Scores & Fixtures

The Los Angeles Lakers, still without the injured LeBron James, are just behind the Nuggets in fourth after beating the San Antonio Spurs 125-109.

Austin Reaves top-scored with 30 points for the Lakers, with Luka Doncic adding 21 points with nine rebounds and 14 assists.

The Houston Rockets overturned a 25-point third-quarter deficit to beat the Philadelphia 76ers 144-137 in overtime and stay second in the Western Conference.

The Minnesota Timberwolves also needed overtime to beat the Indiana Pacers 132-130, with Obi Toppin scoring 34 points, 10 rebounds and two assists.

The New York Knicks won 116-95 against the Miami Heat to stay third in the East, while the Detroit Pistons are sixth after beating the New Orleans Pelican 127-81.

If you have been studying the Lakers’ offense microscopically since the team acquired Luka Doncic, if you have looked at the spacing, the movement, the efficiency and the organization rates, there’s only one question you possibly could have after Monday’s 125-109 win over the San Antonio Spurs.

Is it “butt naked” or “buck naked”?

Nearly a month ago, Dorian Finney-Smith introduced the phrasing into the Lakers’ lexicon after a rare practice, saying either “butt” or “buck” when describing the nudity level Doncic’s new teammates would need to be comfortable with.

No one plays near you when Doncic is on the court, Finney-Smith said, the opposing defense leaving you alone, exposed and uncontested in ways that just don’t happen in the NBA.

“I’m back getting wide-open shots where I feel like I gotta rush when I really don’t have to, I got plenty of time,” he said. “The last couple of years, I ain’t been playing with guys like Luka, so I’ve been getting hard closeouts, but now I got that time. You (butt? buck?)-naked wide open.”

That was clear — just the descriptor wasn’t.

“Excuse my language,” he said with a grin. “You wide open.”

Playing for the fourth time in five days and again without key starters LeBron James and Rui Hachimura, the Lakers’ offense operated with the kind of ease that just doesn’t happen in most games, the team creating the kinds of naked opportunities that would make anyone blush.

This was an NC-17 level of offense for the Lakers (42-25) against the Spurs (28-39), things looking easy even if Doncic had a rough shooting night, missing a two-pointer from the paint with his first shot.

The box score was awful, Doncic making only five of 20 from the field (a game he salvaged by making 10 of 13 from the line). But it hardly mattered, the attention centered on Doncic leading to easy nights for others.

“It’s just fun,” Finney-Smith said. “He’s going to create so many problems for people on the offensive end. So we just got to make it easy for him.”

After the game, Lakers coach JJ Redick noted that the Lakers took 48 threes — 34 uncontested.

The Spurs, the worst defense in the NBA over the last 15 games — most of that coming since star Victor Wembanyama’s season ended — certainly played a role, but Doncic is unlocking more scoring opportunities. Until the trade, it always seemed as if the offense would live in the shadow of the Lakers’ defensive identity.

Read more:Luka Doncic scores 33 and gritty Lakers beat Suns to end four-game losing skid

“Luka obviously causes so much havoc for teams’ defenses that the majority of the time you got to blitz him and then you’re playing four on three,” guard Austin Reaves said. “So, it’s just a fun brand of basketball and after a long road trip that we were really bad on, it’s good to get home and get back to winning.”

For most of the game the Lakers looked as though they had unlocked the code, cutting at the right times, flaring to the corners for open shots and filling the right lanes in transition.

Reaves feasted, the Lakers’ leading scorer getting wide-open looks at threes. He attempted a career-high 13, making five on his way to a 30-point game. Jordan Goodwin, starting again, hit three of six. Finney-Smith made four of eight and Gabe Vincent and Dalton Knecht combined to make five of 12 off the bench.

“Even in some of the games where we haven’t necessarily had a great offensive rating, you can kind of attribute that to turnovers and missing shots. I mean, even just the last two games, our rim efficiency was really poor,” Redick said. “So, I think it’s all going to come together where we’re finishing, we’re passing, we’re taking care of the basketball, we’re making threes. But pleased with how we’re able to generate good looks fairly consistently.”

Reaves, in particular, looked increasingly comfortable with Doncic and vice versa, the two linking up multiple times to create open looks for one another.

“This guy just scored 30 in his fourth game in five days,” Doncic said of Reaves. “That explains everything. He’s an amazing player. For him to go undrafted is unbelievable. And, it’s not easy to go undrafted and play at this level. It’s amazing just to be by his side.”

The Lakers, despite trailing by seven early, mostly controlled the game, save for some sloppiness in the fourth quarter when their energy significantly lagged.

Frustrated with San Antonio’s uptick in physicality as it tried to rally, Jarred Vanderbilt and Spurs wing Jeremy Sochan were ejected after Sochan threw the ball at Vanderbilt and the Lakers forward responded with a shove.

By then the Lakers already had established the terms, a game where they could get any shot they wanted seemingly whenever they wanted — the defense nowhere to be seen.

After the game in the locker room, when people crowding around him dispersed, Finney-Smith clarified what he said.

“Butt naked,” he said with a chuckle. “Butt.”

Butt or buck, the Lakers are showing that they can undress a defense. Wednesday they’ll face a tougher test in a key Western Conference game against the visiting Denver Nuggets.

“Look, I think the team that has [Nikola] Jokic on it is always dangerous,” Doncic said. “And it’s hard to play against him. He knows all the tricks. He’s an amazing basketball player. But that’s fun. That’s fun for us. That’s a challenge for us and it’s fun. We like challenges.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Throughout the first several months of the season, there was a slow drip of steady updates on progress and then stretches of nothing. Meanwhile, on the court, the Knicks experienced periods of solid play like nothing was amiss followed by moments when the team's balance appeared completely misaligned and the absence was apparent.

Mitchell Robinson, the reserve center whose health has been one of the Knicks’ biggest unanswered questions as injuries forced him to miss the first 58 games of the season, played for the eighth time on Monday night. And he looked like the player who caused New York fans’ hearts to grow fonder.

"I feel good," Robinson said after logging a season-high 24 minutes in a 116-95 win over the Miami Heat. "I'm finally getting the rhythm back a little bit, so that's great. Basically, just keep going."

Coming off the bench, he finished with 10 points on 5-for-7 shooting (with all his attempts coming right at the basket), nine rebounds (five offensive), two blocks, two steals, and an assist, and was a plus-8.

Of course, the 26-year-old center's biggest impact is on the defensive side. And now that Tom Thibodeau can finally put out lineups that feature two big men, with Robinson paired with Karl-Anthony Towns, the promise of a stout defense may be closer to realization.

“He’s such a huge factor,” the head coach said of Robinson. “And particularly when you have him and KAT out there together, you have two 7-footers. And then when OG [Anunoby is] on the frontline with them also, you’re just so long, the basket’s protected.

“I think the rim protection, [Robinson’s] ability to get out on the perimeter, defend pick-and-roll, challenge shots, cover a lot of ground, and make a second or third effort to be up on the pick-and-roll and then still get back to rebound and change shots.”

"Just his presence alone adds to our defense," said Towns, who played nine fourth-quarter minutes in a game that was already decided to get more time to mesh with the fellow big.

"It adds a lot to our team. He gives us a chance to get real versatile with our lineups,” he continued. “So today was a good day, too. We got that 4-5 with me and him. It caused, I think, some problems and allowed us to see how we can improve on that."

The extra time spent on the court together for the two big men should pay off as New York faces tougher battles than a languishing Heat team slumping to their eighth straight loss.

"I missed 10 months," Robinson said. "So, coming back… it's just got to build trust."

For the head coach, there’s a lot to like.

“You’re seeing more and more multiple-effort plays from him,” Thibodeau said. “I think his timing is coming around, so he’s moving great and he feels great.”

From slow start to no contest

The night may have ended perfectly, but it didn’t start that way. New York was down 12-0 just four minutes into the contest and trailed 29-18 after the first quarter, a period in which the home team shot just 31.8 percent (7-for-22). 

“Obviously we started the game slowly,” Thibodeau said. “I thought our bench gave us a good lift to get out of the hole. The way we played in the third quarter -- lotta energy, I thought the defense was terrific.”

In that third, the Knicks held the Heat to 15 points on 7-for-19 shooting (37 percent). And no matter how many timeouts Erik Spoelstra called, he couldn't cool off the home side as they exploded for 41 points on 16-for-23 shooting (70 percent). 

Mikal Bridges, who scored 10 in the first quarter, owned the run in the third with 15 points on 6-for-7 shooting. And Robinson, in just five minutes of action, was a plus-15 with four points and three rebounds.

“I thought Mitch was a huge factor and then the unselfishness,” Thibs continued. “I thought Mikal had a huge game for us and Josh was a monster. We had a lot of guys step up. 

“It was a tough game coming off the West Coast and to be ready to go. But I thought our team responded well.”

Of course, the Knicks wouldn't have been in such a good position to put the game out of reach after three quarters, had Towns not taken over in the second, scoring 15 points on 6-for-9 shooting (3-for-3 from behind the arc).

"He gave us life," Thibs said. "It got sparked by a couple hustle plays, OG made a couple of really big plays defensively, and sort of got us going. We got some easy baskets in transition and then we went from there."