Category: Basketball

Warriors see their warts, but still believe in their lofty NBA potential originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – Two months into a season that has delivered more losses than wins, the Warriors still believe that between Monday night and April 12 they will secure an automatic berth in the Western Conference playoffs.

When the Orlando Magic come to Chase Center on Monday, the Warriors will be sitting in eighth place, 4.5 games away from the guaranteed playoff berth that comes with finishing sixth and six games away from the home-court advantage that comes with finishing among the top four.

Are the Warriors dreaming? Maybe.

They realize 53 games remain for them to make the steep climb toward their goal, they scan the standings and, still, they believe.

“I look (at the standings) every day; I looked this morning,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We all know where we are.”

“Our goal coming into the season was to be a top-four seed, and I still think it’s well within our reach. It can be daunting if you look and you go, ‘Man, we’re five, six games back.’ But we know how fast things can flip if we can take care of our business and find some momentum. Because everybody else is going to go through tough stretches too.”

Taking care of business has been difficult and momentum has been elusive. And the Warriors would like to believe their “toughest stretches” are behind them after burying a three-game losing streak Saturday with a win over the Phoenix Suns.

Even in victory, however, they saw there are many miles to go to achieve their quest.

“We watched the last three minutes of the game,” Trayce Jackson-Davis said, referring to a late 14-8 run by Phoenix that nearly erased Golden State’s seven-point lead.

“I wanted the guys to see it,” Kerr said. “There were a couple of just mindless plays where we score and we’re all standing there, instead of having urgency to get back. And the (Suns) race the ball up the floor, we’re trailing the play. There’s no way that can happen. We just have to be sharper and more on edge.”

Golden State is 6-6 against the seven teams above them, beating the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Spurs twice the Suns twice. Yet the Warriors are 0-3 against the 10th-place Trail Blazers and 0-1 against the last-place Kings.

Who are the Warriors?

They are a team still seeking rhythm for an offense that too often collapses under the weight of its turnovers and searching for consistency on defense – with both issues on display over the last four games. They stumbled and fell against Minnesota, at Portland and at Phoenix but stayed upright against the Suns at home.

“We already know what the problem is (or) was,” Jimmy Butler III said, taking scant contentment from beating the Suns. “It’s just on us to go out there and do what we say that we’re going to do to win these games. We’re capable of it. We all know that.”

Butler’s expression of belief suggests the best is yet to come. That they have the capability to move beyond the nights of blowing double-digit leads in the fourth quarter to teams that, on paper, are inferior. Seven of Golden State’s 15 losses have come against sub.-500 teams.

The road to recovery begins with an offense that takes care of the ball and makes open shots, particularly from deep. The Warriors are shooting 32.6 percent on “open” shots (closest defender between four and six feet away), ranking 19th in the league.

This is a team, folks, that has the greatest deep shooter of all time on the roster. Stephen Curry’s gravitational effect opposing defenses often create open looks for teammates. In a league where the 3-point shooting average is 35.8 percent, the Warriors have seven players that qualify as below average, including stretch-5 Quinten Post, at 33.8 percent and 3-point specialist Buddy Hield at 32 percent.

Unless Golden State’s offense drains open triples at a higher rate and its defense learns lessons administered during video study on Sunday, an automatic berth will be out of reach.

Curry believes but tempers his faith with the evidence already gathered. At 14-15, the Warriors are not close to being among the top six in the West, much less the top four.

“We don’t want to look too far ahead,” he said. “Just focus on Orlando and what we need to do to beat that team. I like that idea of just taking it one game at a time, because we don’t have any other choice with the way we’ve been playing.”

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The only thing left for JJ Redick to do was joke about it. What else could be said after the Lakers made just six of 38 three-pointers in a 103-88 loss to the Clippers on Saturday?

“I was proud that we improved from three 4-for-33,” the coach deadpanned. “So we got better as the game progressed.”

With four regular starters limited by injuries, the Lakers’ ice cold shooting night doomed them to a season-low in points. Star guard Luka Doncic left the game with 12 points at halftime after a left leg contusion sustained in the first half. Redick noticed the NBA’s leading scorer limping on the court during the second quarter. Starters Austin Reaves (calf), Deandre Ayton (elbow) and Rui Hachimura (groin) were all sidelined for the game, as well as key reserve Gabe Vincent (back).

It left just LeBron James, who had 36 points, four rebounds and three assists as the Lakers (19-8) fell behind by 22 but cut the deficit to seven in the fourth quarter before fading again.

“We just didn’t make shots,” said James, who was three for seven from three-point range and made half of the team’s threes. “It happens over the course of a season. We had some great looks. We just didn’t make shots. But we still gave ourselves a chance to be in the game with how well we defended, our competitive spirit, our competitive nature.”

Here are three takeaways from the game: 

Lakers pleas toward referees falling flat

The Lakers have been assessed five technical fouls in the last two games because of conduct with officials as frustration over inconsistent calls is starting to boil over. After Doncic, Jaxson Hayes and Marcus Smart were all given technical fouls in the third quarter of Thursday’s win over Utah, Doncic and Smart were T’ed up again Saturday in the first and third quarters, respectively.

“I think if any coach, any player, what we ask for is consistency,” Redick said. “And that's not to single any official out or any crew out, it's not about that. We need to know what it is night to night.”

Smart also drew a technical foul against Utah after attempting to talk to an official at halftime. When Smart walked away frustrated, he raised his middle finger toward the official, a gesture that got him fined $35,000 Saturday, the NBA announced.

“Sometimes you got to take the hit to get your point across,” Smart said Saturday.

Read more:Lakers lose Luka Doncic to injury, then fall to Clippers despite LeBron James' 36 points

Redick expressed additional frustration with the lack of transparency in the replay system and murky communication with officials. He said he has not received any feedback when he requests it and the distinction between plays that can and can’t be challenged appears to change every night.

The lack of communication has been frustrating for players as well, Smart said, who met with referees before the Utah game as a team captain, but still had his questions dismissed.

“The captain should be able to come talk to them,” Smart said. “They still don't want to hear it. So control what you can control. They don't want to talk, you know, you try and you move on. But it definitely is frustrating when you pour your heart out to this game and the feedback is literally waving you off, telling you to get out your face, and then giving you a tech because you're asking a simple question.”

Way off the mark

The Lakers had their worst shooting night of the season by far, making just 34 of 88 shots (38.6%). The team that was second in the NBA in shooting percentage hadn’t shot worse than 40.3% from the field in a game this season. Even their shaky three-point shooting that was 23rd in the league (34.5%) found a new low: the 15.8% (six for 38) shooting from three-point range is the worst for the team since Jan. 3, 2024 when the Lakers made four of 30 threes in a 110-96 loss to Miami.

Smart, who had made 14 of 28 threes in his last three games, missed on all of his nine long-range shots Saturday and finished with five points on one-of-12 shooting. Jake LaRavia, who was acquired as a free agent in part for his three-point shooting, was 0 for four from beyond the arc. The 24-year-old is shooting a career-low 32.1% from three-point range this season despite his eight-for-15 start in the first five games of the year.

“I know I'm a good shooter, everyone on the staff knows I'm a good shooter, everyone on the team knows I'm a good shooter,” LaRavia said. “At some point, I have to make shots. Obviously, been in a slump pretty much this entire season outside of that first stretch of games where I was making some. But they'll drop."

LeBron James carries the load alone

Once Doncic left the game, the Lakers’ best chance at scoring points became “effort offense,” LaRavia said. Hustling, grabbing offensive rebounds and cherry-picking points in transition was almost enough as the Lakers pieced together a 15-0 run to cut a 22-point Clippers lead to seven with 7:56 remaining in the fourth.

Redick praised the team’s “incredible spirit,” noting that James led the charge in that aspect. In addition to making 15 of 28 shots from the field for his season-high in points, James had two steals and a block. After he drove aggressively to the basket for a layup through contact and finished a three-point play to cut the lead to nine, he was the first to dive on the floor for a loose ball on the next defensive possession when he poked the ball away from Kawhi Leonard.

With the Clippers (7-21) playing most of the game without center Ivica Zubak, who rolled his ankle in the first quarter and didn’t return, James took advantage of the smaller lineup by aggressively getting into the paint.

“He did a terrific job of driving the basketball,” Redick said. “Anytime he had [Brook] Lopez on him, he'd beat him up from the perimeter. Great game from him.”

James, who turns 41 on Dec. 30, has passed his unofficial “training camp” phase after he missed the first 14 games of the season because of right sciatica. He has averaged 30 points in the last three games while shooting 50% from the field.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

When Luka Doncic sustained a left leg contusion and sat out the entire second half of a 103-88 loss to the Clippers at Intuit Dome on Saturday night, he became the latest in a growing list of ailing Lakers.

Doncic played 19 minutes in the first half but didn’t return for the third quarter. He had 12 points, five rebounds and two assists at the break. But Doncic struggled with his shooting, going four for 13 from the field and one for six from three-point range.

Doncic entered as the leading scorer in the NBA, averaging 35.2 points per game, and was third in assists, averaging 9.1. He had torched the Clippers for 43 points in a win last month.

“He told me at halftime he couldn’t go," Lakers coach JJ Redick said. "I don’t have any other information.”

Read more:Lakers' Marcus Smart fined $35,000 for making obscene gesture at official

Rui Hachimura missed his first start of the season because of a sore groin that is expected to keep him out three to five days. Austin Reaves (left calf), Deandre Ayton (left elbow) and Gabe Vincent (lower back tightness) also are out.

The Clippers also lost a key player Saturday when center Ivica Zubac sustained a left ankle injury in the first quarter. Zubac, who has played every game this season and leads the team in rebounds and blocks, logged just 11 minutes.

The Clippers (7-21) entered the game tied for the worst record in the Western Conference. They had lost five games in a row, eight straight at home and 10 of their last 11 overall.

They got off to a good start Saturday, building a 22-point lead over the Lakers (19-8), who cut their deficit to seven points in the fourth quarter before fading. It was the Lakers' season low in points.

“No matter what the circumstance is, it’s still next man up,” said LeBron James, who led the Lakers with 36 points. “We’re all professionals. We all got to stay ready. So, obviously very challenging circumstances for our ballclub tonight. But I think we played extremely hard. We followed our keys. We just came up short.”

Kawhi Leonard had 32 points and 12 rebounds for the Clippers and James Harden had 21 points and 10 assists.

Before the game, Redick wanted the Lakers to "just manage the game and play with the right spirit."

But the Lakers fell into a 17-point deficit in the first quarter and couldn't recover.

Redick said Hachimura sat out after he felt hip pain against Utah on Thursday night. Reaves was “continuing to push himself” to return soon, Redick said, and Ayton had “swelling” in his elbow but had a “brisk, intense individual workout.”

Redick said it’s possible Reaves and Ayton could return Tuesday at Phoenix.

After the game, Redick lauded how the Lakers put up a good fight despite their rash of injuries.

Jake LaRavia, who had 12 points and 11 rebounds and Nick Smith Jr, who had nine points off the bench, helped the Lakers stay within striking distance.

But the Lakers struggled to make shots. They shot 39% (34 for 88) from the field, 16% (six for 38) from three-point range and 61% (14 for 23) at the line.

“I thought all the guys, about 90% of them, they brought it,” Redick said. “And we defended at a high level. Made it tough on their stars. ... Yes, just highly, highly competitive group today and really proud of them.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.