Warriors' kryptonite, dire need for roster changes exposed by the athletic Hawks originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors, on Sunday, walked into Chase Center hoping to extend an encouraging segment of the season and encountered their kryptonite.
They ran into Atlanta, whose roster is built to expose and exploit their most obvious vulnerabilities, and were overrun in a 124-111 loss that served as a harsh reminder of the Warriors’ shortcomings – literally – while sounding yet another alarm for their front office.
The roster is profoundly defective. As good as the Warriors have been of late, rediscovering offense and winning eight of their previous 11 games, their margin for error remains thinner than dollar-store tissue.
The Warriors are short; the Hawks are lengthy. The Warriors are light on elite athleticism; the Hawks could assemble a very good 400-meter relay squad. The Hawks showcased active, disruptive defenders and had enough shooters to take full advantage of the havoc they created against Golden State.
Kryptonite.
“They got a lot of long, lanky dudes, especially with their guard play,” De’Anthony Melton said.
“We struggled to get paint touches tonight,” Stephen Curry said. “The ball was kind of just swinging around the perimeter, and they were able to keep five bodies on bodies. That’s usually what good defenses do. Tonight, we didn’t have that answer.”
After carefully disassembling the Warriors in the first half, taking a 59-53 lead, Atlanta came out in the third quarter and took away their composure, sending them reeling and relapsing into a bad old habit.
Turnovers. Specifically, the live-ball giveaways. Golden State committed five in the pivotal third quarter, giving the Hawks 13 points. The damage at the final buzzer: 16 turnovers, for 28 Atlanta points.
The Warriors, conversely, forced nine turnovers, leading to 11 points.
“They just played a great game,” coach Steve Kerr said of the Hawks. “We couldn’t turn them over. They shot it lights out, had 32 assists, only seven turnovers. I didn’t think we played poorly. I didn’t think we played that well. Obviously, 10-for-42 (from deep), we needed to shoot better. But more than anything, they just played a great game and deserved it.”
The result is another night in which Curry did plenty of scoring – 31 points on 11-of-21 shooting, only 3-of-11 from deep – and it wasn’t enough. Jimmy Butler III put in 30 points on 10-of-19 shooting, including 2-of-6 beyond the arc. Didn’t matter.
Not when the rest of the team managed only 50 points on 42-percent shooting from the field, including 20 percent from distance, while committing 11 of the 16 turnovers.
The Warriors led by as much as 10 in the first half, only to trail by as much as 25 in the second. They were outscored 20-7 over the final 6:07 of the third quarter.
Golden State’s offense seemed strangled in its efforts to penetrate a defense that featured 6-foot-9 Jalen Johnson, 6-foot-9 Onyeka Okongwu and 6-foot-11 Mouhammed Gueye up front, with 6-foot-7 defensive ace Dyson Daniels and 6-foot-5 Nickeil Alexander-Walker in the backcourt.
“Usually, there’s going to be one or two guys that you can kind of go at to create an advantage,” Curry said. “Doesn’t mean they’re just going to do that olé defense and just let you get to the paint. But you can create an advantage and then make them react, get the ball moving side to side. We did that well for short spurts out of the game. You just got to be able to have composure and attack if you have a little bit of an angle just to get downhill.”
Turns out Kerr was prophetic in the comments he made about the Hawks two hours before tipoff.
“We know how good they are defensively, with length everywhere,” Kerr said. “It’s really a game where we have to really keep it simple, make good decisions, and keep control of the game, make them score in the halfcourt.”
Mission not accomplished. And it won’t be the last time with Golden State’s current roster. Upgrades are needed to compete at the highest level of the Western Conference.
The Jonathan Kuminga trade market, which has been cool, opens on Thursday. The NBA trade deadline is on Feb. 5, 25 days away.
To recover from a decisive loss and on Tuesday resume sustaining their recent surge, the Warriors will need to play near-perfect basketball – and hope it is enough.
They won’t have to be so flawless if they’re able to somehow, over the next 25 days, bring in a couple productive players with the goods to counteract kryptonite.
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Raphielle Johnson
