In climbing up the Western Conference standings after the arrival of Jimmy Butler III, the Warriors generated enough positive energy to believe in Draymond Green’s audacious NBA All-Star break declaration that a championship was three months away.
And now, after one middling week, the Warriors have a loose grip on sixth place in the Western Conference and look nothing like a team capable of making a deep playoff run, much less winning the NBA Finals.
So much of what they had repaired with the addition of Butler came apart this week, which was punctuated Saturday night in Atlanta, where the Warriors fell behind early and were thoroughly outplayed in a 124-115 loss to a Hawks team missing two starters.
“Yeah, 40 points in the first quarter,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters at State Farm Arena. “We were swimming upstream the rest of the way. I love the way the guys fought after that, but it was a layup line in the first quarter. Transition defense was awful.
“Give them credit. They were ready. They came out smoking hot, but at halftime, they had 23 assists or three turnovers. We didn’t impact the game defensively until it was far too late.”
The Warriors (41-30) were without Stephen Curry, but that doesn’t explain their languid start, or their porous defense.
“It’s a bad loss,” Green said. “It’s a terrible loss. When you’re in the position we’re in, we’ve we got a chance to compete for something. Eleven games left, with everything to play for, you shouldn’t have a loss like this. There’s too much on the line. You’ve got to win the games you’re supposed to win.
“Obviously, Steph is out. It’s still a game we should win. Terrible loss.”
After winning several games in recent weeks that they concede they probably would have lost earlier this season – pre-Jimmy – the Warriors lost two such games this week and flirted with dropping a third.
Losing to the Denver Nuggets, without Nikola Jokić and Jamal Murray, on Monday at Chase Center was a sign of caution. Needing all 48 minutes to beat the lottery-bound Toronto Raptors on Thursday at Chase was a wake-up call.
Falling to the sub-mediocre Hawks (34-36) missing two starters, commences the sounds of wailing sirens, blaring alarms and the skidding of brakes on Golden State’s post-Jimmy momentum.
“We didn’t come out ready to play,” Green said. “We came out like we were just going to win the game, and we got diced up defensively in the first quarter. From that point on, you’re fighting an uphill battle. Everybody’s comfortable, and they took it to us.
“We’ve got to be better, and that starts with me. We were terrible defensively. This is the NBA. Once guys get into a rhythm, it’s hard. They got into a rhythm, had it rolling. It’s tough to stop that so we’ve got to come out ready to play.”
Green had a forgettable performance largely because he is as essential to Golden State’s defense as Curry to its offense. Atlanta shot 65.4 percent in the first quarter, 60 percent for the half and outscored the Warriors 60-44 in the paint.
One place not to look is toward Butler. He scored a team-high 25 points, recorded a team-high eight assists and finished plus-11 (also a team-best) in 38 minutes. The only other Warriors with a positive plus/minus was Gary Payton II, who was plus-6 while scoring 11 points in 17 minutes.
The Warriors were minus-15 in bench scoring, were dramatically outshot (57 percent to 46.4) for the second consecutive game, outrebounded (46-38) for the third time in four games and out-assisted (37-28) for the third time in four games.
Any recovery must begin with defense.
“I didn’t feel good about it tonight,” Kerr said. “But we were the second-ranked defense in the league since we traded for Jimmy. So overall, the defense has been really good. We’re right at the top of the league and deflections for some turnovers. “But didn’t happen tonight. So, the biggest thing is, we got to respond, bounce back.”
This loss derails the Warriors, at least temporarily. The first step to getting back on track, with or without Curry, comes Tuesday in Miami. If the first quarter looks anything like it did on Saturday, they could find themselves in the Play-In Tournament box.
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