JERSEY CITY, New Jersey – The Golden State Warriors currently have the second-best record (41-15) in the NBA, but they are starting to feel Draymond Green’s absence.
The Warriors’ record without Green this season slumped to 13-9 after their second straight loss Thursday night (Friday, Manila time) at the Chase Center in San Francisco — a 116-114 upset at the hands of the New York Knicks, who snapped a four-game losing skid.
Green has been out with a lower back injury since early January, and he is not expected to return until after the All-Star break. Without him, the Warriors are getting killed in the glass. Over their last three games, they averaged a league-worst 37.7 rebounds.
The bigger Knicks outrebounded them, 51-38, including 16-5 in the offensive glass that made the difference in a tightly-fought game down the stretch.
“They had a huge size advantage on the frontline,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said. “We were getting crushed on the boards, and our guys fought. I'm disappointed that we lost, but I'm really proud of our guys. I thought it was a hell of a fight.”
The Warriors had no answer for Julius Randle, who bullied rookie Jonathan Kuminga. Randle paced the Knicks with 28 points, 16 rebounds, and seven assists.
“[Julius] drives it. When he plays like that, and we’ve said it all along, it drives the team if we play with pace in transition but also pace in the half court,” New York coach Tom Thibodeau said.
In the same way, Green is the engine that drives the Warriors’ small-ball play. Before the game, Thibodeau praised Green as one of the unique players in the NBA. Green may not be as prolific as Randle in scoring, but the Warriors’ four-time All-Star big man impacts and controls the game more than the numbers (7.9 points, 7.6 rebounds, and 7.4 assists) that are tangible in the stats sheet.
“Without Draymond the last few weeks, our pace is near the bottom of the league. We have not been a very good transition team now for several weeks. We've been just relying on 3-point shooting, and we've done a good job of making shots to win games, but you're not going to make them all the time. We missed 30 of them tonight,” Kerr said.
The Warriors hit 15 of 45 3-pointers with Curry (5 of 16) leading the way. The Knicks countered that by going 14 of 36 from downtown, with Evan Fournier matching Curry’s output (5 of 13). So, it boiled down to rebounds and free throws, which the Knicks dominated.
“When you have to overcome 16 offensive boards tonight. Three games in a row, it's like 16, 18, 17, offensive boards. Thirty-three free throws, you're playing uphill,” Kerr said. “The only way to combat all that is to play really fast, and that's why we went small the whole fourth quarter or most of the fourth quarter, and the guys did a great job of fighting back and giving themselves a chance.”
The Warriors had relative success late in the fourth quarter when Kerr used Kuminga as a small-ball center like the way he uses Green. Kuminga was flanked by Curry, Thompson, Jordan Poole, and Andrew Wiggins. That closing lineup nearly completed a comeback from a 102-91 deficit in the final 7:35. But Klay Thompson, who played his only 13th game since a 941-day layoff, missed an open 15-footer at the buzzer.
When asked if it’s tough to put behind a loss like that, Thompson snapped back.
“Yeah, the ones, Game Seven NBA Finals, you probably won’t ever put that one behind you. Those ones hurt a little more than the ones in mid-February,” Thompson said.
The playoffs are still a few months away, but cracks in their title aspirations are showing in losses against bigger teams. Little things such as rebounding may spell the difference between winning and losing come May and June.
Despite the Warriors’ shortcomings, Kerr was encouraged with what he saw from Kuminga, who tried to hold his own against Randle. The rookie forward had 17 points and five rebounds in a season-high-tying 36 minutes. That makes Kerr bullish about his team’s trajectory even with the extended absence of Green.
“Draymond is a game-changer for us, so I think we're doing a great job of withstanding his absence. Our guys are fighting out there. We are who we are. We're a small team, and guys have won a bunch of games since Draymond has been out,” Kerr said.
Before the back-to-back losses, the Warriors racked up eight straight wins to maintain their top-2 position in the league.
“We got guys in, and out of the lineup with Klay (Thompson) getting a night off last night. Otto (Porter Jr.) tonight, Andre (Iguodala) being out, and minutes restrictions. All that stuff. Our guys are doing great,” Kerr said. “I'm disappointed that we couldn't win tonight, but I feel good about where we are.”
They will have another test against a bigger team on Saturday night (Sunday Manila time) against the struggling Los Angeles Lakers. The Warriors hope to bounce back and avoid their first three-game losing streak of the season.
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Alder Almo is a former senior sportswriter for Philstar.com and NBA.com Philippines. He is now based in Jersey City, New Jersey, and writes for the New York-based sports website empiresportsmedia.com.