MINNEAPOLIS — The Warriors have gotten a crash course over their past four games on how to live without Draymond Green. With Green set to miss potentially the longest stretch of games in his career, hopefully they learned some lessons.
In a 119-99 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, the Warriors felt Green’s absence on defense against Karl Anthony Towns, who recorded a 26-point, 11-rebound double-double; his vision on offense, with only 19 assists to counter 14 turnovers; and his leadership amid a 10-minute stretch in the second half without a field goal that allowed Minnesota to pull away for good.
The area Golden State most missed its point forward, though, coach Steve Kerr said afterward was in its ability — or lack thereof — to control the pace of the game.
“On made baskets, he gets the ball up the floor and gets the defense on its heels,” Kerr said. “I didn’t think we played with much pace tonight. We obviously missed Draymond in every way. He’s such a good player. But that stood out to me tonight.”
Few stretches of basketball have been more demanding than this past four-game road trip, which the Warriors will come home from with just one win, having dropped five of their last seven overall. They return home faced with the prospect of righting the ship without Green for likely the entire upcoming home stand.
The Warriors started the trip, which featured four playoff contenders over six days, without Green but at least with the hope of coming home to a reunion of their core trio — Green, Steph Curry and Klay Thompson – for the first time since the 2019 Finals.
Instead, they will have to wait at least another two weeks, after tests showed a problem with a disk in Green’s lower back that precipitated the calf tightness that initially knocked him out last Sunday.
“It’s unfortunate,” said Klay Thompson, who is still waiting to play with Green after his own two-year absence and logged 23 minutes Sunday in his fourth game back, his most yet. “But we’ve all been through injuries and there’s no point in rushing back in mid-January. We are playing for so much bigger than that. … It gives me chills thinking about what we can be at that point in the year.”
On this Sunday night, the Warriors went without a field goal from the 3:57 mark of the third quarter to the 6:05 mark of the fourth, allowing an 80-79 lead to turn into a 111-86 deficit, a 32-6 Minnesota run that spanned 9 minutes, 52 seconds.
“I thought the defense slipped away from us late in the third quarter, the last minute or two of the third,” Kerr said. “We were right in the game and they kind of got, if I remember correctly, they got to the rim three or four times and laid it in. So our defense kind of broke down. I think we ran out of gas.”
Golden State missed 16 straight shots from the field, with their only offense coming on foul shots by Jonathan Kuminga and Jordan Poole, who acted as the Warriors primary sources of offense without Curry or Green. Kuminga scored 19, his second straight game in double digits, while Poole led the Warriors with 20 points.
Coming off the best game of his young career — 25 points two nights ago in Milwaukee — Kuminga is set to see more playing time as Green’s absence draws on. That started at the 6:20 mark of the first quarter, when the rookie entered for Thompson — the Warriors’ first substitution and substantially earlier than the rookie has normally entered games.
Kuminga was impressive — and explosive — enough that he replaced Otto Porter Jr. in the Warriors’ lineup to close the first half, alongside Thompson, Poole, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney.
“I feel like it’s not me taking a step forward, it’s just part of the growth,” Kuminga said. “I wasn’t just going to come out in the league my first game or second game and do what I’m doing now. It took me a lot of time, a lot of learning, just to be around the group and learn all the plays and learn how to be a part of the team. So I feel like I’m getting better every single day and I’m just going to keep doing what I’m doing.”
In his fourth game back from a two-year absence, Thompson played his most minutes yet — 23 — and connected on 5 of his 14 shot attempts for 13 points, joined in double figures by Wiggins (12) and Porter (12).
“It’s a new challenge for me to play within these minutes and be as efficient as I can,” Thompson said. “But it pales in comparison to what I went through the last two years. Even though I’m not shooting the ball as well as I want to, I’m gonna keep shooting because that’s what I’m best at.”
Without Curry, who was back home in San Francisco after injuring his right hand against the Bulls, Poole became the Warriors’ primary ball handler, a role that Kerr said wasn’t foreign for the 22-year-old, who acts as Golden State’s point guard when Curry is off the court otherwise. But there were a couple sets where Poole’s role would change. On one play, he called for a cut from Nemanja Bjelica and threw a pass right into a defender’s hands when Bjelica didn’t cooperate, one of four turnovers by the young guard, tied with Bjelica for a team-high.
Back in the starting lineup for the second straight game — after Thompson’s return initially forced him into a bench role — Poole got the Warriors off to a hot start with seven first-quarter points and finished with a team-high 20 points.
Kuminga and Thompson stole the show at close the second half — Kuminga with a couple impressive finishes and Thompson with a pair of 3-pointers — pulling the Warriors within 6 at halftime, close enough to take an 80-79 lead midway through the third quarter.
But, without Green and Curry, there just weren’t enough options to pick up the slack when they went cold.
Source: www.mercurynews.com