Dubs suffer ugly loss to Pelicans amid offensive woes, injuries

If there was hope it was understaffed, stingy Golden State Warriors could gather some momentum following theirs upset win over the Denver Nuggetsjust crashed in the bayou.

The The Warriors fell 113-109 to the New Orleans Pelicans in an ugly way. While the close score points to a highly contested, competitive affair, it speaks more to the Dubs’ tepid offensive performance in the first quarter, in which they shot just 8 of 25, which they ultimately couldn’t overcome.

And while Moses Moody continued his consistent performance with 24 points and five rebounds and De’Anthony Melton exploded for 28 points in just 28 minutes, Pelicans star Zion Williamson proved unstoppable down the stretch, finishing with a game-high 26 points on 11-of-21 shooting. after the game Steve Kerr gave his assessment amazing performance by the Dubs.

“I don’t know if that’s what got us ‘down.’ It was the full 48 minutes,” Kerr said. “21 turnovers. We didn’t execute well offensively. Spacing was bad. Transition, we had three potential layups in the first half. We didn’t run, we didn’t cut to the rim, we didn’t get to the corner. We just looked disjointed.”

The frustration was palpable from the Warriors all night as poor basketball plagued them up and down the hardwood. Midway through the third quarter, the transmission was caught Quinten Post and Brandin Podziemski have a heated conversation as the two walked to the bench and Draymond Green had to step between the two to keep things from escalating.

And while the Warriors had a chance to steal this game from the jaws of their poor play, the offense, unsurprisingly, dried up, and they couldn’t dig themselves out of the hole they dug themselves.

Offense remains a problem without their stars

It’s no surprise that the Warriors’ offense has struggled with consistency of late. With Stephen Curry in day-to-day purgatory with his inflamed runner’s knee, Jimmy Butler out for the season and Kristaps Porzingis suffering from a serious, undisclosed illness, Golden State lacks a creator or engine to center the offense.

Kerr talked about needing “triggers” to disrupt the defense ie. Curry’s gravitas or Butler drawing double teams in the post. But without them, they don’t have what leads to droughts like the ones they suffered against the Pelicans.

And sure, Melton can penetrate and Moody can run around off-ball screens, but over 48 minutes of play, they need more. What they did against Denver is certainly the pinnacle of what’s possible when things are buzzing. But in the end, it requires some kind of trip to make everything run smoothly. That means no mess, no missed opportunities in the transition.

Requires good ball movement and open shots. And the Warriors he didn’t do it in New Orleans.

“The game was there for us, we just couldn’t execute well enough,” Kerr said. “With the injuries we have, we have to play well to win. And I don’t think we played well tonight.”

Al Horford leaning on the front end of the back-to-back certainly didn’t help, and they’ll get him back against the Memphis Grizzlies. But help won’t come soon. Curry’s re-evaluation won’t come until the end of the week, and knowing their tendency to lean on conservatives in terms of returning from injury, it’s likely to be an accelerated process before he returns. Meanwhile, Porzingis may be confirming the Warriors’ worst fears with this latest health scare.

The Dubs will try to bounce back with a game in Memphis in less than 24 hours.

Other remarks

• To add insult to injury for the Dubs, Jonathan Cumminga looked pretty smooth in his debut for the Atlanta Hawks. 25 points, 7 rebounds, in 9/12 FG against the thin Washington Wizards. It’s only one game, and against a bad team, but the Cummings era in Atlanta is off to a good start.
• Porzingis didn’t go south, which rules him out for Memphis. It is not known what exactly his illness is. He has a history of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) that the Warriors were aware of when they traded for him, but the Warriors have not confirmed if this current ailment has anything to do with it. Kerr said Sunday it was serious enough that Porzingis couldn’t leave his hotel room.
• NBC Sports Bay Area has begun adding live graphics to its broadcasts. Things like a gray circle that hovers below whoever has the ball, names that appear whenever someone gets the ball, and a distance counter whenever someone kicks it from deep. It looks like NBA 2k and drives many viewers up the wall (myself included).