did for a career-high 32 points<\/a>, eight assists and one turnover. Quenton Jackson, a 27-year-old former undrafted point guard on a two-way contract, did for 25 points and 10 assists \u2013 both career highs \u2013 without turning the ball over once.\u00a0<\/p>\n\u201cThe pace of the game is off the charts these days. It\u2019s been getting faster and faster, year after year,\u201d Kerr said Monday at Chase Center after Warriors practice. \u201cBut I even think it\u2019s taken a leap this year, just in terms of style of play. And this is how it works in basketball and technology and everything else, right? The game is constantly changing. So to me, what I\u2019m seeing is teams are spreading it out, playing as fast as possible, making it difficult to get to your coverages defensively.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe faster the actions, the more difficult it is for the defense to respond, and I thought the pace of the Milwaukee and Indiana games exposed some things that we were doing defensively, and we\u2019ve got to improve those things to get better.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Principles of the game haven\u2019t changed. The goal defensively still is to keep your man in front of you and avoid penetration. If a defender can stay between his man and the ball, it\u2019s the same game that it\u2019s always been. But the game is being played so differently with the pace and the space and the 3-point shot, that staying true to those principles has become a much more difficult proposition.<\/p>\n
How speedy players like Rollins and Jackson scored their points is case in point. Rollins in his 32-point outing finished six layups, made five threes and two jumpers. Outside of two free throws, Jackson\u2019s other 23 points came from five layups and one dunk, three catch-and-shoot threes and a two-pointer from seven feet out after beating Draymond Green to the spot.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Warriors rank 12th in defensive rating (112.7) through seven games entering Tuesday night\u2019s game against the Phoenix Suns, and 12th in opponents points per game (115.7). Opponents also are getting what they want and shooting 48.2 percent against the Warriors\u2019 defense. Only six teams are letting teams shoot better from the field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kerr\u2019s assessment of his team\u2019s defense as it currently stands is a bit of a mixed bag.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA little bit betwixt in between,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cI think because of all this pace and the way teams are playing, you have to adapt and you can\u2019t expect to do the exact same things you did even the year before. And every game is a little bit different.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cClippers, Lakers, Denver, those felt more like traditional games where you\u2019re in your coverage. You have time to talk through stuff. Portland, Milwaukee, Indiana, Memphis, it\u2019s a much faster game, more random and you\u2019ve got to be very disciplined in a lot of different aspects, otherwise you get exposed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Portland, Milwaukee and Indiana were all Golden State losses. Memphis, which ranks seventh in pace, was a win, but the Grizzlies had eight more fastbreak points than the Warriors, and just as many points in the paint (48). The Blazers rank third in pace, and the Bucks and Pacers are less than a point outside of the top 10. Right behind the both of them are the Suns, the next team on the Warriors\u2019 schedule.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAnother team that plays fast and aggressive,\u201d Moses Moody said of the Suns. \u201cThey got talent in different areas on the floor. Just another young and fast team.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The center position in particular has seen major changes offensively and defensively in a game that emphasizes speed and threes. Quinten Post started at center for the Warriors in their loss against the Bucks and only played 10 minutes, yet Gary Trent Jr. attempted three 3-pointers on him in 36 seconds and missed all three. Centers Donovan Clingan and Jock Landale have each taken two threes on Post earlier this season and made three of four.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Post this season has seen small forward Kawhi Leonard take five shots on him in 56 seconds, making one, and point guard Jrue Holiday go 1 of 4 when guarded by the 7-footer over 39 seconds. The responsibilities for big men, too, aren\u2019t what they used to be.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cNow on the defensive end it\u2019s more than just rim protection, guarding the pick and roll. If teams play this fast and this chaotic in a way, you kind of have to adapt too on the defensive end,\u201d Post says. \u201cFor me, on a personal level, it means guarding inside and on the outside. As a team, it\u2019s just a lot more chaos out there, and I think the biggest thing for us is whatever we do defensively, we just got to do it with 100 percent effort.\u201d<\/p>\n
But the Warriors still have the ultimate executioner of offenses. Even at 35 years old and with his beard being overtaken by gray hairs, Green is the difference in how the Warriors\u2019 defense operates. The Warriors\u2019 defense shuts down offenses to 105.7 points per 100 possessions when he\u2019s on the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That number skyrockets to 124.3 points per 100 possessions when Green, who has played in all seven games, is not on the court.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cDraymond is the best in the world at covering for his teammates, creating deception for the offensive player, which just makes him hesitate for a second,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cHe\u2019s amazing with that stuff. So when he\u2019s not out there, we better be rock solid with our discipline and principles that we have to follow in order to make teams have to work.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
At the root of it, the problems begin with better communication. So much is happening on the fly that one false step can be all the difference.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of it is we\u2019ve just got to get on the same page,\u201d Moody says. \u201cWe have different terminology, different principles that are changing with the change of the game. Everybody just has to be on the same page and communicate. \u2026 If we\u2019re switching one through five, it might not have the same principles that if you\u2019re switching a guard-to-guard screen in a regular situation. If we\u2019re switching all game, it\u2019s small details like that to where we just got to get on the same page.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disregarding small details is how losses to lesser, undermanned teams happen. The Warriors haven\u2019t lost three straight regular season games since Dec. 27, 2024, six weeks before acquiring Jimmy Butler. Getting back on the same page defensively while constantly adapting to the game\u2019s changes is how the Warriors can keep that streak alive and put an end to their first losing streak of the season.<\/p>\n
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 From what he\u2019s seeing on the Warriors\u2019 sidelines to reviewing film, the game Warriors coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388354,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3775],"tags":[7,103,102,121,3871,6,1079],"class_list":{"0":"post-390004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-milwaukee-bucks","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bucks","10":"tag-milwaukee","11":"tag-milwaukee-bucks","12":"tag-milwaukeebucks","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-warriors-analysis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115496226172965084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}