SAN FRANCISCO – From what he’s seeing on the Warriors’ sidelines to reviewing film, the game Warriors coach Steve Kerr is watching isn’t close to what the NBA was 10 years ago. Not even five.
What it looked like when he won all those championships as a player in the 1990s, and his final season in 2003, was closer to silent films than the product seen in the Warriors’ two straight losses to short-handed teams.
The Milwaukee Bucks announced an hour ahead of tipoff that Giannis Antetokounmpo was ruled out Thursday night after being probable on the injury report all day. On top of Tyrese Haliburton being out for the season from his torn Achilles in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, the Indiana Pacers didn’t have a win and they didn't have Andrew Nembhard, Obi Toppin, Bennedict Mathurin and T.J. McConnell on Saturday. But both teams raced right by the Warriors.
Ryan Rollins, their own former second-round draft pick, did for a career-high 32 points, 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 – both career highs – without turning the ball over once.
“The pace of the game is off the charts these days. It’s been getting faster and faster, year after year,” Kerr said Monday at Chase Center after Warriors practice. “But I even think it’s 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’m seeing is teams are spreading it out, playing as fast as possible, making it difficult to get to your coverages defensively.
“The 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’ve got to improve those things to get better.”
Principles of the game haven’t 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’s the same game that it’s 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.
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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’s 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.
The Warriors rank 12th in defensive rating (112.7) through seven games entering Tuesday night’s 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’ defense. Only six teams are letting teams shoot better from the field.
Kerr’s assessment of his team’s defense as it currently stands is a bit of a mixed bag.
“A little bit betwixt in between,” Kerr said. “I think because of all this pace and the way teams are playing, you have to adapt and you can’t expect to do the exact same things you did even the year before. And every game is a little bit different.
“Clippers, Lakers, Denver, those felt more like traditional games where you’re in your coverage. You have time to talk through stuff. Portland, Milwaukee, Indiana, Memphis, it’s a much faster game, more random and you’ve got to be very disciplined in a lot of different aspects, otherwise you get exposed.”
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’ schedule.
“Another team that plays fast and aggressive,” Moses Moody said of the Suns. “They got talent in different areas on the floor. Just another young and fast team.”
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.
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’t what they used to be.
“Now on the defensive end it’s 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,” Post says. “For me, on a personal level, it means guarding inside and on the outside. As a team, it’s 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.”
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’ defense operates. The Warriors’ defense shuts down offenses to 105.7 points per 100 possessions when he’s on the court.
That number skyrockets to 124.3 points per 100 possessions when Green, who has played in all seven games, is not on the court.
“Draymond 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,” Kerr said. “He’s amazing with that stuff. So when he’s 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.”
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.
“Some of it is we’ve just got to get on the same page,” Moody says. “We 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. … If we’re switching one through five, it might not have the same principles that if you’re switching a guard-to-guard screen in a regular situation. If we’re switching all game, it’s small details like that to where we just got to get on the same page.”
Disregarding small details is how losses to lesser, undermanned teams happen. The Warriors haven’t 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’s changes is how the Warriors can keep that streak alive and put an end to their first losing streak of the season.