Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry (30) reacts after missing a shot as the Denver Nuggets came from behind to tied and win the game on a buzzer-beater by Denver Nuggets' Nikola Jokic (15) in the fourth quarter of a NBA game at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, Jan. 4, 2024. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)
SAN FRANCISCO — Straggling Denver Nuggets celebrating Nikola Jokic’s 39-foot game winner hadn’t cleared the court before Steph Curry was in the locker room with his nose in the film rolling on his phone.
Curry typically waits to watch the film at home, but he couldn’t wait that long. He needed to see how his Warriors let an 18-point lead slip within six minutes. The turning point was his bad pass leading to Jokic’s shot, but within the Nuggets 26-4 run he didn’t see botched defensive rotations or poorly executed offense.
He found something worse: A reality check.
At the peaks of their dynasty, the Warriors could fall back on a familiar identity to endure rough stretches. They knew who would start and who would close; that Draymond Green was good for a game-saving stop, or that Curry and Klay Thompson could break free for a clutch shot. Perhaps most importantly, all three had a supporting cast whose muscle memory instinctively danced a rhythm that made these things happen.
The reality check is trite, but true. These Warriors don’t know how to win together. The Nuggets do. No double-digit lead is big enough for the NBA’s natural selection. That explains Golden State losing four games by which they led by at least 18 points.
“(The Nuggets) have a chemistry and they know — whether they make or miss shots — what to do,” Curry said. “We haven’t established that, so when things start going wrong, (everyone is) looking around. It’s within our control to figure that out, but there have been too many situations like that where we play a hell of a game and have nothing to show for it.
“Good teams know who they are and find ways to win and do it consistently and we haven’t checked any of those boxes. No matter how experienced we are, every team is unique.”
That desperation to find an identity shows most in the Warriors’ sometimes head-scratching rotation pattern. Coach Steve Kerr is playing whack-a-mole with his lineups, trying to fill the gaping defensive void left by Green’s indefinite suspension while lathering up the right dynamic on offense — without sacrificing on defense. At times he leans on his inconsistent veterans in hopes that that they may resuscitate that warm, familiar cadence; other times he throws the keys to the younger generation for a jump start.
Rarely has it seemed the Warriors found the right balance between both groups. With Green gone and on a 12th starting five over 34 games, they’re not close to finding even one five-man group that completes a puzzle. Moreover, the puzzle pieces are scattered, floating.
Thursday, Jonathan Kuminga was having his way with Jamal Murray, attacking the weak man on defense for some much-needed downhill offense outside of Curry and Thompson’s hot hands. He had 16 points, going 5-of-7 from the field and getting to the line seven times. Kuminga was taken out for Andrew Wiggins mid-way through the third quarter when the Warriors started to build a double-digit lead.
The Nuggets creeped back in around the fourth quarter when Curry was struggling to create offense off broken plays and no one else who saw the court in the final six — Thompson, Chris Paul, Trayce Jackson-Davis, Kevon Looney, Dario Saric or Brandin Podziemski — could pick up the slack. Kuminga stayed on the bench for the entire fourth quarter.
“His normal time to go back in would have been around the five-, six-minute mark,” Kerr said. “Wiggs was playing great, we were rolling, we were up 18, 19, whatever it was. So we just stayed with them. At that point it didn’t feel like the right thing to do. (Kuminga) had been sitting for a while so I stayed with the group that was out there, and obviously we couldn’t close it out.”
It’s not the first time Kuminga sat out despite a strong showing.
“I really don’t have much to say about that,” Kuminga said. “The rest of the guys were playing good, we had a lead, everybody was happy…There was no explanation. I was just on the bench cheering, just like another teammate. Hyped because we were in it. I really don’t know. I didn’t see it coming at all, especially the way I was playing.”
The Warriors know they don’t have a rotational comfort blanket, which makes for some uncomfortable choices. Moses Moody sat out his third straight game as a rotation casualty that Kerr says is a matter of having too many players and not enough minutes. Both Moody and Kuminga have added pressure not only to play, but perform with the opportunity to sing rookie contract extensions in the offseason.
“It’s tricky. Since I’ve been here, we don’t have just five guys that we know that they’re supposed to be on the floor whenever it’s closing time,” Kuminga said. “It’s a little weird. I’ve been here for three years now, I’m used to it. I’m never surprised when I see a lineup change at the end of the game or even in the game. It’s a culture thing.”
Mucking these rotations up more is Green’s absence and imminent return. The Warriors have had a porous defense with a mishaps on miscommunications that Green expertly patches over. It’s been a patchwork effort at the center position with Looney’s step back on both ends, Jackson-Davis take his rookie blows and Dario Saric picking up defensive responsibility he shouldn’t have to. Green is a salve on defense whose reinsertion could, at least, solidify some lineups.
His reinsertion may also cause chaos. A already in frenzy will have more to juggle by re-integrating another piece. The Warriors are at an existential crossroads. They need Green to win — but does this group know how to win? Curry still has hope.
“Nights like tonight are really loud of how far we are from the team we want to be — Draymond included — to be a competitive team that’s trying to be the best in the league,” Curry said. “You hold onto that hope, but be honest with how far we are from where we want to be.”
Originally published at Shayna Rubin