The Golden State Warriors dropped their third game of the season on Sunday night to fall to 4-3. That record comes as a surprise considering they didn’t lose their third game of the season until Dec. 1 a year ago. The 115-107 loss to the Pistons wasn’t on a back-to-back. It wasn’t the final game of a long road trip (it was the final game of a long homestand). It was, simply, a bad loss.
While concern grows in Cleveland about the 3-4 Cavaliers, who appear to be little more than highly paid traffic cones in uniforms on the defensive end of the floor, the vibe around Golden State is very different. This is a championship hangover of epic proportions rather than a structural issue. It’s a matter of a team that, quite frankly, doesn’t give a sh*t until someone pushes their buttons (see: Beal, Bradley).
The team has an earned arrogance that allows them to play almost as if they feel disrespected they were forced to arrive at an NBA arena and put forth effort prior to May. And honestly, they can get away with it. Golden State doesn’t have legitimate roster issues like Cleveland. They still have four superstars and, where there is genuine concern whether the Cavs have a switch to flip to get back to a championship caliber level, the Warriors most certainly do.
The question is whether they are obligated to care. This is a team that could sleepwalk to the fourth seed in the West and, so long as most everyone is healthy, and still go out and win the title with relative ease. So, who do they owe it to? Mary Babers-Green, Draymond Green’s mother, gave the answer to that question on Twitter following the loss to the Pistons.
https://twitter.com/BabersGreen/status/924838999117660160
Steve Kerr offered a similar diagnosis to the Warriors issues after the game, noting that right now basketball clearly doesn’t “matter enough” to them.
https://twitter.com/dkurtenbach/status/924834168025911296
Babers-Green understands this team doesn’t feel it owes anything to the NBA or even necessarily to the fans to go out and play at its best night in and night out. However, she might be able to appeal to their sense of team and wants them to give full effort for the guys that joined this offseason and don’t have rings on their fingers just yet.
From an outsider’s perspective, the Warriors stumbling out of the gate is fascinating and if it continues it will be tempting to try and figure out if something is actually wrong with them (spoiler: until they fall behind in a playoff series or are somehow in danger of missing the playoffs, the answer is nothing). Internally, I’m sure they can shrug it off as rust and probably have the self-awareness to know they’re not giving full effort, but it’d be amazing if “play hard for Swaggy P” becomes the rallying cry that turns the Warriors back into a juggernaut in the regular season.
