The Warriors were back at the scene of their Game 6 win in June on Sunday, and only good juju predominated the atmosphere. Stephen Curry was hoping the same olfactory sense would bubble to his team’s nostrils when they first stepped into the visiting locker room at Quicken Loans Arena.
“Obviously, walking in the locker room, it’ll be good memories,” Curry told Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group. “Hopefully it still smells a little bit like champagne.”
Except, the Warriors — 37-4 after the first half of the season — aren’t feeling as jovial as Steph’s comment and their record might suggest. They got blown out by the Pistons on Saturday night, 113-95, their largest defeat in two seasons when Curry is playing. It was also their second loss in three games after losing to the Nuggets on Wednesday in Denver.
The poor performances over the last week prompted Draymond Green to say, “We need to be better.”
“No need to panic or turn on each other or point the finger,” Green continued. “We all (stunk). And that’s fine. It happens.”
The Dubs have the NBA’s best record, but both Curry and interim coach Luke Walton think they can play a lot better. They better because the Spurs won again on Sunday, pushing them to 36-6, just a game and a half behind the Warriors in the West.
“Thirty-seven and four, I’m pretty happy that it bothers us that we laid an egg last night and some people feel a certain type of way about it, and that’s good for us to try to turn it around,” Curry said on Sunday. “It obviously shows that we’re on a mission to do something big this year.”
Walton felt the same way. “We feel like we can get a lot better, so that’s kind of the way we’re looking at this.”
Despite how hot the Warriors have been to start the season, they can still get sloppy with the ball. They’ve turned it over more than everyone but four teams (Suns, Kings, Rockets and Sixers) and their defense can get lax on occasion. It’s not the time to panic, but the Dubs have work to do.
Symbolically, Monday night’s game in Cleveland presents the perfect opportunity to do just that, right where they covered each other with champagne in June.
