In the away game against the Heat, the Golden State Warriors lost 109-114, suffering a three-game losing streak, and their road record this season has reached 0-4, and the overall record is only 3-5, only 12th in the West, last season's championship, but this season has become an away bug, the prospect of defending the title is indeed worrying.
It is worth mentioning that Warriors star Stephen Curry performed well in this game, playing 34 minutes, shooting 7-of-14, including 4-of-10 three-pointers and 5-of-5 free throws, with 23 points, 13 rebounds, 13 assists and 1 steal. After the game, Warriors statistics media Warriors Muse tweeted that since the start of the season, Curry has ranked first on the team in points, rebounds, assists, steals, three-point shots and free throws. In response, Warriors Muse writes: "Still not enough... The Warriors are currently 3-5. ”
This reflects the Warriors' woes this season, and Curry has not been bad, averaging 31 points, 6.7 rebounds, 5.6 assists and 1.4 steals so far this season. But the Warriors just can't win, their ups and downs can't be explained by practice, and a brutal statistic is that the Warriors' bench is so bad today. Take this game, the Warriors' starting five players all have positive plus-minus, of which the Looney Warriors have a maximum of +11, Wiggins +8, Green +7, Thompson +6, and Curry +3. The bench players all had negative plus-minus, with Poole having the lowest -23 and Jermichael Green -22.
The typical main force plays desperately, and the substitute sends desperately. Speaking about the team's struggles this season, Warriors head coach Kerr said: "This is not the same team as last year, this is a new team. We need to find a way to solve the current problem. Like I said, I need our fight tonight. If we keep fighting like this and figure things out, we'll be fine. ”
Although both Kerr and Curry think the team will solve the problem, their problems are not as easy to solve as expected. Two of the players need to be "taken care of" by the team. First of all, Poole, who has been completely incapable of playing this season since completing a four-year, $140 million early contract extension with the Warriors, has led the bench to a nightmare effect, playing 30 minutes in this game, shooting 3-of-10 from the field, 1-of-7 from three-point range, with 9 points, 2 boards, 2 assists and 5 turnovers.
So far this season, Poole has averaged 29 minutes per game, with 16.8 points, 1.6 rebounds and 5 assists, which looks like good statistics, but it should be noted that Poole is now gradually a bit "playing big cards", sometimes on the court, even need Curry and Thompson, Wiggins and others to make way for him, the offensive end is a little alone, and the defensive end is more casual. Offensive efficiency of 103.1 ranks 206th in the league, defensive efficiency of 118.8 ranks 229th in the league, and net efficiency of -15.7 ranks 237th in the league.
To put it simply, Poole is now a player with good numbers but extremely poor efficiency. Seeing the current Poole, the Warriors don't know if they will regret renewing his contract early? Do you think the four-year contract of 140 million is too big? Can such Poole really be Curry's successor? But the Warriors now regret the night, and from the moment they renewed Poole's contract and gave up Green, it had fueled Poole's arrogance, and this season Poole could have been a pair of money, afraid of something.
In contrast, in the previous boxing goal, Green, which is equivalent to being "abandoned" by the Warriors, is still playing in the Warriors, but the whole person is in the wrong state. In this game, Green played 32 minutes, scoring 5 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 3 steals on 2-of-3 shooting, and remained the core of the team's defense. So far this season, Green is averaging 9 points, 6 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game, but his offense ranks 53rd in the league, 146th in defensive efficiency and 79th in net efficiency, and if the Warriors don't have Green's defense this season, they could collapse even more completely.
But attentive fans should also find that this season's Green has become a lot silent on the court, in the past he always shouted on the court, directed teammates to run and defend, and infected the team with his passion, but since the Warriors chose Poole between him and Poole, Green has become cautious, and may even be disheartened, that is, boring his own play, brushing data, regardless of the rest, and without Green's command and dispatch, the Warriors have become like a scattered sand.
In this way, Green is actually more valuable than Poole, but unfortunately in this era of offense and light defense, Poole is destined to be more loved by the Warriors than Green, but the Warriors' premature choice may really usher in a backlash, Poole may have smashed his hands, and Green may not be able to stay.