Curry couldn't seem to believe the fact that the Warriors were losing streak.
Facing the Orlando Magic, who are bottom of the East, the defending champions are still struggling to win on the road.
On November 4, in the Amway Arena in Orlando, the Warriors and the Magic fought until the last minute, but still lost to the Magic by 1 point. The Warriors' "Splash Brothers" hit a total of 15 three-pointers, but Curry's two fatal errors in the final two minutes killed the team's chances of a comeback.
The Warriors have lost six of their nine games so far this season, including five road trips, and the Warriors have not won a single one. The Warriors became the first defending champion since 1957 to lose all of their first five road games of the new season.
"I feel like we're a little bit in a 'championship hangover' now." After a five-game losing streak on the road, Warriors coach Kerr threw out that conclusion.
"Championship hangover" is a term commonly used in North American professional sports circles to describe a sudden decline in form for a championship-winning team the following season. So, what's the problem with the Warriors?
Curry can only watch the Magic's youngsters celebrate victory.
Defense is worse than losing streaks
In Orlando, the Warriors actually have a chance to win their first road win of the new season. When the game was more than seven minutes into the third quarter, the Warriors had a 16-point advantage at one point.
Thompson, who had previously been severely limited in playing time, played his best individual performance of the season, hitting three consecutive three-pointers as soon as the game started, and he played 34 minutes for a season-high 27 points.
In the final moments of the game, it was his difficult three-point shooting that allowed the Warriors to keep the opportunity to turn over in the final five seconds.
On the other hand, although Curry made two mistakes in the final two minutes, judging by the performance of the whole game, Curry has done everything that the core of the team can do - played 38 minutes, scored 39 points, nine assists and three rebounds, shooting nearly 60% from the field and 53.3% from three-point range.
In Green's words, "Curry and Thompson both made 15 three-pointers, which would have been enough for us to win the game." Unfortunately, the Warriors still lost, and they lost to the bottom team in the East.
This may also be why the Warriors' five-game losing streak away from home in the new season has sparked such a big discussion on social networks, and the season seems to have started particularly badly compared to the previous "downhill steps":
In addition to losing to the Suns, who are ranked first in the West, and the Heat, who are ranked ninth in the East, the remaining three losses, the Warriors lost to the Hornets, who are ranked 12th in the East, and the Pistons and Magic, who are ranked bottom in the East, and these teams have experienced more or less shortages of major players.
You know, the Pistons and Magic have won 2 games each so far, one of which is "Send Warmth" from the defending champion.
Curry, Green and Thompson were on the sidelines to discuss countermeasures.
"The problem is our defense, we have to correct the defense." In the post-match press conference, Green mentioned defense, and this keyword also appeared in head coach Kerr's post-game interview, "I think even our main players are not able to defend well. ”
As Green and Kerr say, defensively exposed problems are more intractable than five consecutive road losses — according to NBA official statistics, after nine games, the Warriors conceded an average of 122.2 points per game, ranking first in the league, and in the six games lost, the Warriors conceded 126 points.
In fact, the Warriors' offense is still the top in the league, and they can average 118.8 points per game this season, first in the league. But such a smooth and efficient attack still can't fill the holes on the defensive end.
The consecutive losses caused by the full of defensive holes and too many points are actually a direct reflection of the team's lack of chemistry.
As Curry said after the losing streak, "When Green and Looney weren't on the floor, our defense was too quiet." To be honest, our biggest problem is the lack of communication. ”
Curry signed autographs for courtside fans.
The young men of the warriors began to "gnaw old"?
This season, the Warriors basically retained last season's championship-winning roster, and Kerr will still use a rotation of about 11 players in the game, but the advantage in the number of players on the court is difficult to translate into victory this time.
In fact, according to NBA official statistics, when the Warriors started with Curry, Thompson, Green, Wiggins and Looney as the starting lineup, the Warriors achieved 129.2 offensive efficiency in eight games, 105 defensive efficiency and 24.1 net efficiency in eight games, ranking first in the league.
However, when Kerr began to rotate personnel in the game, the Warriors gradually became another team, and became a weak team with low offensive and defensive efficiency.
Take, for example, the Magic, who lost to the bottom of the Eastern Conference. Throughout the game, the Warriors' starting five had positive plus-minus efficiency, with the lowest Wiggins having +3 and the highest Thompson being +13, but other than that, all the benches except for Ty Jerome's +3 were negative.
Poole's plus-minus is -10, Jermichael Green -15 – that is, when the main player is off, the substitute is in a state of "digging" in the loss.
After signing a big contract, Poole (left) suddenly plummeted in form.
If "one round" doesn't explain anything, stretch the timeline.
Since the new season, according to statistics from the data website Statmuse, the Warriors have the highest efficiency value so far is Looney, with a cumulative plus-minus of +60 in nine games, and the "Splash Brothers" are second and third, with a plus-minus of +33, followed by Wiggins at +21 and Green at +20.
After these starters, Baldwin, who played only one game, played less than one minute, and did not contribute any stats, became the dividing line with a plus or minus of 0, and after him, the efficiency of the rest of the Warriors players was negative.
The lowest was Jordan Poole, with a cumulative plus-minus of -85 for nine games, while the three youngsters the team was trying to develop, Wiseman (-66), Kuminga (-44) and Moody (-28), were equally miserable.
How did the young warriors suddenly become "gnawing old"?
The American media The Athletic mentioned the "embarrassment" of the Warriors' young people in an article titled "Kerr is trying to find a way to mend the Warriors' winless road-going streak."
The most typical example is the "star of hope" Wiseman on the inside, when the 21-year-old "leader" knew how to control fouls, Kerr gave him more playing time, but he was always at a disadvantage in interior confrontation, and even let opponents steal five rebounds in one fell swoop against Stewart.
In that 14-point loss to the Pistons, Looney could even be heard yelling from the sidelines: "Try hard, Wiseman." ”
Wiseman is still embarrassed.
But when the U.S. media threw the pressure of losing on the Warriors' bench, especially the youngsters on the roster, Kerr and Green took the responsibility to de-pressure the youngsters.
"The last few games have been tough for Wiseman, but I believe in him." When it comes to Wiseman, Cole gives encouragement, "I like his talent, his attitude, there are no shortcuts to success. ”
And Green, who has always been outspoken, is also speaking for the young players, including Poole, "I'm not going to sit here and accuse young people, that's not the style of our team. In fact, part of their responsibility for the team's defeat is part of ours, but part of our responsibility, including Curry and Thompson. ”
'Young people have things to do wrong, but those mistakes are no bigger than those of us old players.'
What adjustments will Cole make?
When will the "champion hangover" faint
Despite the Warriors' awkward situation, judging by the speeches of the coach to the core players, the atmosphere and morale of the team have not been ruined by the loss.
"Now every team can't wait to play with us, we are the defending champions but at a less than ideal stage, so they can't wait to beat us. If we still can't defend and foul all the time, we're getting more and more dangerous. ”
After five consecutive away defeats, coach Kerr is still the clear-thinking "brain of the team", and in his opinion, when a team has a group of young players and some new signings that only joined this season, any mature system needs to take time to reposition each player in the defensive end.
'We have to find an effective second squad and we will make changes in the next games.'
And change still starts on the defensive end.
As Kerr said, when the Warriors are clear about where each player is on defense, they must stop those worthless fouls.
In the loss to the Magic, the Warriors put Magic players at the free throw line 46 times, and the Magic scored 33 points on free throws alone, while the Warriors team had only 15 free throws in this game.
According to NBCSports, this is the Warriors' largest free throw gap in the game since 2013.
In addition, problems can erupt at the beginning of the season, and it is much better to always concentrate on the game until mid-to-late season, not to mention that the Warriors are already good at solving problems.
The Warriors' second lineup needs to bounce back.
As Curry said, the Warriors players know where they are and they have to work hard, "We have a lot of problems at the moment, but it's clear that we're going to fix them." ”
And the current situation the Warriors are in is indeed a bit like what Coach Kerr called a "championship hangover."
The core of the team is in order, the stars are in an ideal competitive state, but the whole team is struggling in chaos, like a person who can feel his hangover but can only wait for his body to adjust himself.
"I tell my players that we have to save ourselves because no one is going to help us or change us." That's Coach Kerr's advice to Warriors players.
Obviously, with the Warriors' current championship base and the eye-catching talent of young players, they are still the strongest in the league, but the question is, how long will such an adjustment take?