Kyle Lowry and Draymond Green in Oracle Arena Monday night, Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images
December 12, 2018 — The Warriors were beat DOWN Wednesday night against Toronto, man was it bad. Not to mention, Raptors did this without Kawhi Leonard who was out due to a sore hip.
Let’s recap the Warriors shall we:
Steph Curry had 10 points
Klay Thompson 14
Kevin Durant 30
The Warriors didn’t start the game off too strong, Durant said in the post game interview “We didn’t start with a sense of urgency.” It felt like they thought they had this game in the bag before it even started, which was obviously not the case. The rhythm of the team was off, not too many properly executed shots and the passing seemed to decline as the game came to a close.
Durant was the main scorer when Curry was injured, scoring a nice 40+ in three games. When Curry returned to Oracle on Monday night, he proved he was still the same epic shooter as always. Here is a nice clip vs the Timberwolves (W).
Another issue: the turnovers man. 19 scored points for the Raptors off 17 turnovers. Warriors were sloppy with the ball and took too many quick shots. Their usual style is to pass the ball around and make the defense hustle, but when the team is down the entire game their main focus is the score and not the fluidity between the team. Usually there is a third quarter comeback from the Warriors, but that was far from attainable.
Toronto outplayed the Warriors the entire game. Shoot, they played like the Warriors. Great ball control, fiery offense and they used Warrior mistakes to their advantage. “Give our guys credit, they came in ready to play and they fought with great intensity. We knew it was going to be a challenge for us and I thought that Kyle did a phenomenal job leading the team. He is an All-Star, no doubt.” (Toronto assistant Adrian Griffin, ESPN.com)
The major discussion point among analyst is that it is still very early in the season, and the Warriors can use to L to adjust their game for the future. I think when the team is hot they are unstoppable. But KD didn’t require the entire team to be on fire when Curry was injured. He was always the turning point when he felt the team was not performing at their best. Seems like when Curry is down, it’s hard to get everyone going., except KD. He ensures that he takes his shots and plays hard till he’s off the court, that’s usually when we see him ball out and carry the team to a win in the end.
Warriors take on the Kings in Sacramento on Friday night which will be another tough match up. Kings have been an amazing team lately, even KD commented on their rhythm and drive in his post game interview when the Dubs beat them in OT by one point, (not too easily I might add). Friday will be a fun game to watch. People believe KD is moving to Sacramento but I DON’T!!
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