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Kendra Andrews, ESPN
SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors viewed their seven-game home stand as an opportunity to find some rhythm and finally cement themselves as the strong team they believe they are.
But, two games in, and the Warriors have looked outmanned and underwhelming, dropping both games, most recently 132-122 to the Dallas Mavericks on Saturday night.
Two nights prior, they lost to a Miami Heat team with no Jimmy Butler, Kyle Lowry, or Caleb Martin.
Off the court, the Warriors feel that their chemistry is at a high — a stark contrast from a season ago when Golden State pinpointed their poor play to the bad energy in the locker room.
They are confident in the team’s commandery. But sitting with a 15-17 record and in 11th place in the Western Conference, it’s still not translating to the court.
“We haven’t found that grit that every good team needs, where you pull together and you just play for the group,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “We are not there yet. And that’s a problem. We have great guys, but until every team connects in a way that is solely dedicated to winning each game, then we are going to be stuck in this place.”
Golden State has made numerous changes to the lineups and rotation to try and get unstuck.
Kerr changed his starting lineup again against the Mavericks swapping Kevon Looney and Brandin Podziesmki for Trayce Jackson-Davis and Chris Paul.
This switch up, Kerr said, was made to get a defensive boost – an area they have struggled with the last three games. Golden State’s previous starting lineup — Looney, Podziesmki, Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Jonathan Kuminga — the second-worst rating of any five-man lineup in the league that has played at least 89 minutes together.
Part of the issues trace back to the absence of Draymond Green. The rest of it, and the majority of it, though, is just dedication and ability.
But what that lineup did have was an offensive spark that the team desperately needed when he made that initial change.
The additional changes made on Saturday didn’t work.
“We’ve experimented a lot, some for forced reasons, some for us searching for an identity,” Curry said. “We haven’t it collectively. It’s frustrating, for sure, 32 games in. Any team that is a seriously competitive contender, a good team, usually can answer that question. We have to get to that point before it’s too late.
The Warriors allowed the Mavericks to shoot 56% from the floor, their second-highest opponent field goal percentage in a game this season. Dallas also hit six 4. Interior. Luka Doncic scored 39 points on 14-of-29 shooting, including five 3-pointers.
This is Doncic’s 23rd time scoring at least 30 points this season — the most 30-point games through a player’s first 30 games of the year since Michael Jordan in 1986-87.
“We tried to mix it up on him,” Kerr said. “We singled-covered him, we switched, we hit him. We tried a lot of different things but he is a brilliant player, and had a phenomenal game … we weren’t communicating. We had some good stretches when we were getting stops … and then our communication broke down.”
Another reason for the starting lineup change was to put Paul on the floor with Curry, hoping to get Curry easier looks, again, especially with Green out. Curry finished the game with 25 points on 9-of-25 shooting, including six 3-pointers.
This comes off Curry’s 13-point scoring effort against the Heat. Paul also scored 24 points on 9-of-14 shooting to go along with six assists against Dallas.
All of this drove home the message that 32 games into the season, the Warriors don’t feel they have a set group of five players they can put on the court and have the utmost confidence they’ll get the job done.
“It’s tough,” Paul said. “It’s a little bit new to me. But it’s all about winning. Whatever we’ve got to do to figure out how to win, that’s what I’ve been about my entire career. I know these guys are the same … we’ve got a lot of selfless guys on our team. We’ve got a lot of guys with grit. Now we’ve got to figure out how to put it together for 48 minutes.”