One of the best things about the Golden State Warriors building a superteam to try and win back the NBA championship is the amount of overreaction to every loss. This time, their 24-point collapse against the Memphis Grizzlies, along with Kevin Durant choking and Draymond Green yelling at him made their loss especially delicious to those who wait for one to happen every night.
Kevin Durant Calling for an ISO, Draymond Green Gets Angry, Durant Misses
Warriors Keep Losing to the Good Teams (Cavaliers, Spurs, Rockets, Grizzlies). 0-5 against them.
Warriors lose 128-119. Fall to 31-6 on the season. Now 0-5 against San Antonio, Cleveland, Memphis, Houston. Memphis ends game on 49-21 run.
— Tim Bontemps (@TimBontemps) January 7, 2017
And here’s Draymond yelling at Durant after that play. He wanted a pick & roll, but Durant forced the ISO on the team
Steve Kerr actually addressed that specific possession and reaction in the postgame press conference
People love to blame Westbrook for post-game collapses and not being clutch. They’re not wrong, he isn’t. But Durant is awful this season with the game on the line, and was a huge part of the Thunder blowing that 3-1 lead in May-June of 2016.
Kevin Durant is now 0-for-9 in ISO plays in 5-point games under 5 minutes to go.
— Hardwood Paroxysm (@HPbasketball) January 7, 2017
There was an Ethan Strauss article before the season began about how Draymond Green is the most important piece on this Warriors team, and the most volatile, the one who can break it all apart. Now what remains to be seen is whether or not Durant responds positively to getting scolded by Green, or does this lead to some unwanted fallout
How big was the Warriors collapse? They scored only 13 points in the fourth quarter, losing by nine in overtime. They made only two field goals in the fourth, both of them by Curry. How unlikely was the Grizzlies coming back from that deficit? Close to impossible.
NBA teams have lost 662 consecutive games when trailing by at least 19 points entering 4th quarter.
Grizzlies can snap that with a win
— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) January 7, 2017
Green had more to say, criticizing the team and his coach. Remember the Strauss article? It mentioned a number of times how fragile things are between Green and Kerr
Green: “Klay’s just standing. Not his fault. It’s Steve’s fault. It’s my fault as a floor general. It’s Steph’s fault as a floor general.”
— Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) January 7, 2017
For those who didn’t watch, here is Mike Conley knocking down the huge shot over Green, and then the Warriors falling apart even more in overtime
The new death lineup isn’t working. Just like in the playoffs last year it had a lot of problems
And we close with a tweet from Strauss about Durant’s reaction to how Green yelled at him. Seems like he accepts that he shouldn’t have run that ISO
KD on Draymond’s words for him after that 2nd to last play in regulation: “We should have stuck with the pick and roll”
— Ethan Strauss (@SherwoodStrauss) January 7, 2017