Warriors’ Road Incompetence Has Reached Concerning Levels! What Is The Problem?

The Golden State Warriors recently went on a five-game winning streak, during which they were accustomed to falling far down before battling their way back and stealing victories. It appears that they become a bit too accustomed to it.

Warriors’ Road Incompetence Has Reached Concerning Levels! What Is The Problem?

The Warriors flew a little bit too near to the sun on Tuesday when playing the Oklahoma City Thunder. They neglected the fact that they are unable to win games on the road and must instead rely on different comebacks.

They got out to a massive early deficit, down 13-2 after only a few minutes of play, as has been the recent tendency. Both the offence and the defence played poorly. Yet they showed that they could easily rejoin the fight. The Dubs stormed back into the game, erasing the double-digit lead and replacing it with their own lead while still in the first quarter thanks to energy bursts from Jonathan Kuminga (who started in place of Kevon Looney) and Andre Iguodala (who was playing in his second straight game after returning from injury).

After that, they promptly gave it all back, conceding a Thunder run, and the first quarter ended with them down 40-30. Yeah, there were several double-digit deficits during the first quarter.

Steph Curry opened the second quarter with a barrage of incredible shots in just his second game back after missing a month due to a lower body ailment. But, the Warriors followed it up with a tonne of carelessness, and the Thunder increased their advantage to 14.

And as expected, the Warriors returned to the fray. This time, Curry’s brilliance and the tenacity and agility of Jordan Poole and Kuminga helped the Warriors retake the lead with the help of a 19-2 run. The Thunder overcame a second double-digit hole, but a fourth quarter-ending rally by OKC gave them a four-point advantage at the break.

Yet, the Warriors have recently done their best work in the third quarter, and for a brief period of time, it appeared like they would do it once more. The carelessness that had characterised a large portion of the first half vanished. The lethargy followed. It was simple to anticipate Golden State grabbing the lead and not looking back with a little decline in performance from the Thunder’s shooters in the first half (OKC went 13-for-25 from beyond the arc).

Why the Warriors can’t win on the road?

The statistics show that the Warriors are a solid defensive club away from home and an average offensive squad. On the road, they have continued to be an average offensive club, but their defence deteriorates dramatically.

Only the Spurs (120.9) and Rockets (121.2), two teams seeking to win the NBA Draft Lottery and not looking to contend for a title like Golden State, have a lower defensive rating than the Warriors when playing away from home with an average of 119.7 points per 100 possessions.

“The biggest thing we see is just we’re so much better defensively at home,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said earlier in the month. “The numbers show that. I can’t tell you exactly why, but we know that the answer to all of this is in our defense. You can’t expect to trade baskets on the road and go win a game. You gotta get stops.

“This team has always been strong defensively and we’ve got to figure out a way to make that defense travel.”

The Warriors had lost 36 straight road games when they had allowed at least 110 points until Monday’s victory against the Rockets. It ranks as the fourth-longest such stretch in NBA history, per ESPN Stats & Information.

What led to their defensive deterioration? They don’t rebound as effectively, they turn the ball over somewhat more, and they concede a few more points in the paint, among other things, but 3-point shooting sticks out the most.

The Warriors have limited opponents’ outside shooting at home to 32.4 percent. The league’s most punishing mark is that. The Warriors had the poorest road record in the NBA, trailing only the Spurs (41.3%) in the percentage of 3-pointers made by opponents.

How the Warriors play by location (NBA.com)
Location Offensive rating Defensive rating Net rating
Home 115.7 108.0 7.7
Road 112.9 119.7 -6.7

 

There is a lot of chance and bad luck at play in those statistics, but plays like the one below, in which Grizzlies centre Xavier Tillman draws two defenders on a cut to the basket before passing the ball to David Roddy for a wide-open three, stand out.

Some of Golden State’s most crucial players haven’t been as accessible this season on the road as they have been at home, as Zach Kram of The Ringer noted. More Ty Jerome, Anthony Lamb, Moses Moody, and Jonathan Kuminga have resulted from the absence of Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.

Kuminga has been the Warriors’ lone bright light, but Lamb, Moody, and Jerome lack some of the players’ last season’s roster’s veteran leadership.

That still doesn’t explain why the gap between how opponents shoot against the Warriors at home and away is as large as it is, but it could be a factor.

Another factor could be that the Warriors simply aren’t as locked in on the road.

“Quite frankly, I think, and I’ve said this before, I think winning on the road requires an incredible amount of mental strength and it’s not just one guy whose mental strength or two guys or a few guys,” Green said. “It’s a collective mental strength as a team and quite frankly, it just seems that we have not reached that as a team, to be as great as we are at home.”

Warriors players by location (2022-23 season)
Player Home PPG Home FG% Road PPG Road FG%
Stephen Curry 28.9 50.5 30.5 49.3
Klay Thompson 24.8 44.9 18.9 42.0
Draymond Green 7.6 48.3 9.3 57.6
Andrew Wiggins 18.6 50.9 15.6 43.3
Jordan Poole 20.1 42.5 20.3 42.6
Kevon Looney 7.4 63.8 7.1 64.7
Donte DiVincenzo 9.1 45.8 9.6 39.0
Jonathan Kuminga 8.8 55.4 10.4 47.6

FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE-

NBA   

 NFL  

MLB