Golden State Warriors: Explaining the Loss to the Clippers

After the Golden State Warriors got swept in their two-game road trip in Los Angeles, Draymond Green, the Warriors’ “heartbeat” according to head coach Steve Kerr, spoke to the media about why the Warriors lost their second consecutive game, this time to the Los Angeles Clippers.

"“I didn’t think we were intense, as far as that fire,” he said. “But I don’t think they were, either. I don’t know what the cause of it was. Maybe everybody was a little too jolly. But it was too nice. It was boring. I’m sure that wasn’t the prime-time game everybody expected.“I’m not saying you have to have all the elbows and all that crazy stuff. You don’t have to have all of that. But the battle? It just wasn’t there.”“It’s no secret we don’t like them. And it’s no secret they don’t like us. I don’t know why the game was that nice, trying to act like we like each other. And we don’t.”"

One of Green’s teammates, Stephen Curry, and Green’s head coach, Kerr, also commented on the game, but they didn’t speak with quite as much fiery passion as the Green did.

Here’s what Curry and Kerr had to say:

"“We just kind of got a little lax and gave up the lead,” Stephen Curry said. “And that was tough to come back from.”…“It happens to everybody,” Kerr said. “You go through spells for whatever reason. Things change. Lineups change, injuries, whatever, fatigue. So you hit a rough patch and you’ve got to find a way to get back off the mat and get going again.”"

Kerr also suggested that the Warriors simply didn’t execute and weren’t aggressive enough in last night’s loss.

The Warriors have certainly lacked an intensity or a “fire,” as Green said, in their last two games. It’s hard to explain why though. The Warriors have shown their toughness and determination on many occasions this season, so it is a bit puzzling why they looked so lost and unlike themselves in these past two games.

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The Warriors have a six-game homestand coming up, and their next two games are against the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Philadelphia 76ers. These are two opponents that the Warriors should beat, given their inferior records, and because of this, these next two games will serve as a good test for the Warriors.

This sounds odd, given the fact that these games should be winnable, but if the Warriors win these games, they can prove that they have learned from their mistakes from the past two games. They need to not play down to their opponents, especially because the Timberwolves and the 76ers will both give the Warriors their best shots.

Excluding a game against the Indiana Pacers, the Warriors play tough opponents throughout the rest of the upcoming six-game stretch. They have games against the Toronto Raptors, the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Cleveland Cavaliers. These games will obviously be tests too and more opportunities for the Warriors to get back to their dominant ways.

We’ll see how they respond to the challenge.

Next: Answering Warriors Questions About David Lee, Andrew Bogut, etc.

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