Easy pic.twitter.com/pIePphxlcj
— KNBR (@KNBR) December 30, 2017
OAKLAND–The “boring” version of the Warriors have probably played their last game for awhile.
On Friday evening, Golden State head coach Steve Kerr announced that point guard Steph Curry is poised to return on Saturday evening, setting the stage for his first appearance in more than three weeks after Curry sprained his ankle on December 4 in New Orleans.
From a wins and losses perspective, the Warriors haven’t needed Curry on the floor. He would have helped stave off an ugly 111-100 loss against the Charlotte Hornets on Friday, but since his injury, Golden State is 9-2. From a pure entertainment standpoint, though, the Warriors have desperately missed one of the most exciting players in all of basketball.
Against a struggling Hornets’ squad, the Warriors once again suffered through stretches of sloppy play, had trouble shooting from beyond the arc and needed to rely on their defense to remain competitive. During Curry’s absence, no team in the NBA has shot a lower percentage from three-point range, and it’s not just because the world’s best shooter isn’t hoisting. Kerr said the Warriors’ shots aren’t as open as they once were, underscoring the need for a lightning-quick guard who heats up faster than a cookie in a microwave.
Sure, Golden State still has Klay Thompson, the other “Splash Brother” who dumped in 13 points in the game’s first five and a half minutes on Friday, but Thompson is prone to disappearing from time to time. After a hot start, Thompson wasn’t heard from much.
Bottoms.
Klay's got 13 though the first six minutes #Warriors pic.twitter.com/oau3SXDb7C
— KNBR (@KNBR) December 30, 2017
The one Warriors player who’s single-handedly willed the team throughout Curry’s absence is Kevin Durant, but on Friday, the team’s 7-foot wunderkind finally began to show signs of fatigue. After blocking at least two shots in each of Golden State’s previous 10 games, the leading candidate for the NBA’s Defensive Player of the Year didn’t register a single swat on the defensive end.
After losing a “trap” game against Denver on December 23, Golden State rebounded with a hard-fought win over Cleveland before thumping Utah on Wednesday night at home. The Warriors haven’t left the state of California since the first week of December, so Golden State doesn’t have the excuse of travel time on its side either. Instead, they just left their juice back at home, and overlooked a Hornets that’s not even a factor in the Eastern Conference playoff picture.
As improbable as it was for the Hornets to walk into Oracle and pick up their third win of the season, it might have been more unlikely that the play of Dwight Howard was what put Charlotte over the top. Against a Warriors’ team possessing rim protectors like Durant, Draymond Green and Jordan Bell, Howard poured in 27 points, grabbed 12 board and added seven assists in a throwback effort that made him look like the player Golden State yearned for in free agency back in 2013.