Weel 11 Recap and a Look Ahead

It's been a weird season for Steve Kerr and his Warriors squad. Coming into the year, there were nonstop arguments about this season being the season that "defines Stephen Curry's legacy." Without Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, and so on, this season was supposed to be a measuring stick for the basketball world on Curry's ability to carry a team-- or at least that's what every sports show told us.

Okay, three games into the season, Curry breaks his hand and is sidelined for what some say could be the rest of the season. So scratch that narrative.

From there was born the narrative of "this is a lottery team," who will be lucky to win more than four games before 2020. Then that lottery team beat the Portland Trailblazers. 

So maybe they aren't that terrible. Once Twitter took the time to learn some of the names on Golden State’s roster, instead of referring to them as the Santa Cruz Warriors, the storyline turned into Kerr's inability to coach. Then the Warriors started having extremely close games with teams that were expected to blow them out. So trash that narrative too.

Tanking, the possible return of both Splash Brothers, a playoff push, there have been so many different narratives surrounding this Golden State team that the reality of the Warriors can easily slip away.

Coming off of their best week of the season-- and a Christmas win over the Rockets-- left many fans and haters calling out the fact that the Warriors were just six games back from the eighth seed in the Western Conference. And then the playoff push narrative was born.

That narrative looked so reasonable in the Dubs’ New Year's Eve matchup against San Antonio. Despite coming off a lop-sided loss, the Kerr led group had momentum coming into the game, and that momentum spilled into their offensive punch. 

Alec Burks led the Warriors with 28 points on 9-of-20 shooting from the field. Glenn Robinson III was an efficient scoring machine, with his 25 points coming on a 10-of-17 shooting clip, with a 3-of-5 clip from beyond the arc. Damion Lee was equally efficient, with his 20 points coming on an 8-of-13 clip, 2-of-3 from beyond the arc. The team had plenty of activity in terms of sharing and moving the ball, as evidenced by their 31 assists on 44 made baskets.

But the rollercoaster of a season has been defined with consistent inconsistency, so when their is something good going on for the Warriors, they'll find a way to cancel it out with severe inefficiencies. That day they chose the defensive side to serve as their PEMDAS. They were severely out-rebounded by the Spurs, 53-44. More importantly, the Spurs' 10 offensive rebounds led to a 24-8 advantage in terms of second-chance points. The Warriors rotations were out of sorts most of the game, particularly on the perimeter, where the Spurs shot 14-of-31 (45.2 percent) from the three. 

Arguably the most significant factor of the game was bench scoring. The Spurs bench put up 43 points, as compared to the Warriors bench output of 23 points. If anybody knows anything about the Spurs, or basketball, you do not want to go into overtime on the road. And what did the Warriors do? They went into overtime in San Antonio. 

To save time on some reading, I'll tell you that it didn't work out in the Warriors' favor. 

But despite taking the L, Dub Nation was still optimistic about where they stood-- citing Curry's re-evaluation date and recent Thompson workout videos and saying that the Splash Brothers are coming back sooner than later.

Then a new, somewhat shocking, or maybe just plain weird development happened. A story broke that the Warriors were eyeing Karl Anthony Town for a potential trade. This created a hell storm of questions and photoshops spiraling around the internet. 

Who would Myers give up? D'Angelo? Draymond? The entire bench and a copy machine? Those questions have not been answered, Towns has not played since the rumor started, and the Dubs played the Timberwolves and didn't have the best of showings.

But despite losing in Minnesota, one good thing did come out of the game. A fan did his best to recruit Russell, who has been sidelined for the game, telling Russell that "it's not always this bad." The exchange with D’Lo and the fan went semi-viral on social media via fan video. Okay, some fan-player interaction is getting out of hand, but this… this I will stan.

After a lackluster performance in Minnesota, the Dubs traveled to Detroit to take on a Blake Griffin-less Pistons. For much of the game, it was a back and forth affair with Green, basically playing and delivering as the point guard.

One of Green's best traits-- and probably his most known-- as an NBA player is the fiery emotion he plays with. That emotion sets him as a prominent leader on and off the court for the Dubs. More so, that emotion often collects him a technical foul or two.

During the Warriors Saturday night tilt against the Detroit Pistons, Green was issued a technical foul by referee Tre Maddox. Green seemed upset after the first technical-- seemingly mocking Maddox-- and quickly received a second, triggering an ejection late in the third quarter. 

Even without Green, who had been the Warriors playmaker on both sides of the ball, the Dubs found themselves in another close road game. 

Mid-way through the fourth, the Warriors reeled off 11 unanswered points behind Burks, who scored seven of them and added an assist.

A putback dunk with two minutes in the fourth put Detroit up by five, 87-82. After an empty possession, the Pistons scored again sparking 7-0 run. The Warriors couldn't mount a rally from that point.

On the court, it's the same choppy flow with a different beat. Late game offensive execution inconsistencies, weak perimeter defense down the stretch, and injury woes are the Dubs downfall, basically in 90% of their losses.

But that's not the biggest focus right now. With the trade deadline looming and the future in mind-- at least for management and some fans-- reviewing which assets to keep and which assets to possible give away is the current reality of the Dubs.

Robinson, Russell, Paschall, an unprotected first-rounder that the Dub may very well have are all moveable pieces whose names have been thrown around as of late.

As the Dubs enter this week of basketball-- which features the Bucks and Clippers-- each game is a try-out for the current players on the roster. Who should stay, who has trade value, and more importantly do the Warriors even need to bring someone in. 

All of that probably will not be answered this week, at least from a fan perspective. The fans will get an exciting week, although.

The Bucks come to San Francisco Wednesday before the Dubs go down to La La Land for a showdown against a maybe Kawhi led Clippers… we'll see how he feels. From there, the Dubs will travel to Memphis to face the Grizzlies who have been playing a highlight factory level of winning basketball of late.

Before any of that, the Dubs have a Monday night matchup in Sacramento against Kings. You can catch the Warriors Kings game Monday night at 7 PST on NBC Bay Area.