Week 8 Recap and a Look Ahead

“It’s almost impossible to do that”, Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr said. “It shows you how poorly we played. Our decision-making was awful. ... It was an embarrassing loss tonight.”

No, this is not a snippet of Kerr’s postgame media availability following the Dubs’ two-point loss to the New York Knicks… but it sums up the week.

Coming off of a win against none other than the Chicago Bulls, warranting the weekend off, the Dubs’ week 8 schedule seemed fairly doable-- with the possibility of at least coming out 2-2. Considering the Warriors have already beat the Memphis Grizzlies and the Knicks are, well, the Knicks, coming at least  2-2 should have been week 8’s outcome.

Well, Memphis’ rookie sensation, Ja Morant, returned to their lineup after missing some time and lets just say that was all she wrote. 

Morant scored 26 points and added seven assists in a 110-102 victory over the Warriors. Alec Burks and D’Angelo Russell both scored 17 points in the losing effort, with Russell going 6-22 from the field. As a team the Dubs shot 38% from the field and looked out of sync on both ends of the court from start to finish.

“I honestly think we just (messed) around with the game,” Draymond Green said. “We’re not good enough to do that. Our transition defense is bad. We played pretty horrible the entire game. It was definitely disappointing.”

The next game is the one that the general basketball world will probably define as “definitely disappointing.” The Dubs faced off against the New York Knicks in San Francisco. The Knicks who again always find ways to Knick, were on a 10-game losing streak that featured a classic Stephen A. Smith rant, the birth of the saying “The Knicks are gonna Knick,” and the firing of a league favorite head coach David Fizdale. Again, the Knicks are going to Knick.

With all of that, and some other stuff, said, the Warriors found a way to go into overtime with the Knicks. Not only did they go into OT, they had to climb back from a 21-point deficit.

"At halftime we were down 18, and we were sort of lifeless," Kerr said. "We got back in the game pretty quickly in the third quarter. That's a good lesson for young players in this league. It's a really long game and you have to stay with it."

Kudos to the Golden State for not getting routed in the game between the league’s worst two teams-- record wise. The Warriors fought back, behind a 32-point effort by D’Angelo Russell, who hit the tying bucket to force OT.  The extra period belonged to New York, obviously considering the outcome.

I’m not sure if that game deserves to be talked about more or thrown away… so we’ll just move onto Friday night’s game in Utah. Despite Utah being one of the predicted Western Conference favorites, that game gave the Warriors a lot of positives coming out.

Golden State lost despite outscoring Utah 52-12 in bench points. Still, the Warriors showed enough promise to make head coach Steve Kerr believe they are turning a corner.

"So, I like where we're heading. I really do," Kerr said. "I know that may sound crazy, because of our record, but I think we're going to start winning some games. I think we're getting better."

Golden State got a big lift from its bench starting in the waning minutes of the first quarter. The Warriors held Utah without a basket over the final four minutes of the quarter. That opened the door for a 9-0 run, capped by a step-back jumper from Russell just a few seconds into the second quarter that gave Golden State a 31-22 lead.  The game was a back and forth affair until Bojan Bogdanovic and Donovan Mitchell hit back-to-back threes late in the fourth to seal the win.

The Dubs looked as if they were turning a corner, giving some fans and their head coach some hope. That all changed Sunday night against the Sacramento Kings.

Rolling out their 14th different starting lineup Sunday night-- because if it’s broke you probably should fix it-- the Warriors looked to feed off of the positives found in the Jazz loss. 

Golden State was 6 of 25 from 3-point range Sunday and matched its season low for points in a game. Sacramento turned the ball over 29 times, yet the Warriors couldn't make the Kings pay.

"I've never seen a box score like this, where we forced 29 turnovers but lost by 21 points," Kerr said. "It shows you how poorly we played. Our decision-making was awful. It was an embarrassing loss tonight."

Willie Cauley-Stein, facing his former team, led the Warriors with 14 points on 7-for-9 shooting. 

Yes, 14-points was the team high… 

Sacramento ended all doubt after halftime, outscoring the Warriors 28-17 for the third quarter to command a 79-59 lead.

The week was another week of consistent inconsistency. When the team’s defense looked good, they couldn’t shoot over 35%. When their offense looked good, they couldn’t defend their own shadows. In Kerr’s case, he is constantly putting out a fire just to see another one was lit somewhere else.

Looking ahead, the Dubs have a short week coming up-- going to Portland Wednesday then back home to face the Pelicans Friday.

Even though I said this last week about the Knicks, the Friday night’s game against Pelicans is an extremely winnable game that may also feature some high scoring-- probably not because of impeccable defense but beggars can't be choosers.

But before the Dubs can get there, they have Damien Lillard and Cj McCallum Wednesday night. The last time the Golden State saw the two stars, they sent them home with Twitter on their heads about losing to a group of rookies and former G-leaguers. Before that loss the Warriors sent Dame and CJ home in the playoffs, so this is very well a revenge game for Portland.

The Warriors and Trailblazers tip off at 7 PST on NBC Bay Area.