SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors have been a difficult team to figure out this season, for fans, media and even the players themselves.
The Jekyll-Hyde theme of the 2023-24 season continued Friday night when the Indiana Pacers rolled into town and left as the only NBA team that is unbeaten at Chase Center following their 123-111 victory.
What already was an uphill battle to improve their positioning in the Western Conference before the playoffs begin in less than a month quickly has become a much more difficult trek.
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And everyone is wondering how to fix it.
Coach Steve Kerr said the Pacers had the upper hand physically and out-competed the Warriors. That has to be a serious concern with so little time left in the regular season.
Despite that, Kerr said he’s confident in his squad’s outlook the rest of the way.
“There’s nothing I need to recalibrate,” Kerr said. “We know who our team is, We just have to stay with it. Just got to keep plugging away.”
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It was a frustrating night all around for the Warriors, who have been up and down most of the 2023-24 season.
Even more frustrating is that Golden State seems to be still searching for answers.
Answers to an offense that was erratic and malfunctioned frequently against the Pacers. Answers to a defense that has been allowing far too many open looks from the perimeter and easy drives down the lane. Answers for a team that at times has appeared poised to make a deep playoff run and at others has played like a team not even fit for the play-in portion of the postseason.
Simply put, too many questions and not enough answers.
“We’re still figuring it out,” Chris Paul said. “It’s been such an up-and-down season. We’ll have a great game where we got everything going, defending and making shots. And then we’ll have a game like tonight.
“For us, we got to figure out how to play right. We got to compete and we got to win. Every game now we’re fighting for a chance at the playoffs. We’ve got a chance. That’s what you want.”
Most everyone on Golden State was quick to credit the Pacers for how they played.
However, the Warriors repeatedly hurt themselves with self-inflicted errors and, at times, a lack of focus to the "little things."
“We always talk about us in the margins,” Stephen Curry said. “You can just run around and run crazy, but if you don’t actually execute and do the details, especially defensively, you can give effort but you’re not focused mentally. That’s disappointing in terms of the effort that we had tonight.
“A tough one for sure. Got plenty of games left to right the ship. Just a matter of if we can do it.”
Like his teammates, Curry has no answer to what is factoring into the Warriors’ inconsistencies.
“I wish I knew, because then we’d be able to get ahead of it,” Curry said. “It’s not a great position to be in, especially when every game matters and every game counts. There needs to be a sense of urgency in how we finish this last stretch of games. I wish I knew, though.”
Curry, like Kerr, also remains confident in the Dubs being able to salvage the remainder of the season.
“Our challenge for this team is to understand how we play offense and how we create shots, everybody be aggressive and ready,” Curry said. “When it's clicking, it’s still a potent offense. We just have to [have] a solid chemistry between everybody. When it’s not, it looks like it did tonight.”
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