During a team shootaround before their game in Dallas, Steve Kerr had a clear goal: hammer the transition defense at home.
Kerr showed nine straight minutes of film from Golden State’s third quarter. previous victory against Spurs, said a team source. During this stretch, the Warriors rushed on defense, starting at the nail and fanning out from there. They communicated to avoid getting caught in mismatches and forced San Antonio to beat its defense.
The Warriors won the quarter, 32-18. The film showed what the Warriors are capable of in transition.
But the team’s efforts to get back on defense haven’t been consistent enough, even as the season enters its most important chapter and the Warriors are fight for playoff positioning. Players and coaches have pressed the issue, but problems continue to arise.
“I was a lot more concerned about the lack of urgency in transition the other night in Dallas,” Steve Kerr said after the Warriors’ practice Friday at UCLA. “Far too many possessions when they got behind our defense. Dunked the ball, lobs, easy points. To be a good team, you have to eliminate the easy things. I thought our half-court defense was really good, but the transition was really bad.
Against Dallas, the Warriors lost the fast break point battle 22-8. Even without Steph Curry and Draymond Green, the game turned out to be one that the Warriors very well could have stolen. Mavericks star Luka Doncic injured his hamstring and did not play the entire fourth quarter, and Dallas shot 22.2% from behind the 3-point arc.
But Golden State didn’t provide enough resistance in transition, allowing easy buckets at the rim.
“I think it’s just about communicating who has the ball and then building from the rim,” rookie guard Brandin Podziemski said after the game. Defeat 109-99. “Most of the time, Kyrie (Irving) would pull it out and just throw it to (Dereck) Lively because there was a mismatch or whatever. But we need to do a better job of communicating and just going back. Think about it, if you get five guys back on the field before they get five, I think we have a good chance every time of at least making them run something in the half court.
In a game against Dallas, Irving grabbed a defensive rebound under his basket and strolled to midcourt, barely hampered, for a layup. Jonathan Kuminga was tasked with recovering the point guard, but his defensive stance was too upright to stay in front of Irving.
Like Warriors analyst Joe Viray underlines on Twitter/X, the play looked eerily similar to a Kuminga mistake in San Antonio in the previous match, when the winger failed to stop the ball.
Second consecutive match… https://t.co/0x7TIyDasJ pic.twitter.com/mspmXri0gr
– Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) March 14, 2024
On games like this, the difference simply has to be more intensity and focus. At this point in the season, there’s no real excuse for a lack of urgency.
“It’s an effort, but it’s also an awareness,” Kerr said. “You can go back, but if you’re not aware of the guy on the weak side running behind you, that’s awareness. So it’s a combination.
“We tell our guys all the time: the first three steps are the most important. As soon as you see a change of possession, those first three steps have to be explosive, and then in half court, you have to turn around and locate the ball, look at the most dangerous people. The most dangerous guy is always the one who goes to the edge. We leave this guy behind too often.
Kuminga is not the only warrior who has experienced mistakes. With 53.5 seconds remaining in the first half against Dallas, Kuminga converted a layup and tripped over someone’s foot along the baseline, taking him out of the game. On the other hand, Josh Green snuck behind each Warrior and was rewarded with an alley-oop dunk.
On this play, rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis returned after the game. Andrew Wiggins was stuck on the perimeter, tasked with recovering Doncic on the ball. But Klay Thompson and Chris Paul were also stationed outside the 3-point arc, allowing Green 20 feet of daylight.
There are other factors beyond effort that can impact any team’s transition defense. Live turnovers create unfavorable situations. And if too many players go for an offensive rebound without bringing one back, the balance of the floor gets out of sync.
In 12 games since the All-Star break – a stretch in which the Warriors have largely played well – Golden State ranks 25th in the NBA in opponents’ fast break points per game (16.9) .
As the Warriors fight to climb out of 10th place, that number should get better, not worse. Every game counts in the crowded West. Every game should be intense, Kerr said this week, and one of the areas to apply that intensity the most should be in transition.
Next up: a nationally televised game against the Lakers, who are one game ahead of Golden State in the play-in standings. The Lakers rank third in fast break scoring, averaging 16.9 points per game.
If the Warriors don’t commit to fighting back on defense, they’ll have a hard time slowing them down.
