Warriors are gone, and so is yesterday

Golden State's play-in loss felt like the closing of a dog-eared chapter.

Klay Thompson

Having given up on LeBron James, Father Time is now laying siege to the Golden State Warriors.

On Monday night they were hassled and nearly humiliated by the Sacramento Kings, whom Golden State had eliminated in Game 7 last year, thanks to a cruel, retro, 50-point performance by Stephen Curry. The Kings took a step back this year, and found themselves in the 9-10 play-in game with Golden State, a truly win-or-go-home affair between teams who deserved to be housebound long before. Klay Thompson went 0 for 10 in this one, and Curry was hassled throughout, settling for 22 points with only three foul-shot attempts and two assists. Even Draymond Green was sedate.

The leaders were two of the younger Warriors, Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, with 16 points apiece off the bench, and the Warriors did draw within four points at halftime. But they have left their sense of inevitability somewhere in 2022. They lost the second half by 20 points to a team that is missing starting guard Kevin Huerter and Sixth Man of the Year candidate Malik Monk, and thus exited the stage, 118-94.

In Basketball Reference’s team defensive rankings, Golden State ranked 14th this season. Last year they were 12th. In 2022, their last-hurrah championship that they clinched in Boston Garden, they were fourth. That was always their secret ingredient. They always had someone like Andre Igoudala or Andrew Bogut to cover up, and Green and Thompson were expert decactivators. That has changed as the game has changed. Just as Gen. Patton read Gen. Rommel’s book, the league is playing like the Warriors did, and Oklahoma City and Minnesota and others are playing that way with players either in their prime or getting there.

Meanwhile, the Lakers won their way into the playoffs at New Orleans, 110-106, a game they were dominating until Zion Williamson took wing on the way to 40 points. But Williamson also left with an undetermined leg injury after he had tied the game with 3:19 left. James missed 14 of 20 shots, but the prevailing image will be James standing in front of Williamson, who chugs at least as forcefully as the City Of New Orleans did, and taking a charge. The score at the time was Lakers 75, Pelicans 57.

The Lakers now play Denver, who swept them last year. Since then the Nuggets have lost Bruce Brown and Jeff Green from their bench and have only sporadically replaced them, and the Lakers have a much healthier and robust Anthony Davis, along with Spencer Dinwiddie and Gabe Vincent, who will spend much of his time trying to throttle Jamal Murray. The Lakers foul fewer times than anyone else in the NBA and they shoot 6.4 more free throws, per game, than the opposition. In New Orleans they shot 29 free throws to the Pelicans’ 15. Although their most honkish fans spend their days cataloging the failings of coach Darvin Ham, the Lakers have won 29 of their past 43 games. They know the seedings and the pairings, and they dive into the Denver matchup with no fear.

And why not? There’s no reason to prefer a matchup with Oklahoma City or Minnesota. There are few good options in the West, unless Kawhi Leonard fails to play for the Clippers. The Warriors were 10th this year and sixth last year and yet won two more games this year. It is difficult to second-guess their roster decisions, although Bob Myers, the ex-general manager, says he screwed up when he took James Wiseman with the second pick instead of taking Tyrese Haliburton. Kuminga, Moody, Trayce Jackson-Davis and Brandon Podziemski were inspired draft picks. Trading Jordan Poole to Washington, where he could shoot to his heart’s content, wasn’t a hard call.

There are interesting free agents out there if the Warriors want to live over the luxury tax threshold again. One of them is James. More likely the Warriors would look at Monk or Brooklyn’s Nic Claxton, an energetic shot-blocker, provided Pascal Siakam signs with Indiana as most expect.

Thompson is the most poignant issue. He made $43 million in the final year of his contract. The fact that he’s even logging rotational minutes is a wonder, considering all his rehabs, and the 0 for 10 shouldn’t be an anvil around his neck. There aren’t many NBA players who shoot 38.7 percent from downtown and average over 18 points. But Thompson is 34 next year, and the Warriors already have Curry for two more seasons, Green for three (assuming he picks up his player option) and Andrew Wiggins for three. Thompson’s number will be retired at Chase Center one day, but his career will probably end somewhere else.

The Warriors were mostly beloved when they began ruling the NBA. Signing Kevin Durant, although it made them dictatorial, had a souring effect, and then the injuries hit. Their 2022 title was probably the most admirable of the four. They lost to Cleveland in the final minute of Game 7 in 2016, and they were too hospitalized to handle Toronto in 2019. As it was they won four championships in eight years and, in 2020, had a 15-50 season. It’s no wonder they wanted to hang onto their top players and not because they are civic rock stars that took no back seats to Montana and Rice and Bonds. The Warriors had a right to feel shortchanged. They were actually better than their trophy case.

Victory has several fathers. Larry Riley drafted the spindly kid with the weak ankles, from Davidson. Mark Jackson coached some defense into the young Warriors. Steve Kerr had the creativity and the patience to let the Warriors be themselves and yet feel an obligation to each other. Myers picked Green in the second round, 2012.

Together the Warriors showed how 3-point shooting can be the basis for an offense if, and only if, the shooters are supported by unselfish players like Green and veterans like Igoudala, Bogut, Leandro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston. Defense is also a prerequisite, and the reason why the Warriors won with fiery offense and the Phoenix Suns and Houston Rockets did not. The Warriors also did most of this winning in their scruffy but communal arena by the freeway in Oakland, where the noise could sometimes dunk basketball by itself.

What they did will always stand as one of the NBA’s great episodes, an essential page of history. Curry can still give Golden State fans great seasons. Just not great postseasons. Despite the statistical purgatory that swallows play-in games, Tuesday night in Sacramento did indeed happen. For fans of the team and the sport, it’s a particularly tough goodbye.