Wednesday, October 26, 2016

Why The Warriors Needed A Loss written for the Daily Toreador

Why the Warrior Needed A Loss

NBA season tipped-off of Wednesday with three NBA games starting with the returning NBA champs Cavaliers against the new and improved New York Knicks. Followed by the Trail Blazers vs the Utah Jazz and soon after the highly anticipated final game of the Golden State Warriors against the San Antonio Spurs.
The Warriors struggled all night guarding and rebounding with Kawhi Leonard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Leonard finish with 35 points along with Aldridge’s 26 points and 14 rebounds. Golden State’s defense seemed to be nonexistent giving up a lot of second chance points, wide open threes and layup after layup. Along with lackluster defense, 2016 All-Star Klay Thompson struggled offensively he shot 1 for 6 from the three-point line. Golden States offense looked to be discombobulated and very out of sync. The Warriors turned the ball of several times during potential fast break situations. Every time the Spurs took a small lead, Golden State tried to force up bad three-point shots to cut the league down quickly. They did not run their offense to the best of their ability, played a lot of one on one isolation ball with bad floor spacing while running their offensive sets. With floor spacing so bad their offense had no flow or consistency meaning tougher shots would have to be taken with the shot clock being an issue.
 Like many teams with new faces on their roster, they usually have bumps in the road before they have success. The Warriors have in all aspects a “super team” with Two MVP’s, 6 total All-Stars with 4 in the starting lineup. Even super teams struggle and go through adversity in 2010 the Miami Heat with an addition of LeBron James and Chris Bosh had their issues, they lost their first game of the season, along with 4 and 5 game losing streak at one point during the season. In 2008 the Boston Celtics went through their struggles on the road with issues on both sides of the court before they won their NBA championship.

This loss will humble the Warriors causing them to tune up the mistakes and flaws with their defensive communications and their offensive style of play. Golden State is very talented, but familiarity with each other skill sets, understanding of one another’s role, and communication on both sides of the ball must be established first before this team can be the power house we all expect them to be. Losses like this builds team chemistry and better character, many fans expected the Warriors to run through the West without any challenges, but every great team goes through some adversity. The Warriors will go home and watch film on this game and develop better focus understanding this season will be no walk in the park teams will play them hard night in and night out. A month from now this loss will be a distant memory in the past, the Warriors are way to talented to struggle for long periods of time. By mid-season Golden State will have proved why they are this season favorite to be NBA champions.

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