San Francisco – The Warriors were eliminated from the playoffs. They lost 122-101 to the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 6. A complete blow out to end their tumultuous season. Stephen Curry tallied a game-high 32 points and was the only player in double digits. A season of violence, deceit and uncertainty led to the former champs being knocked out of the second round. This was the first time Golden State lost to a Western Conference opponent dating back to 2014.
“You look at the Lakers’ series, the two games that we won, we did a good job of defending without fouling,” said Steve Kerr. “Four games we lost, we fouled like crazy. It’s right there. There’s certain things that are really right there for us to improve upon.
But that’s on me as the head coach to get our staff and all the players locked in right away next year on X, Y and Z. This is where we’re going to make improvement. We’ve got to have our practices and drill work laid out to make the specific improvements that we need to make, and we’ve got to see results. That’s part of what coaching is about.”
Klay Thompson continued to be missing in action as he scored less than 10 points for three consecutive games. Jordan Poole recorded his worst season to date. His game last season was absolutely stellar, which is why he signed a lucrative contract extension. But after this season it seemed like a big mistake to invest in such a young player so soon.
“Last year I could come in and score, be aggressive with the team that we had around,” Poole said. “Being more of a facilitator. It’s not always about scoring. It’s about finding ways to try to help our team be successful. You know, I think every playoffs will be different. Everything won’t be the same.”
Andrew Wiggins took off for two months for personal reasons, that led to a constant change with the starting lineup. Draymond’s Green’s assault on Poole to start the season plus his 18 technical fouls per year may have worn on the team. He’s up for a contract extension and lastly there are rumors Warriors General Manager will not return next year.
“I feel like last year, we were just maybe a little more together,”said Wiggins. “You know, maybe a little bit more, just, consistent, whether it’s on the road, you know, but we had an older team last year, also, too.
I was gone for a long time. But there was a lot of injuries this year. That’s it. We never got a chance to just, you know…”
“There’s no hiding from it, the incident with Draymond and Jordan at the beginning of the year played a role in that” Kerr said. “It’s hard for that not to impact a team. Anytime some trust is lost, then it makes the process much more difficult, and there was some trust lost. That’s as blunt as I can be.”
Golden State’s NBA-record streak of 28 series with at least one road win was snapped with tonight’s loss to the Lakers. The Warriors fell to 8-3 in elimination games since 2015 (4-1 on the road) and 35-30 all-time (12-19 on the road). Kevon Looney grabbed 10-plus rebounds for the seventh time in the 2023 NBA Playoffs.
No one is for sure what the off-season will look like for Golden State. Right now, contract talks for Myers is on hold which means he’s likely to walk away from the organization. Will the Warriors make Thompson take a pay cut if Myers is gone? Will Green be resigned and is Poole safe from trade talks? Well, have to wait and see.
“I think roster construction is a conversation that Bob and I have every year with Joe and with the front office, and it is very important finding the right balance. That’s going to be part of our conversations this summer.
Ultimately it’s not my job; it’s really more Bob’s job to construct the roster, but the great thing about Bob and the way we’ve operated here is that we’ve always collaborated, so there will definitely be a lot of collaboration this summer on putting together the best possible roster for next year.”
Photo by Warriors/Twitter
