Back-to-back losses send the Warriors back to school for “intense” training

Back-to-back losses send Warriors back to school with ‘intense’ workouts originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO — It’s not uncommon for NBA teams nearing the end of a difficult season to reflect on a few games that negatively changed their fortunes. Games that hurt their ranking or even cost them a spot in the playoffs.

The Warriors may have realized they don’t have the luxury of waiting until April and reached that point before Thanksgiving.

With two straight losses marring their stellar start, the Warriors spent a few hours Tuesday studying video and working up a sweat on the practice court at Chase Center.

“It was intense,” Kevon Looney said. “But it was still fun to be back in the gym and at home. We focused on the little things. When we messed up, they made sure we did it again. It was intense, but we had to go over the details of the little things that can cost you games.”

The goal is to fix what went terribly wrong in the last two games. The Warriors blew a 17-point lead in the final 14 minutes to lose by 10 points to the San Antonio Spurs on Saturday, and at home on Monday night they blew an 18-point lead in the final 19 minutes to lose by eight points to the San Antonio Spurs Brooklyn Nets.

Those two losses to teams that were .500 or lower were, to say the least, disgraceful performances for a team that has big ambitions and was atop the Western Conference just four days ago.

So the Warriors went back to school. They are in second place at 12-5, but things looked much better at 12-3.

“We had a good training session today; We needed it,” coach Steve Kerr said. “First training in about a week. Our performances on the last two evenings showed that we still needed a lot of work in terms of execution.”

The primary offensive deficiencies exposed were empty possessions due to turnovers and slowness in sets. The primary defensive issues that emerged were delayed or missed rotations and loss of vision of shooters.

Still, Kerr pointed the finger at himself for some of the deficiencies that led to Golden State’s first consecutive losing streak this season.

“When we lose, there are always things I look at in hindsight,” Kerr said, referencing a missed timeout opportunity when the Nets were on the rise late in the third quarter.

“These are two games in a row where the third quarter ended badly and that turned the momentum in our opponent’s favor. That’s up to me. As a coach, I have to fix that. And I probably would have done better during the game.”

It’s rare for a team to lose after making more field goals, more rebounds, more assists, more blocks and more steals than the opponent. The Warriors achieved this feat against Brooklyn thanks to a minus-15 free throw attempt and a minus-14 mark on turnovers – two areas they can certainly correct.

That’s why senior assistants Terry Stotts (offense) and Jerry Stackhouse (defense) were hyperactive Tuesday, especially during video review.

“After the game, we all know what mistakes we made,” Looney said. “The thing with Stack and Terry was that they took every single one of them to task.

“Today we have returned to our basic principles. Hopefully we’ll do better for Oklahoma City.”

Oh yes. The Oklahoma City Thunder, in first place in the West, one game ahead of the Warriors, roll into Chase on Wednesday.

“They don’t do a lot of physical things and don’t make a lot of contact,” Kerr said, summing up Monday’s agenda. “But you have to go through the fundamentals and fundamentals on both sides. If we succeed, it will show in the next game.”

OKC is a difficult task – but a perfect preparation for what follows. Golden State won’t see another reeling team until 2025.

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