Different Golden State Warriors starting five, the same result.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr continues to search for answers as they dropped their third straight loss — 132-122 to Luka Doncic and Dallas Mavericks on Saturday, December 30 — even after tweaking his rotation once again.
“We haven’t found that grit that every good team needs where you pull together and you just play for the group,” Kerr told reporters after the loss. “We’re not there yet. And that’s a problem. We’ve got great guys. I love every one of them. But until this team really connects in a way that is solely dedicated to winning each and every game, then we’re going to be stuck in this place.”
Kerr changed his starting five for the nth time this season, putting in Chris Paul to help Stephen Curry get back on track, and rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis to shore up their defense.
Paul scored a season-high 24 points and became the 37th player in NBA history to surpass 22,000 career points. Jackson-Davis notched a career-high 17 points.
But neither player solved the team’s woes.
Curry led the Warriors with 25 points but just shot 9-of-25 from the floor. The Warriors’ leading scorer is on a slump, just hitting 31% of his shots over his last three games.
It also did not help that Klay Thompson is back in the rut. The other half of the “Splash Brothers” made only 1-of-11 shots for the second-worst shooting game in his career.
On the other end, they could not stop Dallas, especially Doncic. The Mavericks star torched Golden State with 39 points, 25 in the second half.
Warriors Open to Trading Andrew Wiggins: Report
The disconnect that is ailing the Warriors this season could lead to a major trade involving one of the key players in their 2021 championship run.
According to The Athletic’s Tim Kawakami, the Warriors are more open now to trade demoted Andrew Wiggins.
“Though I’ve said in the past that the Warriors might be reluctant to trade Wiggins so soon after he signed a relatively bargain-rate contract extension specifically so he could remain with this team, I’ve since heard that this would not be a major barrier for the Warriors to explore Wiggins’ trade market,” Kawakami wrote. “Especially if he can’t play with Kuminga and the Warriors decide that Kuminga is their full-time small forward.”
Wiggins has been relegated to the bench, with Jonathan Kuminga replacing him in the starting lineup.
Wiggins had 14 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists in 28 minutes off the bench in their latest loss. Kuminga, on the other hand, finished with 16 points, 9 rebounds and 3 assists in 23 minutes as the starter.
Gay Payton II’s Quiet Return
Gary Payton II returned from a strained right calf injury and had a quiet 2 points in 9 minutes off the bench. He added 1 block but committed three fouls in his short stint as the 10th man on Kerr’s rotation.
With Payton II back, Moses Moody was the odd man out.
Kerr admitted earlier this week that the roster crunch has been bugging him every day.
“I think about it every day,” Kerr told reporters after December 27 practice. “That is my job, of course.”
“It’s really hard. Some years, it’s just really obvious who your top nine are, and you just roll with those guys. The guys 10 to 14 understand their roles, and you work with them. You try to fit them in to keep them going.”
“This year is very different in that regard. We can play 13 guys in the rotation. Any one of them and every one of them is qualified to be out there and could make the case that they should be out there, but you can only play nine or 10. Very difficult decisions.”
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Steve Kerr Sounds Off on Warriors’ Chemistry After Lineup Change Yields Another Loss