Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr reckons his team has had the worst defense in the NBA over the last seven games.
He was speaking after the Warriors’ 119-104 loss to the Clippers on Monday night. The hoarseness in his voice postgame was a clear indication that their defensive struggles are stressing him out.
Golden State has allowed 113.3 points per game over the last seven games, their worst over seven games this year. They rank 22nd in defensive efficiency for the month of February when before, they were first.
“The main thing is that our defense has been bad,” Kerr said. “It’s been bad for six or seven games now. It’s hard to win in this league when you’re looking like we are, defensively, with so many holes in our games.”
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“I know we are No. 1 in defense,” he continued, using air quotes. “But we’re not right now. Those numbers are inflated by what we did earlier in the season. Over the last seven games, we are probably bottom five, if not dead last in defensive rating.
“They went right around us,” Kerr said of the Clippers. “Point of attack defense was the main issue tonight, but it’s been something different every night. And that’s what I was saying before: when you can’t count on the connection defensively and the competitiveness and the fire, every night is going to be a little different depending on what talent you’re going against.”
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“They hit a lot of shots early and it’s because they felt very comfortable and we didn’t make them feel us at all to start the game,” Stephen Curry said. “No matter how hot we got for certain parts of the game, they took it to us. It’s not a good feeling to never get any momentum or even three stops in a row. The floodgates were open all night for them.”
“It’s up to us,” Steve Kerr said. “We’re going to have to find the effort, the communication, connection, to get back to doing the things we were doing before.”
