Golden State Warriors Succumbing to Mid-season Fatigue

The Golden State Warriors are 41-9 and have won four of their last five games, but if you’ve watched them for the past few weeks, they haven’t looked like the elite team that their record implies. Why haven’t they looked as sharp lately?

Fatigue.

The Warriors are accustomed to playing at a relentless pace. Their game plan is to smother opponents and force turnovers to get easy looks in transition. As the leaders in pace and defensive rating, the team’s style relies heavily on constant movement, whether it be running on breaks, moving off the ball, or on defensive rotations. Believe it or not, the Warriors’ pace is heavily taxing on their bodies, and they’ve kept it up for almost 50 games. The wear and tear of a long NBA season is slowly starting to catch up to them.

Tired legs were most apparent in the Warriors’ ugly win over the Sixers on Monday night. They were lethargic once again, and struggled to bring the energy that was present earlier in the season. The offense was unable to maintain fluidity and consistency as the collectively shot a measly 40% from the field and 24.1% from three-point territory.

More from Warriors News

• 3x champion may come to regret forgoing Golden State Warriors reunion
• Golden State Warriors: History shows USA may need Stephen Curry for more than the Olympics
• Golden State Warriors villain pours on more pain to end USA’s World Cup
• Golden State Warriors: Stephen Curry continues philanthropic efforts off the court
• The Dream starting 5 for the Warriors 5 years from now

Even Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson failed to find the target as they shot 35% and 28.6% from the field, respectively. In addition to the Warriors’ stagnant offense, the Sixers won the rebounding battle, 52 to 40. Ultimately, the Warriors were able to summon enough energy to come up with the win, thanks to bench contributions from Leandro Barbosa, Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights, who all scored in double figures.

The defense was fortunately able to force 27 turnovers from the relatively inexperienced Sixers squad, who still managed to hold the Warriors to only 86 points. Philadelphia also sliced into the 18-point deficit into the fourth, forcing the starters to return, resulting in Draymond Green‘s slight ankle injury. The “grind-it-out” win against the Sixers was a classic example of the mid-season slump many teams experience just prior to the All-Star break.

Feb 9, 2015; Philadelphia, PA, USA; Philadelphia 76ers center Nerlens Noel (4) drives past Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) during the second quarter at Wells Fargo Center. Mandatory Credit: Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports

The All-Star break couldn’t come any sooner for the Warriors. Mental fatigue and heavy mileage has clearly affected this team. Defensive rotations have been uncharacteristically sloppy.

Even Andrew Bogut, who has been instrumental for this team, has been a step slow in his help defense. Tyson Chandler was able to get whatever he wanted inside against the Warriors.

David Lee, who has always been notoriously mediocre on defense, has been a complete non-factor in recent games. He lost Mike Scott on several key possessions, leaving him wide open for threes.  We saw the Mavericks get some fairly easy baskets in the paint during their first quarter run against the Warriors last week due to bad coverage.  We saw enough mental mistakes against the Atlanta Hawks to cost them the win.

While the Hawks are an elite team, the Warriors also shot themselves in the foot, and were unable to regain the momentum to recapture the lead like they did against Dallas. Both Bogut and Lee made terrible inbound passes to give Atlanta easy points. The Warriors committed the cardinal sin of fouling jump shooters on three-point attempts. Green, especially, seemed too anxious on defense, biting on nearly every pump fake from Paul Millsap.

Feb 6, 2015; Atlanta, GA, USA; Atlanta Hawks forward Mike Scott (32) drives against Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala (9) and forward David Lee (10) in the fourth quarter of their game at Philips Arena. The Hawks won 124-116. Scott was fouled by Lee on the play. Mandatory Credit: Jason Getz-USA TODAY Sports

Thompson, who has been shooting fairly consistent throughout this season, has shot 25% in his last two games. Curry is caught in a slight shooting slump as well, shooting 40% in his last three contests.

Defense requires focus and quick feet. If you play hard enough defense you’ll quickly realize the amount of energy you need to spend. The same can be said for fast breaks.

The entire team, including Curry and Klay, have been shooting rather flat recently, due to tired legs and lack of lift. They could barely capitalize on leads over poor teams (record-wise) like the Knicks and Sixers. Thankfully the Warriors only have one more contest against the Timberwolves on Wednesday before All-Star Weekend.

Steve Kerr should look to minimize his starters’ minutes to give them their well-deserved rest. Lee will need to step up in Green’s absence. Hopefully, the extended break will allow the Warriors to rejuvenate and regain their fire. This squad needs fresh and healthy bodies to make noise in the postseason. The latter half of the season won’t be easy by any means, and this team hasn’t proven anything just yet. If they remain lethargic and sloppy, there’s no chance of keeping their title hopes alive.

Next: Analyzing Bill Simmons Trade Value Column Rankings for Steph, Klay, and Dray