The Golden State Warriors need to figure out their fourth quarter struggles before it’s too late.
The Golden State Warriors are unbeatable for the first three quarters of NBA games. In the fourth quarter, not so much. Why is this? Is it because they are sorting out the hierarchy or is it because the starters are resting? Out of all the resolutions for the team in 2017 this might be the most important.
According to Ethan Strauss, the Warriors total net rating through three quarters is 46.1. Net rating is point differential per 100 possessions. So, essentially, the Warriors are outscoring teams by 46 points per 100 possessions in the first three quarter of games, which is just astronomical. The problem is fourth quarters.
Strauss points out the Warriors net rating in the fourth quarter is 2.6. This makes sense considering the problems Golden State has had closing games out against good teams. To win a championship the Warriors need to figure out how to put teams away and not let them back in the game in the fourth quarter. Otherwise they will have flashbacks to Christmas Day when they were up by 14 with 8 minutes left and ended up losing by one.
There are a few possibilities why the Warriors struggle in the fourth quarter. The most obvious is that their starters don’t play most fourth quarters against bad teams. This leads to the Golden State bench playing more minutes, which isn’t a good thing this season. The Warriors are 24th in the league in bench scoring with 30.2 points per game, whereas last year they were 19th, averaging 33.8 points per game.
This isn’t surprising considering the players the Warriors had to lose to get Kevin Durant. Bench scoring was going to be a huge question for Golden State and so far those concerns have been accurate and showed up in fourth quarters more than originally thought.
The next possibility is sloppiness. The Warriors are a high-risk, high-reward team. Stephen Curry goes for the highlight play instead of the easy play, same with Draymond Green. This is who they are that’s not going to change. Most of the Warriors’ high turnover quarters are in the fourth, which explains their net rating being so low.
The final possibility could be hierarchy in the fourth quarter. Curry has been the Warriors go-to-guy down the stretch of games the last two years. Now, it’s Durant, which changes the Golden State philosophy.
Durant has fit in better than most people thought, but he still has bad habits. He tends to float as the game goes on. Floating means stop attacking and shoot jump shots. This is the same things Lebron James used to do and got criticized consistently for it.
Golden State has played too much one-on-one basketball in the fourth quarter. This strategy doesn’t work for them. Durant and Curry are great isolation players, but it’s not their offense. The Warriors need to get Durant the ball in motion so he can attack, like in the first three quarters.
NBA games are 48 minutes long. Most teams need to play 48 minutes to win because they aren’t Golden State. The Warriors can play 35 minutes and beat most teams; however, come playoff time they need to figure out the fourth quarter issues otherwise it could cost them.