The Golden State Warriors defense has been embarrassingly bad

The Golden State Warriors have been without Stephen Curry for the past few games and without Draymond Green for one as well. However, that’s no excuse for their defense having relapse this drastically over the last several games.

Green was out just one game and returned to action against the Hawks. The Warriors’ defensive aptitude certainly didn’t though as they still allowed the Trae Young-led offense to put up over 120 points, just days after letting the Kings put up over 140.

The Golden State Warriors are creeping further out of playoff contention, and it’s because of their embarrassingly bad defense over the past few games.

Over the Warriors’ last five games in which they’ve gone 1-4, they have the 26th-worst defensive rating. After ranking within the top ten for most of the season before this last few-week stretch, the Warriors have relapsed with their leader on the court.

Curry’s defense also shouldn’t be taken for granted. No, he’s not the best defensive guard in the NBA, but he’s been putting in the effort this season, playing with high energy on both ends of the court.

The Warriors rank in the bottom ten in opponent’s points off turnovers and in the bottom five in opponent’s second-chance points.

It’s tough to blame one person’s absence, and given the lineup changes, it’s more likely James Wiseman‘s insertion back into the starting lineup may be more the root cause for Golden State’s challenges.

The team’s two rookies, point guard Nico Mannion and center James Wiseman, rank dead last on the team in defensive rating.

They just haven’t been able to come around to the speed of the game defensively, and some of that can be put on they just haven’t had the reps nor the strength and conditioning at an NBA level for more than five months.

Nonetheless, if they’re going to continue to get minutes, the Warriors need to monitor how they’re doing on the defensive end. Over the team’s last five games, in which Wiseman has totaled over 27 minutes per game, he has nearly a 130 defensive rating.

The Warriors need better than that from the big man that’s hopefully going to keep their dynasty afloat. The return of Curry should help, but Mannion and Wiseman both need to step it up as the defense has been pitiful these last few weeks.