For the first time since 2019, the Golden State Warriors will battle in the Western Conference Finals. Regardless of their opponent, the Dubs will not take another step towards winning a championship if they continue to commit unforced errors.
The Golden State Warriors have come this far… but they will not get any farther if they fail to clean up their messy style of play.
The Warriors managed to thwart a young and upcoming Memphis Grizzlies team but their own self-inflicted wounds nearly caused the series to reach its tipping point. The decisive Game 6 was full of mindboggling errors with the Dubs committing 17 turnovers.
Believe it or not, this was actually a decent job of taking care of the ball compared to their other performances, averaging close to 18 turnovers per game in the series.
What is causing this? Steve Kerr’s absence on the sidelines is certainly a factor. While Mike Brown did his best to replicate Kerr’s gameplan, there had to have been at least a little bit of confusion on the sidelines at times.
Another factor that has mostly been omitted is this is the first time the Warriors have really been at full strength all season. A carousel of injuries kept Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Jordan Poole and Draymond Green from competing together for basically the entire year.
Figuring out how this dynamic between a new death lineup on the fly is nothing to gawk at. It’s a miracle the Dubs have been able to put the pieces together in live-action so quickly.
Still, the overruling factor here is effort. Some of the Warriors’ turnovers in Game 6 were inexplicable. Lazy and downright irresponsible care of the ball is to blame for many of the Dubs’ greatest mistakes in the 2022 postseason.
As the stakes get higher, the Dubs must play cleaner.