Scrutinizing Dubs: A Completely Different Team Without Curry
Steph Curry's absence is just a huge void for the Dubs.
It is evident that the Warriors lost due to being completely lost with their rhythm, especially on the offensive end. One good example of this drastic scenario is their latest game, which happened to be their latest terrible loss.
96 - 81. Losing so badly is unusual for the Warriors but what makes this even more unusual is the fact that 81 points is very much low when speaking of the Warriors which is an extremely offensive team.
We already know that Warriors' suddenly shrinks without Curry. What's interesting are the possible reasons lingering behind.
1. Klay Thompson could not focus as a shooting guard and could not play point guard at least as effective as Curry.
It is indeed a fact that Klay aside from Steph is also one of the best shooters in the league, but his playing position contributes to it much and thus the position he plays would extremely affect the way and the intensity of his performance.
Without Steph as the main playmaker, Klay could not primarily focus on his own play to make shots but his time and energy are subdivided into making shots for his teammates before making shots for himself. Thus, Thompson's outside domination and the entire play of Warriors would be adversely affected.
2. KD Would be Offensively Inconsistent
Kevin Durant is a ferocious offensive monster and would score enormously from time to time. But without a point guard which sets him up most of the time, we could expect a great finisher to struggle and stumble at times, which was exactly what happened during the Nuggets game. Durant shot 6-17 from the field and missed all his outside attempts, 5 to be exact. Which leads us to the 3rd reason
3. Outside Shooting Significantly Drops
Steph is the main trigger to be pulled whenever outside shooting is urgent. Without him shooting impeccably, Warriors' production would drop down and the game would probably result in a loss, to prevent this, Warriors have the instinct that they need to cover up this insufficiency. Thus somebody must take outside shots either with comfort or with force. Durant doesn't have it that night against Nuggets but still as one of the team's key player, he needs to do the shooting and unluckily, all five missed.
Conclusion
Warriors' isn't all about Steph Curry but a team diminished by a major role player will always turn out to be a different one in the late phase of the story.