Golden State Warriors: 5 Takeaways From Game 1 vs. Thunder
4. Warriors Bench (And Second Half) Was Not Good Enough
The Golden State Warriors’ bench posted the league’s second-best point differential during the regular season and arguably has the deepest, best bench in the NBA. In Game 1, it sure as hell didn’t look like it.
Shaun Livingston, who filled in admirably as the team’s starting point guard during Curry’s two-week absence, went 2-for-7 from the floor and was a -8. Festus Ezeli committed four fouls in eight minutes. Marreese Speights had one point and was a -9 in six minutes.
Even Andre Iguodala left something to be desired, though he finished with six points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals on just 2-of-4 shooting.
Overall, the Warriors’ five reserves scored a grand total of 16 points on 16 shots. OKC’s only reserves — Waiters, Kanter and Randy Foye — combined for 21 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the floor and 3-of-5 shooting from three-point range. This is a trend that cannot continue.
The Thunder’s strength lies in their starting five, which is why Durant (46 minutes), Westbrook (40) and Adams (37) logged such heavy time. The Dubs’ bench has to be more effective and put its depth to good use the way it did in the first half:
It wasn’t just the bench’s second half effort that was lackluster; the execution of the entire Warriors team was pretty underwhelming after the break.
After racking up 60 points and 18 assists on 24-of-47 shooting (51.1 percent) in the first half, the league’s highest scoring, fast-paced offense only put up 42 points and eight assists on 16-of-44 shooting (36.4 percent) in the second.
The ball movement stopped, isolation sets borne out of desperation reigned and the turnovers set in. The execution was sloppy, the Warriors were outscored by 19 in the second half and they only put up 14 points in the fourth quarter.
Their shots were rushed and Golden State stopped playing its game, repeatedly swinging for the home run ball and making even the simplest of layups unnecessarily difficult:
In Game 1, the Warriors got too comfortable with their double-digit lead, as they’ve been prone to do throughout the regular season and the playoffs.
The difference was this time around, they got too comfortable against a talented, determined Thunder team that’s lived by a “never say die” mantra throughout the postseason, and it came back to haunt them.
Next: No. 3