The Golden State Warriors are the runaway favorites to win the NBA championship this season, but they sure didn’t look like it in their season opener against the San Antonio Spurs Tuesday night. According to head coach Steve Kerr, no one was pleased with the performance.
After the Warriors were blown out by the Spurs, Kerr shouldered much of the blame and said his players are “embarrassed.”
“I didn’t have them ready to play, obviously,” Kerr said, per Chris Haynes of ESPN.com. “I think the guys were embarrassed tonight. I know I was.”
Both Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant described the 129-100 home loss as a “slap in the face.” The natural overreaction will be to wonder if the Warriors are now worse off with Durant, but that’s a silly conclusion to draw after one rough game.
“Kevin is so good that he’s going to look good in any setting with any group of four around him,” Kerr said. “It wasn’t about Kevin at all. It wasn’t about one particular player; it was about the group.”
Durant scored a team-high 27 points on 11-of-18 shooting. While the Warriors did not put forth their best effort on offense, it was their atrocious defense that resulted in them not standing a chance.
Draymond Green expects to hear plenty of hot takes about how Golden State made a mistake signing Durant, but he insists it will not affect the team.
“I’m sure the story tomorrow will be, ‘KD broke up the chemistry and we can’t win with KD,’ and all these other things which is going to come with the territory,” Green told reporters. “We’re looking forward to that. We already know that’s coming.”
Judging by what Curry said about the team’s offense with Durant after the game, there’s no need to panic. The Warriors are going to score plenty of points. They just have to be far more efficient in stopping opponents.
