SAN FRANCISCO — Life without Steph Curry has never been fun for the Warriors, and nothing about this year’s group changed that on Saturday.
For as much development Jonathan Kuminga has shown, as impressive as rookies Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis has been, as much as veteran Chris Paul can bring, they won’t have much of a chance without Curry. He remains their sun, and they tend to fall out of orbit when he goes dark.
Without Curry, the Warriors couldn’t even keep pace with the last-place Spurs, who entered at 13-50 and were missing Victor Wembanyama — by far their best player. The Spurs led by as much as 21 and maintained a healthy lead by shooting 51.5% from 3-point distance in the Chase Center.
Kuminga struggled early but scored 19 points in the fourth quarter and Klay Thompson dropped a game-high 27, but the Warriors needed much more in a 126-113 defeat. For the first leg of a home-and-home with the Spurs, Golden State (33-30) absorbed a disconcerting loss to the Western Conference’s worst team.
Golden State Warriors’ Jonathan Kuminga (00) scores against the San Antonio Spurs in the fourth quarter of an NBA game, Saturday, March 9, 2024, at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif. (Karl Mondon/Bay Area News Group)
The Warriors knew finding rotations that worked with Curry sidelined could be an adventure. But this loss was a tribulation no one could have foreseen. The only encouraging note is that the two-time MVP isn’t expected to miss serious time, as he’s set for re-evaluation on Tuesday.
Without Curry, the Warriors ran more offense through their new point guard, Chris Paul, and ascending young wing Jonathan Kuminga — who came alive late. They ran more sets with off-ball actions instead of the freestyling drive-and-kicks Curry tends to generate.
The results were rarely promising.
Several possessions ended with tough, contested jump shots. Instead of the elegant ball and player movement that has defined Steve Kerr’s Warriors offensive system, there were much more isolations and no-pass possessions. With fewer 3-point shooting threats on the floor, the paint was much more clogged than usual.
Golden State’s lack of outside shooting was particularly evident when the Spurs’s 2-3 zone swallowed up their halfcourt offense. In the first five minutes of the second quarter, the Warriors mustered just five points. Dario Saric, who was summoned from out of Kerr’s rotation for shooting, broke a two-minute Warriors scoring drought.
The Warriors trailed the Spurs by 19 at half, having scored just 16 points in the second quarter.
Ranked 24th in defensive rating, San Antonio is hardly the defensive machine. And without Wembanyama, the generational rookie who disrupts everything in the paint, they’re even worse. San Antonio was also without rotation players Cedi Osman and Devin Vassell.
It’s unlikely the Warriors thought it would be as difficult to score as it was. They’ve played without Curry before, and Klay Thompson said on Thursday that “we’ll do well without him, we’ll rely on our history and how to execute without him.”
That’s easier said than done. The Warriors came into the Spurs matchup 0-3 in games without Curry this year and had lost to the Bulls after he exited with the ankle sprain. In 2019-20, they went 15-50 when he missed almost the entire year.
The Warriors didn’t hang tough defensively, either, though that has less to do with Curry’s absence. During one stretch in which the Warriors threatened to make a run, they let Julian Champagnie a wide-open corner 3 in semi transition to quell their momentum.
Golden State started the second half small, with DraymondGreen at center and Thompson in for spacing. It worked initially, with the Warriors opening the third quarter on a 16-8 run.
The strategy worked, at least on one end. Golden State put together a 36-point frame, but continued to bleed open looks from behind the arc on the other end. Every time Thompson drilled a 3 or Jackson-Davis made an acrobatic finish, it seemed like a Spur canned a batting practice triple to answer.
After three quarters, San Antonio — the second worst 3-point shooting team in the league — shot 61.5% from deep and led by 17.
Kuminga, who was quiet for most of the game, dropped 11 points in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter. Golden State’s most consistent offense of the night was Kuminga playing bully ball.
Kuminga continued to score, and his gliding finish in transition cut San Antonio’s lead to 13 with 3:59 left. But a full court trap and foul game wasn’t fruitful enough. That’s the position Golden State found themselves without Curry: playing out the string in desperation mode against a depleted version of one of the league’s least talented teams.