SAN FRANCISCO – The NBA is a “young man’s league” is one of the most inarguable truisms in team sports, and 79 years of his history tells us it’s particularly accurate when the youth is long, athletic, frisky – and, of course, talented.
That combination is high on the list of issues the Warriors, who have the league’s oldest core trio, must overcome during a grueling, two-month postseason to realize their dream.
They encountered that dynamic Sunday at Chase Center and now have a very real idea of what they’re up against.
The Warriors’ 106-96 loss to the Houston Rockets can be traced to two directly connected failures. The first was the inability to take care of the ball, committing 20 turnovers, and the second being the launchpad those giveaways provided for the Rockets.
“If we keep them in their half-court sets and make them run their s—t, we’re fine,” Gary Payton II said. “But when they leak out and get athletic and get easy buckets, that’s when they’re a problem.
“If we take care of the ball, we win that game.”
Failure to take care of the ball allowed the Rockets to do what they do best, use their young legs to turn the game into a transition war the Warriors can’t win. Golden State in too many instances was a step slow and unable to keep up with an opponent built to sprint.
“They have great size and athleticism at pretty much every position,” coach Steve Kerr said of the Rockets. “[Coach Ime Udoka] has done a great job. They really established an identity, and they kind of know who they are. They have a great defensive team, and they played a really good defensive game.”
Stephen Curry, Draymond Green and Brandin Podziemski each committed four turnovers. Jonathan Kuminga committed three in 19 minutes off the bench. And many those turnovers were not a product of Houston’s defense. They simply were unforced.
It was enough to put the Rockets in their comfort zone. They scored 18 points off turnovers and posted a 26-12 advantage in fast-break points. Their length/athleticism blend allowed them to dominate inside, with a 56-40 win in paint points and a 17-15 edge in second-chance points.
Curry, battling through hyperactively physical defenders, never found rhythm and finished with three points on 1-of-10 shooting, including 1 of 8 from deep. If not for Buddy Hield’s team-high 20 points, the Warriors might have been blown off their own floor.
And they would have greatly aided in their demise.
“Just got to take better care of the ball,” Green said. “They struggle to score in the half court a bit, so when you give them run-out layups, that makes anybody tough to guard. Just take better care of the ball, get to our spots, so you can see the pressure. They pressure a lot, you get bunched up, it works to their advantage.”
Houston’s nine-man rotation features a core – Jalen Green, Alperen Sengün and Amen Thompson – that averages 22.7 years of age. But it is surrounded by the likes of Fred VanVleet, a 31-year-old NBA champion; Dillon Brooks, 29, with three trips to the NBA playoffs; and 31-year-old Steven Adams, who has 66 playoff games on his resumé.
The Warriors failed to match the Rockets’ energy and ended up straying from their game plan.
“We talked about not committing turnovers and did the exact opposite,” Jimmy Butler said.
There are ways to deal with the Rockets, whose youth can sometimes be problematic. They can get reckless, commit turnovers. Their aggression leaves them prone to fouling.
But their activity and size were a problem on this night and could be in the playoffs. Houston has five players with wingspans of 7 feet or more, from Sengun and Thompson, at 7-foot each, to Adams at 7-foot-5. The Rockets blocked seven shots and bagged seven steals. They soar in for offensive rebounds, turn passing lanes into road closures and hang “Keep Out” signs in the paint.
Yet there is an undercurrent of confidence within Warriors that suggests they have ways to handle Houston’s length, athleticism and youthful exuberance.
“Anything we did tonight wasn’t really reflective of their lineups,” Curry said. “It more self-inflicted. We turned the ball over, gave up offensive rebounds, didn’t execute on the offensive end. Everything was bad.
“They have different looks. They play zone. They have two bigs. We can adjust to all of that. We just didn’t do it tonight.”
Curry, Green and Butler – the oldest core in the league, average age 35.7 years – know the way to the top. They practically own the map.
The question they’ll try to answer when the postseason begins next week is whether that knowledge is enough for them to hold off the young lions in the West.
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