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Other than a thunderbolt striking Stephen Curry and giving his left hamstring super-healing powers just in time for Wednesday’s tipoff, how in the world can the Warriors stay alive past Game 5?
Well, first, they’ve got to fully explore this thunderbolt thing. All electromagnetic or similarly miraculous options must be on the table now that the Warriors are down 3-1 in this series against the Minnesota Timberwolves after Monday’s 117-110 loss at Chase Center in Game 4, right?
But barring that … hmm. It’s hard to come up with too many escape plans for the Warriors right now — after they got absolutely flattened in the third quarter by Anthony Edwards and his stampeding teammates, after Jimmy Butler looked sick and tired of getting swarmed by the Timberwolves (and apparently was literally ill), and after the Warriors once again ran out of scoring options for the third consecutive game without Curry, who was injured early in Game 1.
Simple conclusion: This roster was not built to survive in the playoffs without the greatest player in franchise history leading the way. And the Warriors know it. How could anybody deny this now? I don’t know how many rosters could survive for long after losing a Hall of Famer in the middle of a second-round series, but the Warriors, as we are seeing, were running this on a very thin margin.
Even with Butler as a 1B superstar. Even with a solid set of role players who flourished this season once Butler arrived in February and set up the Warriors’ run into the postseason. Even with Curry sitting right there on the sidelines, trying to will the Warriors to victory.
Somebody has to make some shots. The Warriors are having trouble finding somebody.
Brandin Podziemski, who had a 26-point game in the Houston series, is bearing the brunt of this because he’s one of the few errant shooters who hasn’t gotten pulled from the Warriors’ rotation this series. Podziemski is rebounding and hounding the ball on defense, which is why he’s still playing.
But it’s getting buried by all his misses. He made only 3 of 14 shot attempts Monday and is 9-for-40 in this series (22.5%). According to the Associated Press’ Josh Dubow, it’s the worst shooting percentage (35 or more shots) for any player in a playoff series since Atlanta’s Pero Antic shot 16.7% in a 2014 series.
After the game, I asked Podziemski about his mindset going into Game 5 during this prolonged shooting slump.
“Assume the next one’s always going in and how do I make plays elsewhere?” Podziemski said. “The defensive end, setting screens for others, driving and kicking, hustle plays. All things I just naturally do.
“Obviously it’s magnified because I’m not shooting the ball the best in this playoffs. So everybody’s going to look at me and point the finger. But I just try to impact the game in a positive way even if my shot’s not going in.”
It’s definitely not all on Podziemski, who was a -9 in 33 minutes Monday. Butler was -30, and Draymond Green and Trayce Jackson-Davis were both -18. The Warriors as a team let Edwards get loose on them in this game, and they didn’t do a great job on Julius Randle or pretty much any other Timberwolves player, either.
But Podziemski sticks out because he was so good for so long playing alongside both Curry and Butler this season. And because Moses Moody and Quentin Post have been removed from the rotation after cold spells.
Note to Very Angry Warriors Fans: Podziemski isn’t getting benched because the Warriors don’t have anybody better to play the position (until Curry is back). Buddy Hield isn’t getting benched, either.
“The series changed with Steph’s injury,” Steve Kerr said. “So everybody’s shots are going to be more difficult. Steph’s a guy who breaks the defense down for us and creates that offensive flow. I think the end result is that shots are more difficult for every single guy.
“So I thought B.P. played really hard tonight, did some really good things. We pushed the tempo. We scored 60 points in the first half. We did some good things, we just couldn’t sustain it overall.”
It’s clear as a bell in this series: Podziemski, Moody, and Post specifically fit Kerr’s formula when Curry and Butler are both healthy and commanding all defensive attention. But they’re mostly stationary players. They wait for stars to create something and they react. They do that well. But they’re not initiators. And if there’s no Curry out there, they just look frozen in place and not too interested in taking shots. (And not too likely to make them.)
What’s also clear: If and when this series ends with the Warriors’ ouster, they will need to make some roster alterations. They’ve done tremendous things with this fragile foundation, but the Warriors’ leaders weren’t blind to their weaknesses, either. They need more playmakers. They need to figure out whether to highlight Jonathan Kuminga or trade him for more workable players. They probably have to tweak the offense to allow for a little more freelancing — and players who like to freelance.
“I just think it’s different because most of our plays are for [Curry] and Jimmy,” Podziemski said. “When you take 75% or 80% of our plays away because he’s not out there, now we’re kind of scrambled with what to do. It’s different. But at the end of the day, we’re all basketball players, and we’ve got to make basketball plays. We obviously haven’t done that the last three games.”
Kuminga can initiate offense — sometimes efficiently, sometimes not — so he has jumped back into the rotation in this series and scored 53 points in the last two games. But the Warriors need more. Moody looked OK in a mop-up role on Monday, when the backups made the Timberwolves’ starters sweat a little. So maybe Moody will get another shot on Wednesday. Maybe Pat Spencer and Gui Santos will, too.
Kerr surely will be open to all options. But it almost certainly will get back to Podziemski and Hield (who was 4-for-11 on Monday). At some point, while the Warriors wait for Curry and while Butler does his own yeoman work, it has to come from the next-best two scorers doing extra things in an offense that doesn’t suit them perfectly. It’s not an ideal scenario. But it’s the one the Warriors have now. Podziemski and Hield. Those two doing something ridiculous. Something special.
That’s how the Warriors might win Game 5 and buy three more days before Game 6 for Curry’s hamstring. That’s how the Warriors can survive this. That’s how they can at least delay the changes that are surely coming afterward and keep this fragile journey alive for just another moment or two.