Green: Struggling Warriors Battling Boredom Down The Stretch
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – Even with a chance at creating more NBA history, Golden State Warrior forward Draymond Green believes his team has grown weary of the daily grind of the regular season and can't wait for the playoffs to begin.
Speaking after the Warriors 124-117 overtime setback to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night, Green said he was being "real" in talking about his team's sluggish play down the stretch.
Golden State has dropped two of its last three home games after going undefeated in the previous 54 contests at Oracle Arena.
Against the Timberwolves, Green scored 12 points, pulled down 6 rebounds and had 9 assists. But he also had a team-high 6 turnovers. In the club's two most recent losses, Golden State has had more than 20 turnovers in each game.
"I like to break the season into three segments," he told reporters. "You got the start of the season and then all the way up to the All-Star (game). A few weeks before All-Star are the dull weeks where you are just there. Then after the All-Star you get a second wind and that lasts for about 3 weeks. Then all of a sudden, you are just sitting there again and I think that is where we are right now. Then you get to the playoffs where you get your real wind."
Green said the 82-game regular grind is getting mind-numbing as it nears its end.
"I think right now we are at that point where it's just human nature – you are ready for the regular season to end," he said. "You are talking 82 games. You get bored with that after a while. That's no excuse. I'm going to give it real to you all. And that's about as real as I can be."
But Green also says he and his teammates realize they can't enter the playoffs on a losing skid.
"We have to be a veteran enough ball club to continue to try and get better in these games and go into the playoffs the right way and not stumble into the playoffs," he said. "We have to finish out the regular season strong."
At 69-10, the Warriors are still in pursuit of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls single season win mark of 72 games.
Ironically, the Bulls also dropped two of their last four games in their record setting season.
Warriors Coach Steve Kerr was a member of that record-setting Bulls team and knows what his players are going through down the stretch.
"You have so much media attention and everybody talking about breaking the record and you lose focus a little bit," Kerr said. "The same thing happened 20 years ago. We didn't play well down the stretch. This doesn't surprise me. It's easy to get lost in all this stuff. We haven't been very dialed in of late."
