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Golden State Warriors Face First Wake-Up Call of Season, NBA Playoffs

May 6, 2015

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USA Today

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The Golden State Warriors led a charmed life all season, filled with splashy threes, jaw-dropping highlights and a boatload of wins.

But there's nothing sweet about spending a second-round series in the mud, where the battle-tested—and in Mike Conley's case, battle-scarred—Memphis Grizzlies simultaneously do their best work and bring out their opponents' worst.

Controlled aggression will be Golden State's key to turn these slugfests back in its favor. During Tuesday's 97-90 loss, the Dubs were too eager for their own good and lacked the control that powered them to 42 victories over their previous 44 games inside the raucous Oracle Arena.

"I thought we lost our poise tonight," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said afterward, via ESPN.com's Ethan Sherwood Strauss. "... We were too quick with our intention to score. Instead of just moving the ball and setting good screens, everyone was trying to do everything frantically on their own."

The Warriors tried forcing the issue. They made any and every attempt to avoid as many half-court encounters with the Grizzlies as possible  .

Strange as this sounds given the outcome, a similar approach is Golden State's best bet to survive a series so many pundits expected it to dominate. But the Dubs need to dial things back a few notches from the ludicrous speeds that saw them cough up 20 turnovers and shoot just 41.9 percent from the field and 23.1 percent from distance.

The Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, stayed unseasonably dry. Curry, who collected his NBA MVP award prior to the contest, missed nine of his 11 three-point attempts and finished with 19 points on 19 shots. Thompson turned his 15 shots into only 13 points while posting five turnovers against just two assists.

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"For the first time, a team was challenging everything. Memphis completely flipped the formula for the Warriors," wrote CBS Sports' Matt Moore. "... The Warriors were sloppy, but they were also caught off guard by how physical this game was, how much everything was a struggle, how it wasn't easy."

The Grizzlies gave nothing to the Warriors.

Conley, barely one week removed from having surgery on multiple facial fractures, dazzled on both ends of the floor. He piled up 22 points on efficient 8-of-12 shooting while committing just a single turnover in his 27 minutes. At the opposite end, his pressure on Curry allowed Tony Allen (aka "First-Team All-Defense") to focus on harassing Thompson and plugging the Dubs' passing lanes.

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As a result, Golden State could never flip the ignition on its high-powered offense.

Part of that was sloppiness and an uncharacteristic selfishness. But a lot of it had to do with Memphis' swarming, suffocating defense. The Grizzlies limited the Warriors to 24 uncontested shots after surrendering 39 during Sunday's series opener.

Golden State has no reason to panic. Curry and Thompson may not shoot 3-of-17 from deep again, even if they try to miss. The defense struggled to contain Conley, but it kept Zach Randolph in check (20 points, 7-of-16 shooting) and turned Courtney Lee, Jeff Green, Vince Carter and Beno Udrih into volume contributors (29 combined points on 35 shots).

The Warriors need the proper perspective to process their first home loss since Jan. 27. And they sound like they've already found it.

"You can kind of be real with yourself and know that you won't go 16-0 in the playoffs," Curry said, via KNBR's Dieter Kurtenbach. "But we'll be able to bounce back. I think the next three days will be huge to kind of rejuvenate ourselves and understand what we need to do to get a win in Memphis."

The challenge now facing Golden State is unlike any it has felt all season: The Warriors have to figure out how to respond to adversity after essentially avoiding it for the past six-plus months.

They had a historically dominant regular season—tied for the sixth-most wins (67) and eighth-best point differential of all time (plus-10.1)—and dispatched the not-quite-ready New Orleans Pelicans in a swift four-game sweep to start the playoffs. Golden State never had a losing streak last longer than two games and only suffered consecutive defeats four times during its 82-game trek to the top.

The Warriors had the MVP and Executive of the Year (general manager Bob Myers). They should be well represented on both the All-NBA and All-Defensive teams when those selections are made.

Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images

But none of that will help stop a Grizzlies squad that isn't scared of this stage or this offense. The Warriors have to hope their first true test of the 2014-15 campaign will serve as their ultimate wake-up call.

"This was a beatdown the likes of which the Warriors can barely remember," CSN Bay Area's Ray Ratto wrote after Tuesday's loss. "... Now the Warriors are forced to focus on the matter at hand, with the day-to-day battle of dealing with the league's best attitude-adjusters."

Memphis is a worthy opponent, but Golden State's biggest championship threat remains itself.

The Warriors need only to live up to their own standards. The ball movement can't stagnate the way it did in Game 2. Their focus and execution must improve. They have to realize patience is more than a virtue; it's a necessity when attempting to break down a defense this disciplined.

The Dubs can't feed the Grizzlies' transition game with turnovers and long rebounds off ill-advised shots. Memphis isn't a run-and-gun team by any stretch but will get out in the open floor when the opportunity arises.

Golden State can't concede those easy baskets. And it can't push the pace for the simple sake of playing fast. It's one thing to put a defense on its heels, quite another to force attacks into areas that aren't actually open, a problem that hurt the Dubs early and often in Game 2.

The Grizzlies aren't built to mount massive comebacks, so starting out on the right foot is paramount to the Warriors' success.

But there's no need for major adjustments.

Draymond Green has to keep himself out of foul trouble. The Dubs have to gang-rebound when Kerr deploys his explosive small-ball unit. Thompson must rediscover the consistency that largely eluded him during the second half of the season. The supporting cast—namely Harrison Barnes, Andre Iguodala, Leandro Barbosa and Shaun Livingston—has to punish the Memphis defense for not paying attention to it.

Frankly, this team needs to play its game. And it must maintain that lofty level for each minute, each quarter, each game and each round that still sits in front of it.

"As the margin for error grows thinner by the game, the Warriors need to show that they can maintain 48 minutes of consistently excellent execution," wrote Adam Lauridsen of the San Jose Mercury News. "It's been a long time since we've seen a game when they've managed that."

Ben Margot/Associated Press

Despite losing home-court advantage, the Warriors still have the upper hand in this series.

Their offensive arsenal is deeper and more versatile than the Grizzlies'. Golden State's defense has the bodies to stay in front of Memphis' attacking guards and bang with the big bruisers underneath. The Warriors have the advantages in both star power and depth.

    Golden State Warriors
    NBA Playoffs, Game 2 - Series tied 1-1
    yesterday, 7:00 AM
    ORACLE Arena, Oakland, California
       
    Memphis
    Grizzlies
       
    
    97 - 90
    Final
       
    Golden State
    Warriors
       
        1    2    3    4        Total
    Grizzlies    28    22    23    24        97
    Warriors    22    17    24    27        90
    Box Score - More Highlights
    Scores & Schedule
    Game 1 - Sun, Farvardin 30
       
    vs
       
    Pelicans
       
    W 99 - 106
       
    Final
    Game 2 - Tue, Ordibehesht 1
       
    vs
       
    Pelicans
       
    W 87 - 97
       
    Final
    Game 3 - Fri, Ordibehesht 4
       
    @
       
    Pelicans
       
    W 123 - 119
       
    Final
    Game 4 - Sun, Ordibehesht 6
       
    @
       
    Pelicans
       
    W 109 - 98
       
    Final
    Game 1 - Mon, Ordibehesht 14
       
    vs
       
    Grizzlies
       
    W 86 - 101
       
    Final
    Game 2 - yesterday
       
    vs
       
    Grizzlies
       
    L 97 - 90
       
    Final
    Game 3 - Sun, Ordibehesht 20    @    Grizzlies        4:30 AM 2/20 AP
    Game 4 - Tue, Ordibehesht 22
       
    @
       
    Grizzlies
           
    6:00 AM 2/22 AP
    Game 5 - Thu, Ordibehesht 24
       
    vs
       
    Grizzlies
           
    7:00 AM 2/24 AP
    Game 6 - Fri, Ordibehesht 25
       
    @
       
    Grizzlies
           
    TBD
    Game 7 - Sun, Ordibehesht 27
       
    vs
       
    Grizzlies
           
    TBD
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