After yet another dispiriting home loss Monday night, this time to a shorthanded New York Knicks team, Draymond Green sounded off on the Warriors' struggles at Chase Center this season.
Speaking on the latest episode of his eponymous podcast, Green expressed his frustrations with how Golden State continues to struggle at home despite their recent string of road victories against tough opponents.
“The Knicks loss is our third straight loss at home, which again, I don’t quite understand,” Green said.
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“We seem to be playing a lot better and more connected on the road then we are at home, and that’s a problem because we keep kind of having this week at home, week on the road, week at home, week on the road, and it’ll pretty much be like that through the end of the year.”
After lamenting the fact that the Warriors have a 17-18 home record, Green admitted that the way the team has been performing at Chase Center was not sufficient for a long playoff run.
“Honestly, it’s unacceptable. If I had an answer for you, what’s happening, I would 1,000 percent give the answer to my teammates, but we can’t seem to figure it out,” Green explained. “And when you’re at home, you should feed off the energy from the crowd. Everybody should play better when you’re at home, and that’s just not happening for us.
“So, there are about 14 games left and we’ve got to figure it out at some point because these games are very critical for us. You can’t keep taking one step forward, two steps back, and that’s what we keep doing.”
Golden State Warriors
Green has been the emotional core of the Warriors for quite some time, so his frustrations undoubtedly are felt by other members of the team. While Golden State has been playing better this calendar year after Green’s return from an indefinite suspension, the team has faltered against some of the league’s best.
The loss against the short-handed Knicks leaves the Warriors with a 5-5 record over their last 10 games, making the path to a top-six seed in the Western Conference playoffs even less likely than before.
With tough games against the likes of the Dallas Mavericks and Minnesota Timberwolves coming up, Green and the rest of the Warriors know that they will have to play better as time is running out to move up the conference standings and avoid the play-in.
As it stands now, Golden State would be the No. 10 seed in the West and would face the Los Angeles Lakers in a loser-go-home one-game playoff in the play-in.
Green and the rest of the Warriors know that their continued inconsistent play will not cut it in a high-stakes playoff game, and they will have to finish the season playing much stronger basketball at home in order to make a deep playoff run.