Warriors takeaways: What we learned in tough 114-108 loss to Thunder

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The Warriors on Friday night earned a distinction no NBA team ever wants: the worst record in the league.

After rallying twice to wipe out double-digit deficits in the second half, they faded down the stretch and came away with a 114-108 loss to the Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.

The loss dropped their record to 2-8. Four other teams have two wins, but none has as many as eight losses.

Four Warriors scored in double figures, led by D’Angelo Russell’s 30 points.

Here are three takeaways from the game in which effort didn’t always beget success:

Defense too often MIA

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Such basic defensive fundamentals as blocking out, never leaving shooters and remembering to force ballhandlers to their weak side too often were forgotten or disregarded by the Warriors.

This is happening with a degree of consistency. The result of such negligence on this night was a parade of OKC slashers getting to the rim and shooters left open from comfortable spots.

The Thunder shot 54.4 percent from the field, 46.7 percent from beyond the arc. In clear case of the Warriors breaking the KYP principle (Know Your Personnel), forward Danilo Gallinari, their best shooter, found enough to shoot 4-of-6 from deep.

OKC’s ball movement (30 assists), particularly in the first half, provided a textbook example of how to carve up an undisciplined defense.

Hurt by lack of rebounding

One night after being outrebounded by 10 in Minnesota, the Warriors were minus-8 (42-34) on the glass against the Thunder.

Losing starting power forward Eric Paschall to a hip contusion before the game probably didn’t help, but nobody moved in to fill that vacuum.

No matter how well the three centers are rotated – and Omari Spellman left the game with a sprained left ankle sustained in the second quarter – if a backup guard, in this case Damion Lee, is going to be the leading rebounder, there is a red flag. Lee grabbed seven rebounds.

If the Warriors can’t fix issue, they’ll continue to play with enough energy to stay close but nowhere near the amount of execution and attention to detail required to actually emerge victorious.

Rookie confidence issues?

Jordan Poole is a natural shooter who was drafted to provide scoring. But he can’t score if he won’t shoot.

Asked about Poole’s shooting slump before the game, coach Steve Kerr reiterated that he has no plans to replace him in the starting lineup and also that his perfect free-throw shooting is a better indication of his prowess than his low field-goal percentage.

And then Poole took the court and played as if he is discouraged by his missed shots. The starting shooting guard attempted two shots in 15 first-half minutes, and five over 35 minutes in the game.

Poole is 23-of-23 from the line this season, but he didn’t get there in this game. He finished with two points on 1-of-5 shooting and was the only starter that failed to score in double figures.

In this instance, the 20-percent shooting is less of an issue than either sagging confidence or sudden reticence.

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