By JANIE McCAULEY AP Sports Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Coach Steve Kerr criticized his Golden State Warriors for being down and lacking “a competitive spirit” in their latest embarrassing loss.
“If you don’t have that you’ve got nothing, so we’ve got to find a way to build that back up,” Kerr said after a 114-98 loss to the Miami Heat on Tuesday night.
That followed a 30-point pounding from the Sacramento Kings two nights earlier.
Draymond Green is calling for the Warriors to rediscover their soul.
Stephen Curry is making it clear he can hardly do it all himself.
At one moment in the second half on Tuesday the two-time MVP looked up at the scoreboard almost as if in disbelief about how it was going. The Warriors are missing shots and missing defensive assignments when it matters most.
“Back-to-back no-shows pretty much,” Curry said. “… Nobody’s giving up hope. You’ve got to have a sense of urgency, though.”
There’s a lot of soul searching going on for this group at Chase Center.
Green addressed the team after Tuesday’s demoralizing performance.
“We can’t be front-runners, we have to dig in, we have to find our soul, that’s what Draymond kind of said,” Trace Jackson-Davis shared. “It’s our soul that we’ve lost, we’ve lost our spirit and we have to get that back.”
Golden State shot 14 for 50 from 3-point range and went 40 of 98 overall (40.8%).
Curry wants no finger-pointing or comparisons, just a collective effort to turn the season around — acknowledging “this particular team hasn’t done anything.”
“At the end of the day we are a team and we are all tied together, we’re all accountable for the results of each night how our season ends up,” Curry said. “It’s not just a me and Draymond thing, it’s not just a me thing, it’s a we thing. So what we all need to do is play with confidence, play with assertiveness, play with a belief that when you step on the floor you can beat anybody. Whether it happens or not that has to be the mindset.”
The Warriors missed the playoffs last year then began this season a promising 12-3 and with championship aspirations as Curry and Draymond Green try to add to the four titles they’ve captured together.
“When you experience winning you hate losing even more,” Curry said.
Now, Golden State is 18-18 and tied for ninth place with San Antonio in the jammed-up Western Conference. The Warriors were a 10th seed last season and were eliminated by the Kings in the play-in tournament.
Sure, forward Jonathan Kuminga is sidelined for at least a few weeks with a sprained right ankle, while guards Gary Payton II and Brandin Podziemski are expected back from injuries sometime during the upcoming four-game road trip.
Frustrated fans flocked for the exits early for a second straight game at Chase Center, where the blowout by the Kings still stung.
“I expected better energy. I think we’re suffering from a crisis of confidence right now frankly,” Kerr said. “You can see it, you can feel it. I don’t mind missed shots but I mind when missed shots affect the defense and the attitude. We feel deflated right now and there’s no room for feeling sorry for ourselves in the NBA. In life in general. We can’t let disappointment dictate our approach to a game, we have to do the opposite. We have to bring more fire, we have to outcompete our opponents when things aren’t going our way.”
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