Golden State Warriors Struggle Vs Bucks on Christmas day

 

            The Golden State Warriors  are still trying to shake off the rust on this newly formed team. On Christmas evening the Warriors would lose to the Milwaukee Bucks 138-99 and the Bucks won their very first Christmas game in over 50 years! Khris Middleton would lead the charge with 31 points in just 26 minutes of play while maintaining an efficient FG% of over 65%. In an interview with Bay Area reporters earlier in the week Warriors Coach Steve Kerr would say "Right now, we're nowhere close to being a good team..that showed." All night Golden State appeared to struggle with defensive communication. In just the first 3 quarters they would allow 100 points and 138 points for the game overall. So the Warriors are probably happy for their former DPOY player Draymond Green is returning Sunday vs Chicago which should help with the Warriors defensive misunderstandings and should take a chunk of the ball handling duties off Steph's hands.

 Golden State Warriors star Guard Stephen Curry would Continue to struggle to shake off more than 5 months of rust. Curry for the game had 19 points 6 assists and 4 Rebounds but would shoot 20% from behind the arc and 35% from the field. Curry's playmaking ability has been expanded now that he is without Draymond, Klay Thompson, and Durant. Curry was continuously able to hit teammates out of the pick and roll all night and was able to hit passes leading to fouls as well. Although it's impressive Curry will need to score better as although they still have 70 games to play Curry has not lived up to his MVP season expectations so far. 

 Curry has been having his struggles but the 19-year old rookie James Wiseman would make his presence known vs the Bucks! He was blocking shots (led the game with 3 blocks) and he was successfully getting easy shots at the basket in pick and rolls. Wiseman would look extremely comfortable and confident in his 3 point shooting as he had no hesitation shooting his shots. Wiseman would lead the Warriors in made 3 point field goals with 3 and only took 4 attempts. Steph Curry when asked about James Wiseman would say "We talk about adjustments we need to make, hopefully they'll let him shine even more as we get into sync."

On the other side of the spectram the other superstar in this matchup Giannis Antetokounmpo would also fail to perform to his standards. Giannis would score 15 points on 14 shots and would miss 8 of his 15 free throw attempts. His 3 point struggles continue to stay the same as the Warriors had no problem leaving Giannis open from deep and he would shoot 0/3 from behind the arc. 

The Warriors as a unit shot 32% from the field and 22 percent from 3.  The Warriors are now outscored by a total of 65 points through their first 2 games, the second highest ever through the first 2 games. Only behind the 1987-88 Clippers who were outscored by 71. In a postgame interview Steve Kerr would say "We just had 2 good days of practice with our execution, working on getting into offense, hard cuts and reads. we did not execute much of anything. It was just scattered and disorganized. Im disappointed in that and need to take the blame for that."

But Andrew Wiggins and Kelly Obrue poor play would continue vs the Bucks. For the season these two players combined for on 14/58 shooting and 2/21 from 3PT.  There's struggles seem to be meaningless to Steve Kerr. According to Warriors reporter Anthony Slater Kerr in an interview would go on to say "Kelly's Going to be fine. Andrew's going to be fine. They are both proven players in this league. Ive got to do a better Job in putting them in positions were they can be comfortable." Kerr seems to believe that the bad play from Curry, Wiggins, and Obrue is just temporary and will find it's exit as the season goes on. Golden State Warriors are now 0-2 but have 70 more games to make up for it if the wish to secure a playoff spot.