Golden State Warriors Moving Forward in Wake of Christmas Day Collapse

OAKLAND, Calif. — The Golden State Warriors’ downtown Oakland practice facility was, by all outward appearances, imbued with the very sense of joyfulness and camaraderie that has become standard operating procedure in the Steve Kerr era. 

Stephen Curry faux-karate kicking an assistant coach beyond the arc. Kerr whipping a pigskin around like he’ll be backing up Matt McGloin for the Oakland Raiders in Sunday’s regular-season finale. Smiles and laughs everywhere you looked.

Yes, the crushing Christmas Day collapse in Cleveland was still a fresh memory in the minds of everyone within earshot, but this team doesn’t do lingering heartbreak. It acknowledges, and it moves forward.

Having come home from this brief three-games-in-four-nights road trip to hunker down for a 10-game quasi-homestand—nine at Oracle Arena plus one a bus trip away in Sacramento—the Warriors are facing the midseason slog head-on with the NBA’s best record at 27-5. They have a leading MVP candidate in Kevin Durant and three more top-20 players, all healthy and ready to make another long playoff run.

But for one last day, they did have their say on what transpired against the Cavaliers.

“We were up the entire game. We just didn’t close it out,” Draymond Green said, who wasn’t so talkative on Sunday, answering one postgame question before splitting.

With a couple of days to reflect, Green simply felt the Warriors gave away a game they can’t afford to from here on. “A couple of plays down the stretch, we just gotta execute and we didn’t do that,” he added.

Indeed, with a 14-point lead and less than 10 minutes remaining on the game clock, there was every reason to expect Golden State to close out a statement victory on the road. “We made a bunch of mistakes,” Green said. “That game shouldn’t have even been that close. We should’ve easily won that game by 15 points.”

Green brought up the idea of confidence linked with momentum and how the Warriors not only blew opportunities to put away the Cavs but also committed mistakes that swung the win probability pendulum with swiftness and certainty.

Green was, of course, asked about the NBA’s admittance in Monday’s Last Two Minute Report. It decreed that not only should Richard Jefferson have been called for a foul on Durant during the game’s pivotal final play, but that LeBron James should’ve been whistled for a technical foul for hanging on the rim after a dunk as well.

Though Green himself was called for a tech a week ago against the Utah Jazz for doing almost the exact same thing, he wouldn’t take the bait, putting his hand up several times and refusing to go full Draymond on what he was thinking. Finally, he opened up, if only a little.

“If we do what we gotta do, it doesn’t come down to that Last Two Minute Report anyway,” he said. “Not that I care about that report or not. It’s kind of pointless. But yeah, it should’ve never got to that point.”

Who did lay into …

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