NBA Playoffs – Warriors Down One
The definition of team is a group of people working together for a common goal. The Warriors are a team and they are working together for the NBA Championship and have been doing well until now. Why? Steph Curry is injured. Even though they are a team who does pretty well without Curry they are a team who does miraculous with him. So then my question is, are they a team or a one man show?
And what happens when a teams success is centered around one individual? What happens is they they start losing, the rest of the team doesn’t play as well and they start to unravel. Is this because they don’t have their leader on the court; but shouldn’t they have another leader?
Sometimes in these situations a team doesn’t know what to do mentally or physically and they don’t make any changes to deal with it. So how do they get it together without their leader on the court? One way is for the team to acknowledge that there’s an impact and learn how to mentally adjust. (The other is to not give one person so much power.)
Before Saturday’s game, Kerr said his players had done a good job of adjusting to life without Curry. It is not ideal, of course. He will need to regain his timing and conditioning once he does return. During Saturday’s game, Draymond Green scored 37 points for the Warriors, and Klay Thompson had 35. (With Stephen Curry Absent, Warriors Take a Beating)
But after Saturday’s game Kerr said he felt that his team’s ball movement was stagnant, and he cited other problems. “We couldn’t get a loose ball or a rebound to save our lives,” Kerr said, adding, “I just didn’t feel like we played with the desperation that’s necessary to win a playoff game.” (With Stephen Curry Absent, Warriors Take a Beating)
Systems work when all the pieces remain the same. That doesn’t mean a new system won’t work but it takes an adjustment. In the case of Steph Curry being injured during the NBA Championships, the system needs to readjust quickly. They are still in a two-games-to-one lead going into Game 4 but add the recent loss on top of the mental gap of leadership and hopefully it’s not a recipe for disaster.
It’s important to understand the impact of having one dominate player on a team (on the court, in the media and with the fans). It does impact the rest of the team whether they are active or inactive. How do you prepare for this?
Go Warriors!
Dr. Michelle
Photo cred: commons.wikimedia.org
