After break, Warriors eager for stretch run

OAKLAND - When a reporter asked Kevin Durant Wednesday evening after practice if all the issues the Warriors went through before the All-Star break simply were the result of fatigue, Durant looked confused.

“All the issues?” he asked with a puzzled look.

“Yeah,” the reporter said. The Warriors lost four of eight games heading into the break, including a 123-117 loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on ?Feb. 14 - the Warriors’ most recent game.

And their four wins came against bad teams. The Warriors beat the Sacramento Kings, whose record is 18-39; the Dallas Mavericks, whose record is 18-40; the Phoenix Suns, whose record is 18-41; and the San Antonio Spurs, who were missing Kawhi Leonard, Rudy Gay, Tony Parker and Dejounte Murray.

“We’ve got 44 wins, though,” Durant said. Which is true. The Warriors record is 44-14 - second best in the Western Conference behind the Houston Rockets, whose record is 44-13.

“Things you want to correct,” the reporter said, correcting himself.

“Certain schemes and different ways to get into our offense,” Durant said, “different pick-and-roll coverages that we talked over and need to be better at.

“But we’re still a good team. I know it’s not the Warriors of the last few years, as far as the record is concerned, but we’re a damn good team. And I’m not going to sit here and let anybody say that we’re struggling, or hang our heads because we lost a few games. We’re still a damn good team. It’s just certain small things we have to work on to be better. Looking forward to figuring those things out.”

“We know our flaws,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “We know where we’ve been failing. And we know what we need to do to get things going again. I think our guys have a pretty good feel for that.”

Durant said he has a great feel for how to get things going.

“I took like four or five naps the last few days. Got some good sleep last night. That’s all I needed. I’m good.

“To get mentally tired is worse than getting physically tired, I think. Sometimes, you want to take your mind off of it, relax a bit and not worry about it.”

Kerr agreed with Durant, to a point.

“Some of it is mental fatigue,” Kerr said. “Everybody needs a break at this time. I’m glad the four All-Stars got a couple days to get out of town and get some sun.

“But some of it is poor habits seeping in over the last month or two. We’ve pointed them out. We’ve talked about them. We’ve shown them stats. We’ve shown them clips. I think those things are more likely to resonate now with the stretch run coming. Once you get to this point, guys start to pay attention a little bit more. We know who we are as a team, what makes us good. We need to get back to that.”

Kerr didn’t specify which particular poor habits the Warriors must get rid of. But Draymond Green sure did.

“Turnovers, getting off to better starts and being better defensively,” Green said. “Not turning the ball over would definitely help with the defensive side of the ball.”

Since Jan. 1, the Warriors rank 15th out of 30 teams in defensive rating, 23rd in first-quarter point differential and 28th in turnovers per game.

Now, they’ve had a week to rest and refocus. And they know the playoffs are fewer than two months away. Things are getting serious.

“We know what we’re working toward,” Green said. “We know what we need to do. We know what it takes to win a championship. We know now that we’ve got 24 games as a tuneup to get better and be ready for the playoffs.”

Has this season been more of a grind than usual for the Warriors?

“Definitely,” Green said. “But everybody is going through the same thing. Everybody plays the same amount of games.”

But the Warriors are preparing themselves to play late into the postseason.

“That’s true, too,” Green said. “But that’s what it takes to be a champion. That’s what we’re chasing every year.”

Maybe taking a few naps will help.

NOTES

Rookie center Jordan Bell practiced Wednesday for the first time since spraining his left ankle Jan. 17 during the Warriors’ 119-112 win against the Chicago Bulls.

“He looked good,” Kerr said. “He scrimmaged and went through everything. No noticeable limp or anything like that. We’ll see how he turns up tomorrow and take it day by day.”

Bell will not play tonight against the Los Angeles Clippers, Kerr said.

One player who will be available to play against the Clippers, according to Kerr: guard Quinn Cook. The Warriors recalled him from the NBA G League on Wednesday. Cook is averaging 24.1 points per game and 7.9 assists per game in the G League this season.