Warriors rookie encounters "12 black minutes", losing by 12 points in a single quarter, but hiding new hope

Podemski violated the rule of dribbling for 8 seconds, Kuminga was troubled by fouls, and Moody did not dare to take a shot while hesitating. On a night when the Big Three took a rest, the young Warriors encountered a "black 12 minutes". In the third quarter, they were lost in the high-intensity confrontation of the Kings. They lost 12 points in a single quarter and gave away the victory of the game.

Today's game perfectly explained the reason why the Warriors are unable to compete for the championship. The three major players, whose total age is 107, do not have enough physical fitness to play a full 82 regular season games. The fact that they were able to play through half of the game exceeded expectations. In a large number of games, they need to rest, recover, adjust their physical fitness, and regain their energy and passion for the game. In these games, the Warriors can only rely on a group of young guys to take the lead. What is the level of the Warriors' young boy? They can't beat the Kings, who are last in the Western Conference, and today's Kings are missing two stars.

In terms of personal performance alone, the young Warriors did their best. Kuminga, who has always wanted to be the team's top star, showed his responsibility in this game. He acts as both a father and a mother, both offensively and defensively. As the Warriors' top attacker, he scored 24 points and made as many as 8 free throws. As the leading defender on the front line, he took over the burden of guarding DeRozan. Before being "touched" and troubled by fouls in the third quarter, Kuminga did not let the Kings' top star make any big waves. After three quarters of the game with full offensive and defensive output, Kuminga collapsed at the end of the game, and the offensive and defensive effects were greatly reduced. This was also a helpless move.

Moody pitched the most accurate game of his NBA career. Throughout the game, he inherited the glory of the Warriors' shooter, constantly resisting pressure, sniping from outside the three-point line, and made 6 three-pointers in the game. Without Moody's exaggerated three-point touch, hitting shots again and again on key points, the Warriors would have been unable to maintain the suspense of the game until the last moment. Richard, a first-year player, not only made 5 of 8 open three-pointers, but also used a ghostly air-cut sneak attack to confuse the Kings. He became the second rookie to score 30 points in a single game this season, a miracle that not even the top pick could achieve.

Young people really work hard. Fighting spirit and passion are very important in the NBA, but if you want to win, you can't just rely on "spirit". At a certain moment in today's game, Warriors fans seemed to have traveled back to 2020. During that epidemic season, there was not a single star on the Warriors court. A bunch of young people and D-League players fighting for their lives every game. But that season, the Warriors only won 15 games in total and ranked last in the Western Conference.

But to a certain extent, games similar to those in 2020 are what the Warriors should really look like at this stage. When Curry only has the physical strength and energy for a dozen games throughout the season, it means that the team has actually entered a rebuilding period. What is the reconstruction period? That is "nurturing Gu", allowing young rookies to start playing, using actual games to pay their tuition, and allowing them to grow through setbacks. Without experiencing these moments, young people will always be "flowers in the greenhouse" and cannot be independent.

Many of the problems with the Warriors' collapse in the third quarter can be simply understood to be that young people do not have enough experience. To put it bluntly, in the past few years since entering the NBA, the Warriors' rookies have not really experienced pressure. Under the fierce defensive intensity, the person who broke out of the siege was Curry. In the inside penalty area, the person who faced the opponent's highest level of confrontation was Dream Green. When Curry was absent due to injury, the players who took over the pressure from Curry were Poole, Klay Thompson and Jimmy Butler. The young Warriors are just tools for supporting players. They have never really faced muscle strength.

Tactics and wisdom are just the embellishments of victory. Since ancient times, winning in the NBA requires muscle and blood. A brave young man, but not good at using muscles.

Podemski, who was in the third grade, was trapped by mediocre physical talent and seemed at a loss in the jungle of muscles. In a really intense game, he had unstable ball control, inaccurate shots, and couldn't score at the basket. There was no way to break the game other than asking the referee for a whistle. Moody, who is in fifth grade, is also not good at confrontation. When faced with the king's fierce bites, he will be confused, stunned, and hesitant. In confusion, he would dribble the ball out of bounds for no apparent reason; in panic, he would take the initiative to pass the ball to his opponent. Richard, a first-year player, scored 30 points, but that doesn't mean anything. After all, the Kings were letting him go throughout today's game, without letting him really feel the intensity and pressure.

Facing the real intensity of confrontation, Kuminga is obviously more mature among the young players in the Warriors. This kind of maturity was developed by the Warriors in the first half of 2023, when Curry's physical condition was in a mess, Akira Akira was given the ball to focus on. But the "half-baked" pressure resistance level developed in half a season is also not enough to win.

Kuminga is indeed capable of confrontation and has breakthrough impact, but his talents are currently only used on the court to "abuse". Facing the "thin dog" defender, Kumingjia can score points one-on-one in the low post. Facing the slow-moving big center, Kuminga this season can also complete one-on-one blasts through his hard-earned ball-holding skills. But as the top star of a team, there will not be so many "soft persimmons" waiting for Kuminga to deal with. It is destined that he will encounter many "hard problems." Facing the tough battle, Kuminga did not have the level to deal with it.

Fans can see today that Kuminga's level is not that bad. He can score enough points through fast breaks and misplaced singles against Monk and Schroeder. But if the opposing defensive players are a little more aggressive, for example, the Kings' first-year players Clifford and Leonard can show murderous looks and resist "three axes". Kuminga was immediately discouraged. He had no idea how to deal with the follow-up of the attack.. At the decisive moment of the game, when Kuminga had to face the cunning DeRozan, the young man finally lost his timidity. With physical confrontation taking advantage, Kuminga chose a fadeaway jumper, directly ruining the Warriors' hopes of chasing points.

But the basketball court is ultimately a stage for young people. We cannot let the old people "occupy the toilet and not shit" just because the newcomers make mistakes and keep paying tuition. A group of old people have no competitive ability. The 40-year-old Horford has been unable to make shots and defend in several consecutive games. Can the Warriors really count on him to carry the weight of the inside? If the 36-year-old Westbrook and DeRozan still have the strength to fight, they won't be so excited that they won a "miscellaneous game". The game of basketball is a confrontational sport. Veterans who are powerless will eventually be eliminated by the times.

It is impossible for Curry to play with the Warriors until he is 50 years old, and the "flowering period" of Dream Green and Butler will not exceed 2 years. The moment of burying the "Centenary Mountain" will come sooner or later. A professional NBA team has its own laws of life. Young people played a game similar to today's, and the Warriors returned to the "right path."