The Brooklyn Nets visit the Golden State Warriors in San Francisco on Saturday night to kick off a home-friendly stretch of the team’s schedule.
When the Warriors won just one of their first seven home games this season, the Chase Center court did not treat Golden State well.
They won five of their first six away games to keep afloat in the Western Conference.
However, the Warriors have recently experienced both home and away setbacks. They lost to the Los Angeles Clippers 121-113 on the road on Thursday night, their sixth straight road defeat. They have won four in a row at home at the same time.
When you add it all together, the difference between away versus home games is 13–11, but that is also set to change. For the foreseeable future, Golden State will host 11 of its 13 games; its only outings will be brief overnight trips to Portland and Denver.
The first glimpse of the new starting lineup—which, naturally, does not include the suspended Draymond Green—will probably be given to Warriors supporters.
Unexpectedly, Golden State coach Steve Kerr switched things up again in Los Angeles, moving inexperienced rookie Brandin Podziemski to the position that struggling Andrew Wiggins had held.
“You have to experiment when you are a team that is trying to find our identity and trying to find momentum (and) win basketball games consistently,” Warriors star Stephen Curry said. “Changes were necessary.” You cannot anticipate different results by continuing to do the same thing.”
The Warriors lost for the third time in a row, but Podziemski may have found something. In his first start, he recorded four points, seven rebounds, two assists, and three steals after scoring twenty points and grabbing eleven rebounds off the bench on Tuesday in Phoenix.
Conversely, Wiggins also answered fairly effectively. He had been confined to a total of 24 points on 8-for-30 shooting in three games following the slamming of his right index finger in a car door. However, in his first regular-season appearance off the bench, he shot 4-for-9 and had nine points in 22 minutes.
The Nets, who have lost at Sacramento and Denver and won at Phoenix on Wednesday, will be aiming for their second victory in four games during their five-game Western tour.
After winning 116–112 against the Suns on the first night of a back-to-back, the team suffered a 124–101 setback in Colorado on Thursday.
In Denver’s high altitude, Brooklyn coach Jacque Vaughn was prepared to give his team an extension.
“I don’t like to use excuses, but I told my group I thought our intent was good coming into the game,” he said. We simply lacked it (against a squad that was well-rested and prepared for us). Emotional and mental aspects are difficult to deal with consecutively. simply lacked it.”
Vaughn was able to clear the bench in the fourth quarter, which was one bright spot in a game that was 90-67 at the half. Not a single starter was stretched above 27 minutes, and all seven of Brooklyn’s reserves played at least 14 minutes.
Although the Nets defeated the Warriors in both of their season series last year, they haven’t triumphed two games in a row at Golden State since 2004 and 2005.
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