The Warriors dropped their last two games to teams they should have beaten on paper.
With the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers missing star players, role players like Ryan Rollins and Quenton Jackson took the spotlight. Draymond Green explained why that happened in the latest episode of his podcast, "The Draymond Green Show."
"Any time a star [goes] out against us, you're always going to have guys that step up and just play out of their minds," Green said. "That is the Warrior effect, that is the effect you get when you have had the success that we have."
Green explained that with the Warriors' prestige, younger and relatively unknown players take the matchup as an opportunity to play their best basketball.
"You figure a lot of these young guys that come into the NBA now, they grew up on the success that we've had," Green continued. "So when they come into that game, it's their NBA Finals. It's their childhood dream come true. And so, you always get the absolute best version of guys ..."
"... No excuse to why we lose those games, but then I think for us where we have to grow is, you have to put the fire out before it gets started."
On Saturday, the Warriors held an 11-point lead over the Pacers with 6:05 remaining in the game. Indiana closed the game out on a 21-5 run to beat the Warriors 114-109.
"You're talking about a team that was [0-5] and we got the game in complete control, and then just down the stretch, let it go," Green recalled. "That's not a characteristic of this team since Jimmy [Butler] has come to this team, but that was something we were struggling with before. We can't fall back into that."
Last season, the Warriors lost four games in which they had a double-digit lead during the fourth quarter. Three of those blown leads were before the team acquired Butler.
According to Green, the problem lies on the offensive side of the ball.
"I think offensively we got to figure it out. We got to figure our spacing out, we got to figure the turnovers out," Green explained. "The turnovers are adding up more and more each game, and they're costly. We got a really good defense; it's hard to get your defense set when you're just turning the ball over.They're not playing against our half court defense, and again you get back to the thing where you're allowing guys to get off, that allows guys to get a rhythm and get to feeling good."
Golden State looks to bounce back this week with a Western Conference slate that doesn't get much easier, starting with back-to-back games against the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings at home and on the road, respectively. The Warriors will play the Denver Nuggets on the road on Friday.