Back to the future: Warriors vs. Knicks keys revisited

Well that was the worst game of the season. The Golden State Warriors did not play well against the New York Knicks. They did not play well, and neither did the refs. The game was sloppy, ugly, chaotic, and for the Warriors, downright poor.

Let’s see how they did with their pregame keys to victory. Spoiler: not well.

Bring energy

The key: Keep the energy on the second night of an emotional back to back.

The outcome: If there was a way to insert a fart noise right here, I’d do it.

The Warriors came out flat. Despite looking like an elite defensive team against the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, the Dubs gave up 40 first quarter points to a Knicks offense that is one of the worst in the NBA.

They looked uninterested, unenthused, and uninspired.

Hard to win like that.

Grading the key: 1.5 out of 10.

Confidence

The key: Play with the confidence that comes from being the better team, but don’t take a win for granted.

The outcome: Perhaps they hit the first part of this key, but they damn sure didn’t hit the second part. The Warriors looked like a team that expected to win, and didn’t expect to have to work for it. They played like they could just go through the motions and magically have the deficit erased at the end of each quarter.

You can probably guess how well that worked out.

The key: 1.5 out of 10.

Aggression

The key: Be aggressive against Mitchell Robinson.

The outcome: The Warriors actually did decently here. They earned 39 free throws, though part of that was due to the refs and the Knicks sloppiness. They had 44 points in the paint, which isn’t a number to praise, but isn’t awful either.

They didn’t seem phased by Robinson, though given how often they missed layups, perhaps they should have been.

Grading the key: 6.5 out of 10.

Blech.