Warriors’ porous defense in 2022-23 NBA season highlighted by alarming stat

Alarming stat highlights just how porous Dubs’ defense is originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea

Despite Steph Curry scoring 50 points against the Phoenix Suns on Wednesday at Footprint Center, it still wasn’t enough as the Warriors fell 130-119.

While Warriors fans can point the blame on the fact that the rest of the starters scored 52 points combined or the lack of bench production, perhaps the most glaring issue in the 2022-23 NBA season has been Golden State’s defense.

Typically a stout defensive unit under Warriors coach Steve Kerr, Golden State has given up 125 points or more for the sixth time in 15 games.

What makes this very alarming is that the Warriors only allowed 125 points or more twice last season, en route to the 2022 NBA championship.

Before the Warriors’ loss to the Suns, the Warriors were allowing opponents to shoot 46 percent from the field, 12th in the league, and 34.9 percent from 3-point land which is ninth-worst in the NBA.

Golden State also had the seventh-worth defensive rating (113.8) in the league.

However, after the loss to the Suns, the aforementioned numbers are bound to change — not for the better — as the Warriors allowed Phoenix to shoot 51.2 percent from the field (44-of-84), 52.5 percent from 3-point land (21-of-40) and 84 percent from the free-throw line (21-of-25).

Various players and Kerr have explained how porous the defense has been to start the season, which in turn allows the opposing team to get comfortable on the offensive end.

RELATED: Kerr calls out Dubs’ ‘lack of focus’ on transition defense

The good news for Warriors fans is that the team knows what it needs to fix if they hope to repeat as champions.

The bad news is that even though Golden State knows what needs to be fixed, there seemingly doesn’t appear to be a definitive answer on what can be done to rectify the situation.

It remains to be seen how the Warriors respond to adversity they’ve not experienced before.

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