More Than Just a Bad Start for Warriors

SACRAMENTO -- It's not so much the Warriors' 1-4 start that's the problem. It's the teams they've lost to and the manner in which they've been defeated.

Nobody expected the Warriors to be among the Western Conference elite. But they shouldn't be a team that can't compete with the L.A. Clippers and Sacramento Kings. But they can't. Not now.

What a miserable weekend it was for the Warriors. And you could tell by taking one stroll through the locker room after their 120-107 loss to the Kings on Sunday that there's more to this tough start than just a tough start.

"No identity, that's it," Corey Maggette said. "There's no identity, there's no chemistry ... so we've got to figure it out. It's chaos."

Don't be fooled by the 13-point margin of defeat. The Warriors were down 112-87 midway through the fourth period before a late run made the final score more cosmetically appealing.

On Friday, the Clippers took apart the Warriors 118-90 at Oracle Arena, a place where Golden State usually can hold its own. We'll see if they can't do that against the Timberwolves there on Monday.

For the second straight game, Warriors coach Don Nelson was in no mood to elaborate on his team's performance. He spoke to the media for fewer than two minutes after the loss to the Kings. On Friday after the Clippers' loss, he was on the dais for less than 60 seconds.

He spent half his time on Sunday praising Paul Westphal and the Kings before getting around to his own squad.

"Again, we didn't have a very good game," Nelson said. "I thought we gave it our best effort and it wasn't good enough. That's really all I have to say."

Said Stephen Jackson: "Another beatdown. What can I say? It's just all bad right now."

Jackson was like a lot of Warriors on Sunday. His numbers didn't look all that bad – 21 points on 7-of-16 from the field – but those numbers mattered little because the Warriors weren't really in the game for most of the night.

"It can be tough, but you have to stay positive," Jackson said. "What else can you do? They're already looking for somebody to blame it on so I ain't going to be negative. I'm going to stay positive and say we've got a lot of work to do and try to get this one (Monday)."

Monta Ellis struggled against the Kings, finishing with just nine points, five assists and zero answers.

"I don't know ... I don't know, man," Ellis said. "Like I said last game we've got to figure it out somehow. If I had an answer I would give it to you. At this point I don't know. At this point all we can do is try to play our way out of it. We can't talk no more. Can't say this, can't say that, get through this as a team. It's a tough start but the only way we're going to get out of it is if we get ourselves out."

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