LOS ANGELES — Whoops, shouts, music and a rousing rendition of “Completely satisfied Birthday” had been so loud contained in the Lakers locker room that they might be heard out within the hallways. Outdoors Golden State’s locker room, there was silence, as these inside assessed what had gone so improper this season.
To the victor goes the noise. To the defeated goes an unusually early and sullen trip.
The reigning champion Golden State’s freewheeling, 3-point-centric fashion of play modified the N.B.A. and made Stephen Curry a family identify. However on Friday night time, the staff couldn’t muster up one final overwhelming flurry of deep photographs, bowing out to the Los Angeles Lakers in six video games within the Western Convention semifinals.
It marked the primary time a West staff had defeated Golden State within the playoffs throughout its dynastic run, which started in 2015 with the primary of 4 championships led by Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Inexperienced. However this season was among the many most tough of the final decade, marred by lengthy absences for key gamers, a confounding incapacity to win on the street, struggling younger gamers, and the fallout from Inexperienced punching a teammate, Jordan Poole, earlier than the season even began.
“This isn’t a championship staff,” Golden State Coach Steve Kerr stated after Sport 6, which the Lakers received, 122-101. “If we had been, we’d be shifting on. So you may take a look at the yr in whole and see all of the ups and downs, and there was every kind of stuff that went on and adversity that hit. However our group stayed collectively and competed until the top and made a reasonably good run.”
However “fairly good” has lengthy been beneath the requirements of Golden State, given the stature of Curry, who’s broadly thought of one of the best shooter in N.B.A. historical past. And now his staff might must cope with coming again right down to earth. It’s the basketball equal of confronting mortality.
“You’re disillusioned and type of shell shocked that it’s over,” Curry stated. “You’ve poured a lot into each season, however going off final yr you’re attempting to defend and provides ourselves the possibility to maintain advancing. It’s a troublesome means for the season to finish.”
The sequence in opposition to the Lakers marked one of the vital extremely anticipated playoff matchups in years, pitting Curry in opposition to the Lakers star LeBron James for the primary time for the reason that 2018 N.B.A. finals, when James was on the Cleveland Cavaliers. However this sequence in the end didn’t match the hype, with blowouts in 4 of the 5 video games after an exciting Lakers win in Sport 1. Curry and Thompson struggled on Friday, combining to shoot an abysmal 14 for 47 from the sector. Thompson, who made simply three baskets in every of the final three video games, stated this was “most likely the worst taking pictures sequence I’ve had in a very long time.”
Golden State now faces an unsure summer season; Curry known as it “unfamiliar territory.” With one of the vital costly rosters within the league, and a brand new collective bargaining settlement aimed toward curbing heavy spenders, Golden State is prone to attempt to convey down prices. It might be a stark transition for the staff, provided that it went from a rudderless middle-of-the-road franchise to one of the vital financially priceless ones with Curry on the helm over the previous decade.
“For us, it’s a possibility to type of take inventory of the place we’re at, preserve the arrogance that we are able to come again and be again at this stage subsequent yr,” Curry stated.
It would assist in the event that they get off to a greater begin. This season, Inexperienced punched the fourth-year guard Poole within the face throughout coaching camp. TMZ revealed a video of the punch, exposing the interior discord of a franchise identified for continuity and concord.
“Each season is made up of occasions. Some are nice, some aren’t,” Inexperienced stated after Friday’s sport. “I feel for this staff, extra of the occasions that aren’t so nice had been so public, and, you already know, that’s not one thing that you just usually do. And so the world is aware of, you already know, the powerful instances that this staff has had.”
Now Inexperienced’s profession is at a turning level. A four-time All-Star, he has a participant possibility for subsequent yr and is predicted to check free company. Inexperienced had considered one of his higher seasons this yr, however he turns 34 subsequent March, and Golden State might balk at providing him a most contract. Inexperienced has proven a penchant for impulsive habits, like punching Poole or racking up technical fouls, for which he ranked second within the league through the common season. The decision of his contract is the important thing domino in a summer season of retooling.
“I wish to be a Warrior for the remainder of my life,” Inexperienced stated Friday. “I wish to journey out with the identical dudes I rode in with.”
This season was a slog for Golden State. “It felt like we had been swimming upstream from the start,” Kerr stated.
Golden State began the season 3-7. It completed at 44-38 for the West’s sixth seed and had one of many worst street data within the league, at 11-30. Andrew Wiggins, a key contributor to final season’s title run, missed greater than half the common season due to an damage and an undisclosed private subject. Thompson, a five-time All-Star, struggled to seek out his shot within the first third of the season and he has noticeably slowed on protection after two main accidents lately.
If Thompson, 33, has doubts about his future in Golden State, or any skepticism that this staff can win once more, he didn’t present it on Friday night time. His contract expires after subsequent season.
“I can inform you, we gave it all the pieces we had,” he stated. “However I imagine that we now have greatness in our future nonetheless.”
Golden State may also must determine what to do with the younger gamers it has tried to develop whereas chasing a championship — a path criticized for putting an excessive amount of of a load on the 35-year-old Curry. Poole, 23, struggled mightily within the playoffs, an issue provided that Golden State signed him to a four-year contract extension in October price as much as $140 million. Different younger gamers, like Jonathan Kuminga and Moses Moody, each 20, had been out and in of the lineup all season.
As well as, the contract of Bob Myers, the staff’s basic supervisor for the final decade, ends this yr. Carrying the dynasty into its subsequent stage might fall to a distinct architect.
If there was one vivid spot for Golden State this season, it was its most magnetic determine: Curry. He performed a few of the greatest basketball of his profession — which meant a few of the basketball that anybody has ever performed. Within the first spherical of the playoffs, Golden State confronted the third-seeded Kings in Sacramento for a decisive Sport 7. Curry scored 50 factors — essentially the most ever in a Sport 7 — and hit seven 3-pointers. It was a reminder of the magic that had made his groups so nice.
However Curry stated Friday that reaching the convention semifinals was not “an ethical victory.”
“There’s numerous delight in what we achieved,” he stated, “however there’s additionally an understanding that this isn’t ok.”
