Warriors’ finger-pointing has begun and is needed to correct course

Warriors’ finger-pointing has begun and is needed to correct course originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

As the Warriors stack exasperating losses like Shohei Ohtani dollars, they have reached the place spiraling teams take pains to avoid. At the corner of blame game and finger-pointing.

And there is Steve Kerr, in the middle of the intersection, wagging his finger and assigning blame. At the coach.

After initially threatening to have the Warriors watch every turnover – all 29 – that sent them tumbling to a 138-136 loss on Friday in Oklahoma City, Kerr a few hours later backed off his players and turned the energy upon himself.

“I didn’t show them to the team; that was a lot of smoke on my part,” he told reporters Sunday in Phoenix, where Golden State faces the Suns on Tuesday. “I threatened to, but I didn’t end up doing it.”

It probably was the proper decision, but Kerr did isolate a few miscues to make a point about what needs to be done by the coaching staff and him and the players. The focus was on decision-making and execution.

“As the head coach, I’m responsible for both,” Kerr said.

Poor decisions and sloppy execution were the primary sources of those turnovers against the Thunder and so many other opponents this season. Only four NBA teams, with a combined 18-68 record, hand out more gifts.

To put a finer point on it, the Warriors have gone 14 consecutive games without winning the turnover battle.

Video review reveals the fault lies with players and also coaches, particularly the execution.

“I’m seeing areas where we can do a better job of teaching our concepts within our offense,” Kerr said. “For example, we had three illegal screens, maybe four, and our timing was off on the screens.

“Everybody’s really smart in the league. We’re the number one off-ball screen-setting team in the league, for our shooters. Everybody’s learned [to] run into the screener and flop. There were probably four of those the other night, and we have to…