by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Warriors had a hiccup in games two and three of the second round with the Memphis Grizzlies. The Warriors defense was not as intense as it needed to be. Their offense was way off they weren’t hitting the shots. Warriors head coach Steve Kerr sat them down after game three and they watched a tape of the game instead of practicing. The Warriors after that review saw for themselves that they looked lackadaisical they just weren’t doing the things that you need to win in those two games in the playoffs against an experienced Memphis team.

If you want to beat a team like the Grizzlies with two powerhouse guys down low like Marcus Gasol and Zach Randolph you really got to put the effort in. There’s no doubt about it this was a really rough series for the Warriors, the Warriors really had to get physical in a way that I haven’t seen them get all season long and in decades.

The Warriors are a team that have the capability and they learned it all own their own and experienced it all on their own. Until they did that and saw that in games two and three they had a lack of effort in games two and three. They beat the New Orleans Pelicans in the four game sweep and it wasn’t an easy sweep by any means as the Pelicans Anthony Davis made sure of that.

Except for that big come back in the New Orleans series when they were really tested even in that big comeback they were really playing their game. They didn’t need to elevate themselves to any degree. That late comeback performance against the Pelicans was something we saw them do several times. The Grizzlies were a team as physical as would find in the NBA.

The Warriors need to learn how they play and change their strategy and with an adjustment all the way around. When the Warriors got to game six on Friday night and actually games four, five and six the Warriors really came out ready to play. They were ready for those three games, the last three games with the Grizzlies the W’s were fantastic.

From start to finish that was the best sequence of games that we’ve seen them play all season long because the Warriors were ready on offense and they were ready on defense. Memphis really didn’t get anything going too hard against them. The Grizzlies appeared to be making it close but the Warriors kind of shut it down. The Warriors will be going through some drills between now and Tuesday night which is game one of round three of these playoffs.

David Zizmor does Warriors commentary each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen the podcast below