The Golden State Warriors surrendered 143 points in regulation on Sunday as they lost to Luka Doncic, Klay Thompson and the Dallas Mavericks at home. It was the team's eighth loss in their last 10 games as they've gone from the second-best record in the NBA to tied for sixth place in the Western Conference.
The face of the Warriors' struggles over the last month has been Brandin Podziemski. Coming off a promising rookie campaign Podziemski has seen all his numbers dip and frustration with his play get more and more public. Between his coach, teammates and Warriors fans, the tension has become palpable and things got weird again against the Mavericks as his teammates left him out to dry in the fourth quarter.
After receiving the ball in the corner, he pump faked and let Luka Doncic fly by. Podziemski took one dribble and went to take a shot, but Doncic recovered. In fact, Luka did a full lap around Podziemski continually contesting his shot before finally blocking him.
Podziemski had Luka all over him in the corner and the Warriors let him drown pic.twitter.com/4YEkiJMQ08
— CJ Fogler 🫡 (@cjzero) December 16, 2024
The thing is, nobody came to help. Podziemski's teammates did nothing but stand still, or in the case of Draymond Green, back away slowly. No one came to help. He was in the corner without a dribble. Someone should at least flash to the basket.
Maybe that's why Steve Kerr felt compelled to give Podziemski a compliment after the game despite the fact that scored just three points on five shots in 16 minutes. During those 16 minutes he apparently did a good job on defense. You wouldn't think anyone did a very good job on defense when you surrendered three points per minute, but you have to look for bright spots sometimes.
— WarriorMedia (@WarriorMedia_) December 16, 2024
Despite Kerr's endorsement, social media was full of people saying, "trade Podz" during and after the game with the clip of him floundering in the corner surrounded by Luka Doncic being used as evidence it was time for the Warriors to move on.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Luka Doncic Locked Up Brandin Podziemski So Tight Warriors Fans Want Him Traded.
