Pacific Notes: Warriors, Westbrook, M. Brown, Wall

The Warriors‘ road trip, which began last Saturday in Charlotte, has been a disaster so far. Golden State has dropped consecutive road games to the Hornets, Pistons, Heat, and Magic and is now just 3-6 on the season. Recognizing that something needs to be done to jump-start the defending champions, head coach Steve Kerr said after Thursday’s loss in Orlando that rotation changes are likely coming, according to ESPN’s Kendra Andrews.

“We’ve had nine games now, so we’ve had a decent look at combinations. It’s time to try something different,” Kerr said. “Everybody’s gonna get a chance to play. We’ve got guys who are dying to get on the floor, and we’ve got to find combinations that play. We will look at that as a staff.”

As Andrews points out, the Warriors’ starters haven’t been a problem so far this season — Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Kevon Looney have outscored opponents by 60 points during their time on the floor, the best point differential of any five-man group in the NBA. However, things have generally gone downhill when the starters begin to check out of the game.

Kerr and the Warriors will get an opportunity to try to figure things out without their stars available on Friday. As Anthony Slater of The Athletic (Twitter links) relays, the team is resting Curry (right elbow soreness), Thompson (Achilles injury management), Wiggins (left foot soreness), and Green (lower back injury management) on the second night of a back-to-back.

Here’s more from around the Pacific:

  • Bringing Russell Westbrook off the bench has “undeniably unlocked” the best version of the former MVP, according to Jovan Buha of The Athletic, who argues that the move could even change the course of the Lakers’ season. As Buha tweets, coach Darvin Ham said after Wednesday’s win that one of his goals is to get Westbrook into the conversation for Sixth Man of the Year, which signals that he doesn’t plan to move the point guard back into the starting five anytime soon.
  • Clippers two-way center Moses Brown had his best game of the season in Wednesday’s win in Houston, racking up 13 points and seven rebounds in just 12 minutes. However, an increased role for Brown may not be a long-term solution to the second unit’s struggles, since head coach Tyronn Lue wants to get more production out of the team’s small, center-less lineups, writes Andrew Greif of The Los Angeles Times.
  • Although John Wall is considered one of the Clippers‘ veteran leaders, his situation is different than it was in Houston, when he was a mentor to a very young roster, says Law Murray of The Athletic. “We have so many veteran guys here, so I don’t think they need no mentoring,” Wall said, adding that he’s still willing to help out young players like Brown, Brandon Boston Jr., and Moussa Diabate if they have questions for him.
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