Jordan Poole has few answers amid tumultuous postseason
Warriors G Jordan Poole didn't want to talk much after 104-101 loss to
Lakers, sinking defending champs into 3-1 series deficit
>Golden State Warriors’ Jordan Poole (3) looks back at teammate Stephen
Curry (30) during the second quarter of Game 4 of the NBA basketball
Western Conference semifinal playoffs at Crypto.com Arena in Los
Angeles, Calif., on Monday, May 8, 2023. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area
News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: May 9, 2023 at 6:40 a.m. | UPDATED: May 9, 2023 at 10:17 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/05/09/jordan-poole-has-little-answers-amid-tumultuous-postseason/

LOS ANGELES — Jordan Poole sat in a folding chair facing the inside of
his locker with his back turned to the center of the cramped visitors’
locker room.

He didn’t want to talk much after the Warriors’ 104-101 loss to the
Lakers on Monday night.

“I don’t got nothing for y’all,” he said as music blared from his iPhone.

Poole, a key piece to last year’s improbable championship run, has had a
rough go this time around in the playoffs and he’s provided few answers
as to why, mainly because he said he’s also stumped.

Poole did not register a point in 10 minutes of play Monday night for
his third straight bad outing.

Poole earned himself a nine-figure extension last offseason by stepping
up big when Stephen Curry was injured and being a dependable sixth man
on a championship team. But he hasn’t been able to replicate that on a
consistent basis this year.

What has changed?

“I really can’t tell you,” Poole said. “I wish I had answers for you. I
wish I had one.”

>Golden State Warriors' Jordan Poole (3) dribbles against Los Angeles
Lakers' Jarred Vanderbilt (2) in the second quarter of Game 2 of the NBA
basketball Western Conference semifinal playoff series at the Chase
Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Thursday, May 4, 2023. (Nhat V.
Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

Poole posted 20.4 points per game on 43% shooting in the regular season,
during which he was one of only two Warriors players to appear in all 82
games, but his offensive efficiency has plummeted in the playoffs. Poole
seemed to be heading in the right direction after a rough first round
against the Kings when he opened this series with the Lakers by putting
up 21 points and draining six 3s.

But Poole has gone cold since, going 5-for-19 from the field and 0-for-8
from deep over the last three games.

Poole put up a dud in Monday night’s loss that sank the defending champs
into a 3-1 series deficit. He finished 0-for-4 from the field and
watched most of the third quarter and all of the fourth from the bench.

“He didn’t have it going,” coach Steve Kerr said when asked about
Poole’s second-half minutes. “It’s a game where you’re going possession
by possession, and we had other guys who were playing well… We just went
to other guys. That doesn’t mean Jordan can’t come in and play a big
role in Game 6 or Game 5.”

But he has to earn that opportunity, and Poole acknowledged as much
after the game. Poole’s scoreless outing in Game 4 followed six- and
five-point efforts in Games 2 and 3, respectively.

Poole said “nothing changes” with his routine during a rough stretch
like the one he’s encountered.

“Just work. It’s bigger than the moment right now in the long run,” he
said. “[You] want to be the best player you can be. Work ethic doesn’t
change, routine doesn’t change. Maybe opportunity changes, but you can
only control what you can control. So you got another game in a couple
of days at home.”

Poole’s role has fluctuated across both playoff series, with his minutes
going up and down depending on his play and what the team needs.

The young guard’s teammates say they are still confident in him.

“We get questions about him a lot and our whole team, we’re all together
in the sense of trying to figure out how to win playoff games,” Curry
said. “We all have to make adjustments, we all have to play better
considering we’re in a 3-1 hole. So there’s no sense of isolating him in
this situation. It’s all about collectively what can we all do to be better.

“The conversations we have in film sessions, on the bench, in the locker
room, are consistent throughout the season especially in the playoff run
of trying to answer that question. So he’s a part of that, we’re all a
part of that, and if we’re gonna get out of this whole, we all have to
play better.”

>Golden State Warriors guard Jordan Poole (3) and Los Angeles Lakers’
Dennis Schroder (17) react in the fourth quarter of Game 1 of the
Western Conference semifinals at Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif.,
on Tuesday, May 2, 2023. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter
Madeline Kenney is the Bay Area News Group's Golden State Warriors beat
reporter for The Mercury News and East Bay Times. A Nebraska native, she
is graduate of Loyola University of Chicago. She holds a Bachelor in
Communication degree, with a major in broadcast journalism and minors in
sports management and marketing, and is a friend of Sister Jean, the
103-year-old nun who became famous during the Ramblers’ 2018 run to the
Final Four, Madeline previously worked for the Chicago Sun-Times
covering everything from sports to crime and politics. When she’s not
working, she enjoys trying new restaurants and exploring the great outdoors.