Warriors showing signs of a surge entering new year after road win vs. Hornets originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
While many card-carrying members of Dub Nation now accept the Warriors with their obvious limitations, a few true believers keep waiting for the moment when it all clicks, when they transform into a team nobody wants to face in the playoffs.
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Some of those true believers are on the payroll, spanning the organizational depth chart. They are predisposed to optimism.
All, however, could look at Golden State’s 132-125 victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday and see at least a dim glow of momentum. The Warriors, for the first time this season, have won seven of 11 games.
Moreover, the Warriors have won five of their last six – also the first such stretch this season. That could mean something. Not that a 50-win season is in store but that maybe they’re figuring out some of the issues that baffled them through the first 28 games.
“We still need to play fast, but not as fast as we once did,” Draymond Green, still fighting his turnover habit, said in a radio interview with Tim Roye. “The possession battle matters a lot more. We seem to get better stuff in the half court when we’re slowed down, as opposed to rushing, turning the ball over. We’re really trying to do a better job taking care of the ball and then we’ve got to be a great defensive team.”
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Coach Steve Kerr’s 15th starting lineup – Stephen Curry, Moses Moody, Jimmy Butler III, Quinten Post and Green – has been intact for seven games. Rotations are trending toward consistency.
“Coach has talked to us about rotations and trying to have consistency, even though we’re playing a lot of guys,” Curry told Bonta Hill, Chris Mullin and Festus Ezeli on NBC Sports Bay Area’s “Warriors Postgame Live” after the win. “The consistency is just organization on offense and understanding where shots are going to come from. And how we’re trying to create good looks using Jimmy when he’s out there with that second unit, and then me and Draymond creating offense, and we’re out there.
“I think guys are starting to understand it a little bit more, see the pictures more and play with confidence. That only makes us better as a group.”
Three days after Kerr’s latest dip into masochism – “I feel like I let us down tonight” (in a loss at Toronto on Sunday) – he was sharing his big-picture strategy for a team whose 18-16 record has been marked by constant change in search of efficiency.
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“Steph, Dray and Jimmy, they’re all in a good rotation pattern,” Kerr told reporters at Spectrum Center. “Everybody else just has to be ready to play when their name is called. The way the game is played, with the pace and all the 3-point shooting, we’re going to play a lot of people, and we’re going to play a lot of people in short bursts too. It’s a little different, but we have to get used to it.”
It seems Kerr has settled on a closing lineup, with Curry, Butler and Green joined by De’Anthony Melton and rookie Will Richard. It’s a solid defensive unit, as indicated by Charlotte scoring 25 points in the fourth quarter after averaging 33.3 through the first three. This came two nights after the Nets shot 6 of 19 in the fourth quarter in Brooklyn.
The bench, which has bounced between terrific and sub-ordinary, is trending toward reliability, with Brandin Podziemski and Gui Santos thriving of late, along with Gary Payton II, Melton and Richard. It’s beneficial, it seems, when roles and rotations are clarified.
Though turnovers through reckless passing continues to hurt the Warriors, their improved offense is showing signs of offsetting their tendency for self-harm. They gave Brooklyn 19 points off turnovers on Monday but shot 55.3 percent from the field and made 28 free throws. They then gave the Hornets 28 points off 19 turnovers but shot 55.4 percent from the field, including 49 percent from deep, and 94.1 percent from the line.
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“Our offense has dramatically improved; we’re scoring at a much higher clip now … Six games in a row, with 120 or more,” Kerr said. “We haven’t done that in a while. It just feels like we’ve got a better rhythm.”
These Warriors are built with the belief that the unique brilliance of Curry, the ingenuity of Butler and the tenacity of Green will be enough to contend for the NBA Finals. It’s not. Two months into the season, they seem to understand and accept that it’s not.
It has become abundantly clear that decisive wins will be rare for these Warriors; only three of their 18 wins were by more than 20 points.
There will be more clutch games. Many more. The roster, still in need of at least one impact player, looks more capable of being vastly superior to what was on display through the two months of this season.
Golden State’s next 11 games, 10 of which are at Chase Center, will tell us whether this is the new reality or yet another mirage.
