Week 10 Recap and a Look Ahead: We're Going Streaking!
NBA plays all Christmas day; we got to watch five real good games… or whatever it says in Carol of the Bells. What we do know is that the Golden State Warriors had arguably their best week of the 2019-20 NBA season thus far.
Maybe it was the resurgence of Stephen Curry’s comical celebrations from the bench or the fact that the team had a Christmas day game, or possibly straight-up improvement as a unit. Whatever the case may be, the past week of Warriors basketball was an exciting glimpse into the foundation of a championship-caliber team.
That glimpse started Monday night again the KAT-less Minnesota Timberwolves. Going into the fourth, the Warriors led by 17 points--holding as much as a 24 point lead. With the Dubs being in control for three-fourths of the game, it felt safe to say, just once, they could have a rare blow-out win. Not a thriller, not a painful loss, or moral victory-- just a good old-fashioned route in their favor.
Welp, it was not safe to say, that good old-fashioned route did not happen, and the fans of San Francisco got a thriller. The offense got sloppy; shot selection became an afterthought, and after a horrid start, the T-Wolves finally started to get buckets.
In what felt like a slow, Carrie’s-mother-type death, that Warriors’ lead disappeared. It was a six-point game, and it looked like the Warriors could blow it and lose any momentum they might have carried over from Friday night’s win against the New Orleans Pelicans.
Thankfully Kerr’s squad stepped up, caught a few breaks, and did just enough to prevent Minnesota from completing the comeback, pulling out a 113-104 win. They improved to 7-24 and have put together a winning streak for the first time this year.
“We just needed to win a couple of games in a row just to get a little momentum and feel good,” Steve Kerr said after the win.
Late game execution has been the Dubs’ achillies heel this year, but Monday night was the second game in a row where Kerr’s group made the right plays down the stretch to outlast their opponent. Even more, it showed that the current group is developing a strong feel for the game, even more so than simply just making plays to stay in the game only to lose in the end. They have developed the instinct to know what plays to string together to win a game. That instinct eliminates the possibility of the Warriors losing games by beating themselves. Now, other teams will have to outright beat them.
That concept spilled into their Friday night game against the Phoenix Suns. After three quarters, the Suns led by 12. They led by 12 shooting at a 50% clip while committing 21 turnovers. So it was mixed three frames for the Suns, but they still had a double-digit lead going into the fourth.
That lead was largely behind the Warriors’ play. They had shot just 37.1% from the field before the start of the fourth quarter. It couldn’t be chalked up to strong defense from Phoenix, either; the Warriors weren’t executing. From poor shot selection to wide-open shots turning into bricks all the way down to avoiding contact on drives, the team wasn’t clicking on all cylinders.
With that said, throughout the entire game, the feeling was the same: if the Warriors could find any consistency on offense, they’re going to win this game. And that consistency came in the fourth. They moved the ball, and more importantly, put the ball in the basket, they allowed for plays to develop while taking care of the basketball-- committing zero turnovers in the final quarter. Their defense stepped up as well. They continued to force turnovers, adding another five to Phoenix’s tally. They rotated on a string, closed out on shooters, and finished each play with a rebound.
Their fourth-quarter spurt stopped them from beating themselves and led to a 105-96 victory-- adding to their longest win streak of the season.
But, no team is invincible despite whatever newfound pep in their step they have. Saturday night, they faced off against the Dallas Mavericks, who in short have not been too kind to fellow young teams this season. Despite the Warriors playing well through the first three quarters, Dallas had control of the game from start to finish beating the Dubs by 20.
But that game shall be brushed off because the highlight of the week happened on Wednesday afternoon. The honorable, highly coveted, Christmas games came and went. The first two games of the day lit Twitter on fire with complaints left and right about the entertainment factor, or the lack thereof.
Then came the Warriors game. They hosted James Harden and the Houston Rockets, a fan favorite matchup in the Bay and on social media.
Houston, after another postseason exit due to the Dubs, was expected by the talking heads to “handle” the Dubs. ESPN’s The Jump dedicated a segment to predict how many points Harden was going to score on the Warriors-- each host agreeing that it would be more than 40 points.
Well, that didn’t happen. In fact, Harden didn’t crack 25 points, mostly behind the brilliant defensive game plan Steve Kerr and his coaching staff developed.
The Dubs used Draymond Green, and at times the center on the court, to trap Harden at half court instead of the regular blitzes and run and jumps he’s been seeing and destroying.
By initiating the trap at half court, particularly with lengthy defenders, Harden was forced to get rid of the ball earlier and make longer passes. Teams generally blitz Harden in the pick and roll, usually around the three-point line, making the pass out of the trap a short bounce pass to the wing or even a lob to the center. A longer pass makes for more time to close out or even read the passing lane completely. The lob option becomes null and void, while Harden is taken out of the play. With Harden out the play, someone else has to create. And that someone was the Rocket’s Russell Westbrook, who is a former MVP himself. Westbrook led the Rockets in scoring with 30 points on 11-of-32 shooting. The rest of the Rockets starting lineup combined for 12-of-32 shooting while the bench contributed just 15 points.
Meanwhile, the Dubs had three players score above 20 points and five total in double-digits. Damion Lee led the team with 22 points, 15 rebounds, and three steals on 5-of-9 shooting from the field.
Their offense clicked from start to finish, with each player finding a way to step up and make big plays down the stretch. Whether it was a Glenn Robinson III rebound to end a defensive stop or a Draymond Green three, the Dubs out-executed the Rockets in what felt like a classic Warriors-Rockets matchup.
Kerr and his group finished on top 116-104 in the biggest Christmas day upset in the history of the day.
Aside from the great feeling of a winning streak and beating the Rockets in the process, the current group’s development is a glimpse at what could be the bench of next year’s team. Insert Curry and Klay Thompson into the lineup, a possible fifty points, with D’Angelo Russell, Robinson, Marquise Chriss, Alec Burke, Eric Paschall, and Ky Bowman. Now you have the maturity and consistent scoring threats-- who demand a double team-- along with reliable rotation players who know the system. The bigger picture looks good.
Granted, it’s not fully painted. There can be other players acquired through trade, free agency, or even the G-League roster that can further complete the picture. Nevertheless, the picture is looking pretty nice right now.
Moving forward, the Dubs will travel to San Antonio to face the Spurs Monday night. After Monday’s action, the Dubs will see the Timberwolves Thursday night and the Detroit Pistons Saturday night.
The Warriors will have to build on their current moment found this week by putting together complete games. While there play has been a leap to where they started the season, they still have lapses within the 48-minutes that have caused them to lose big leads or get down double digits early. The mark of a good team is not becoming content. If you’re up 20, push it to 40. If you’re on a winning streak, extend it. The Warriors are playing good, but they can play better. Hopefully, we can see this growth continue into this upcoming week.
You can catch the Dubs in action Monday night at 4:00 PST on NBC Bay Area.