Update on the Golden State Warriors’ Super Team: Still without Kevin Durant, they’re even better than anyone thought.
As they waltzed through Texas, scoring impressive victories over the Rockets and Spurs, the two Western Conference teams who are supposed to give them the hardest time, they drove that point home in a 24-hour span.
“We know what it takes to win,’’ Curry said after the Warriors dominated the Spurs in a 110-98 victory after falling behind 23-3. “We understand what we have to do to win. I think now we understand how important our defense is for us winning, especially in the playoffs.''
With their Texas sweep, the Warriors became only the fifth franchise to win 60 games over at least three straight seasons. They're 61-14 and with only one more road game, they're looking at a 68-win season. Not that they care -- if you remember what breaking the record and winning 73 games meant in the end last season.
But here they are with another 60 wins and this is minus Durant for 16 games and counting as he rehabs his way back from a sprained MCL and bone bruise in his left knee. They're still beating opponents by almost 12 points per game, tops in the NBA.
Are you kidding?
A month ago in the Bay Area, there was wide-spread panic when Durant went down to a knee injury over how'd they fall without their MVP -- but just not inside the Warriors’ locker room. Curry, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green remembered a few things about winning one championship without Durant and getting to a second straight Finals without him.
They put that knowledge on display with the Rockets looking to make a statement, and then in their last matchup with the second-place Spurs until a potential West Finals showdown.
Even with Durant in street clothes, neither Texas team had a chance. Who does, when the Warriors boast some of the game's top shooters, along with the No. 1 defense?
The Warriors are also the best defensive team in the NBA where it matters most in the NBA these days – guarding the three-point line. They’ve emasculated the Rockets where they live: They're the only team in the NBA to hold Mike D’Antoni’s team under 10 three’s per game. Against the Dubs, the Rockets are just 26-for-110 (24%) beyond the arc.
Otherwise, Houston has been setting all kinds of three-point records with their MVP candidate, James Harden, who made only 5-of-20 shots against the Warriors, albeit with an ailing wrist. The Warriors are making a habit of shutting down the league's top players for the No. 1 award. Ten days ago they held Oklahoma City's Russell Westbrook to only 15 points, on 4-for-16 shooting, while preventing him from registering his standard triple-double. Next came "The Beard'' taking a shave.
''They missed some open ones, but that's obviously a big focus for us when we play these guys,'' Warriors coach Steve Kerr said after the Houston game. ''We try to keep them off the line, run them off the line and force them to beat us with two’s.’’
When the Warriors can do that, while Curry and Thompson are lighting it up from three-point land, you’re officially dead. They’re No. 1 in the NBA in field goal percentage defense and No. 1 in three-point percentage defense.
Twenty-four hours later, they followed up their monster defensive effort in Houston by going into the Spurs’ AT&T Center, where they never used to win, and putting on a defensive clinic. Even trailing by 22, they never panicked. Why would they? They trailed Oklahoma City 3-1 in the Western Conference Finals and recovered from that deficit, with the 73-win season on the line. So trailing by 22 in a regular-season game in San Antonio isn’t spooking these guys.
This time they cooled off Kawhi Leonard, the Spurs’ MVP candidate, who couldn’t escape one defender after another. Leonard was in charge in the first quarter as the Warriors appeared to still be waking up. But once they came to, he made only four of his final 11 shots and was held to 11 points over the final three quarters, as the Warriors went on a 93-65 game-ending run.
Here’s the tough part for Gregg Popovich: He saw his team, en route to another 60-plus-win season, toyed with over the final three quarters with Durant cheering from the bench.
“We didn’t get great movement,’’ Popovich said. “We didn’t get great shots. All their switching bothered us. That’s why they’re the best team in the league.’’
The scary thing is, they'll have Durant for the playoffs and have the potential to simply overwhelm anyone standing in their way. He was their MVP when teammate Zaza Pachulia crashed into his knee on Feb. 28 in Washington. In his first season in the Bay, he was shaping up as their top defender, not the easiest thing to do with Green on hand. Never known as a great defender when he was with Oklahoma City, Kerr had Durant pegged for his first-ever All-Defense selection.
Without Durant over these past four weeks, the Warriors were expected to get hit where they were most vulnerable. They’d miss Durant’s scoring, but he also gave them their best rim protection with his length and size on the back line.
But this isn’t 2016 anymore. Last June, when they lost Andrew Bogut for Games 6 and 7 of the Finals against Cleveland, their defense absorbed a major hit. Not as big as losing Green for Game 5 when he retaliated against LeBron James and was suspended for what turned out to be the decisive swing-game in Oakland.
When Durant went down, there was talk that they’d bring Bogut back after he reached a buyout with the Sixers. But it was a bad parting last summer. More than that, the Warriors felt that Bogut’s presence was overrated and sometimes the outspoken Aussie wasn't worth the trouble. Sure, there were four or five plays every game where they needed his size, but they felt they could still manage.
The Warriors have shown in racking up a nine-game winning streak without Durant that they're miles ahead of the Cavs, still their biggest threat, at the defensive end. They simply took Leonard out of the game.
''We've got a lot of good defenders on this team,'' Kerr said. ''It's a luxury to be able to put Andre Iguodala, Matt Barnes, Sean Livingston, Klay Thompson to mix it up and throw different bodies. It's helpful for us.''
It’s going to help their cause even more when Durant returns, perhaps for the last regular-season game or two. Look at what the Warriors are doing now to the best teams in the league without him.
Even LeBron can't like his chances.
