golden state warriors (Photo: LetsGoWarriors.com Instagram account)
Just a week ago and fresh off a 10 game winning streak, the media was touting the Warriors as legitimate title contenders.
After cooling off a bit with consecutive home losses including last nights loss to the league best Indiana Pacers, however, the media is again wondering if they really sit high among the NBA general picking order.
There’s no doubt that the Warriors are a solid playoff team and on a hot night can beat the best of the best such as the Miami Heat or the Los Angeles Clippers at home or on the road.
The problem is they just haven’t done this enough times to be considered one of the elite.
Carl Steward alluded to this in the latest “Inside the Warriors“ blog,
“Record against teams with a better W-L than they have: 3-9 (just one of those wins on the road, Miami, and the other two home nail-biters against Oklahoma City and the L.A. Clippers). Record against teams with worse W-L record than they have: 23-8 (all but two of those eight losses on the road, and one of the home losses to Memphis when it had Marc Gasol; the other was to Denver last week).”
The game against the Pacers almost seemed to be a microcosm of this very problem.
A slow start, strong comeback then a frantic finish without a victory at home left many wondering, “who are the real Warriors”?
As Adam Lauridsen pointed out, at times the Warriors seemed to be every bit as good as the championship caliber Pacers.
“This should have been a game that the Warriors circled on their calendar — a chance to test themselves against the NBA’s best record, at home, on national television. Instead of looking inspired to start, they looked indifferent. It’s impossible to know what caused the Warriors’ first-quarter malaise — fatigue from the heavy minutes forced by a nonexistent bench, overconfidence from another round of adoring press, or simply a lack of recent exposure to a team as good as the Pacers — but there was no doubt after one quarter whether the Warriors were on the same level as Indiana.”
The good news? Over the next three quarters, the Warriors showed that they might be close.”
For the Warriors when all the pieces are meshing, they can be every bit as good as anyone in the league.
Consistency, though, seems to be their over-riding problem according to Lauridsen.
“So how do the Warriors ultimately measure up against the team with the NBA’s best record? Much like you’d expect given their play over the first half of the season. When Curry is hot and the defense is locked-in (thanks usually to Bogut, Green and/or Iguodala), they can run with anyone. But they’re usually unable to sustain that highest level of play.”
The hope is that this can be solved before the end of the season so that they truly progress to the next level.
If not, they’ll continue to be a good team in a sea of many good teams.
“But there’s also something more intangible — an inability to gauge the necessary effort and intensity level from the opening tip — that continues to hold this team from greatness. As the Warriors learn from battles like this one against the NBA’s best teams, that final obstacle should be the easiest one to overcome. But they’re not there yet.”
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