Are the Warriors Peaking at the Right Time?
It was expected to be a tough Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals. The Mavericks were fresh off a huge Game 7 against the Suns, and Luka Doncic was looking unstoppable as the rest of the Mavs seemed locked and loaded on both ends. The fact that their last game was an embarrassing blowout of the league’s best team record-wise meant the key players on Dallas got some extra minutes to rest, and while it’s still difficult to play right after that kind of high-energy series, they looked squared away to make the Warriors work for it.
Until, of course, they didn’t.
There wasn’t really a moment where the game felt like it was even. Golden State put up a very balanced attack on both ends, getting contributions from a ton of different guys, finishing the game with 7 players in double figures. Leading them all in scoring - and rebounding, strangely enough - was none other than Steph Curry, who couldn’t get his three-ball to go down. He also had a few hiccups at the line, missing two in around (something that seemed impossible) and another later in the game.
The Warriors were moving the ball well, they were pressuring the rim, and they were hitting the open shots. They made it tough on Luka, and the rest of the Mavericks just couldn’t get it going from deep despite shooting well. That’s unlikely to happen again, but this game showed the Warriors are starting to click again after a brutal series against Memphis.
The Warriors, of the remaining teams in the playoffs, have the highest win percentage over the past two months, including the games leading up to the playoffs. This wasn’t unforeseen, however, as they’d been playing with several guys rotating through the roster for long stretches of the regular season, and they have a tendency to turn things up a notch in the postseason, specifically the Western Conference Finals. So it leads to the question: Are they reaching their apex just in time?
The keys to Golden State’s success have been a few things. The first is the rebounding, which has been phenomenal as of late. They grabbed 70 boards against the Grizzlies in Game 6, with a lions share of 22 belonging to 6’9 center Kevon Looney, and they picked up 51 last night with Steph Curry’s 12 leading the pack this time. They’re making the “lack of size” arguments look silly with their efforts, doing the little things like securing the ball to make up for oddly-poor stretches of shooting.
The second has been their defense. While it’s showed signs of sluggishness, Andrew Wiggins in particular has stepped up big-time, defending each team’s best perimeter players. He drew a lot of the Ja Morant assignment after Gary Payton II went down, and did so well enough. Last night, he was a huge reason the Warriors held Luka to only 20 points and forced 7 turnovers from him. Payton II was excellent in the first round, and of course, perennial Defensive Player of the Year candidate Draymond Green has been doing his thing as well. The Dubs have bottled up reigning MVP Nikola Jokic, a young and hungry Grizzlies team, have the chance to do the same to Doncic as the series goes on.
The third key has been their scoring inside the arc. The Warriors lead the playoffs in shooting percentage within 5 feet at 72% and are second to the now-out Phoenix Suns in mid-range efficiency at a hair under 47%. Their three-point shooting is so notoriously lethal that teams have been selling out to guard outside, even with Golden State’s struggles out there.
The mid-range has been there, and the Warriors have been hitting it. Both Steph and Klay Thompson are shooting 48% from the area which the NBA’s stat-tracking labels “the mid-range”, which is anywhere outside the restricted area and the paint. Despite Curry’s slump of 35% shooting from three, he’s found other ways to make up his points, sometimes by launching more threes but also by getting to the rim. Against Dallas, a much smaller team than the Grizzlies, this should be more of a commonality for both him and Jordan Poole.
The Dubs play again on Saturday for Game 2 at home, and while this was a solid win to kick off the series, the turnover issues remain. If they can clean up and take care of the ball, this series could be over in as little as 4 games. If they don’t, however, it could extend to 6 or 7 just as easily. The Mavericks have been down 0-2 in both of their prior playoff series this season, and Luka Doncic is a remarkably special player who should never be counted out. While the Warriors are climbing closer and closer to peak efficiency, they can’t be considered at the height of their powers until they stop coughing the rock up so much.
(Photo credit: Noah Graham / Getty Images)