What we learned in the Warriors’ win over the Grizzlies

The Warriors have now won eight-straight games, following a 117-101 win over the Memphis Grizzlies Monday in Oakland.

Here’s what we learned in the contest:

It was a formula that was tried and true last season – the Warriors, bored and/or complacent with their supremacy, would mess around for the first two quarters of a game and head into the locker room for halftime either trailing or tied with their plucky, try-hard opponent.

At half-time, there would be murmurs –questions about the NBA’S best team. The questions were inevitable, the Warriors are supposed to be invincible, even if the were ultimately superfluous, because, time and time again, when the third quarter started, so did the Warriors.

Within minutes of the second half starting, the game would so often be blown wide open. Golden State’s top players frequently took the fourth quarter off, the margin accrued in the third was so significant.

Those kind of performances were predictable, but nevertheless spellbinding. The Warriors made those “magical” third quarters something more than a quirk or a trend – they became inevitable tsunamis of points and defensive stops. They were short glimpses of perfection.

But 10 games into this campaign, the Warriors were yet to have one of those magic third quarters, making one wonder if they were perhaps nontransferable over seasons.

Monday’s win –Golden State’s tenth in 11 games – over the Grizzlies should answer that question.

These Warriors still have plenty of magic for the third.

Golden State blitzed Memphis at the start of the second half on Monday, opening up a 19-point lead in the third, effectively ending the game.

It was a definitively Warriors performance, but, frankly, I felt like the Grizzlies were hard-done by the third-quarter script flip.

The Warriors – these 2018-19 Warriors – are one of the greatest teams in basketball history (when it’s all said and done, expect them to be on the shortlist), and the fact that they were able to keep the game close in the first (they were tied at halftime), should have told us that the third-quarter knockout was coming.

I love what Memphis is doing this season. They look every bit like a Western Conference playoff team, to my eye. They’re not only a strong team on both ends of the court – they have a great style too. As a sucker for great big-man play, watching that Marc Gasol and Jaren Jackson front court was a true joy for the first houror-so of Monday’s game.

But for as good as the Grizz might be– as enjoyable as they are to watch – they’re not even close to the Warriors’ level, and four quarters simply isn’t a small enough sample size to obscure that truth.

Perhaps the Grizzlies can take solace in the fact that they forced the Warriors to bust out a thirdquarter blitz — something no other team has done this season.

And maybe the Warriors –remembering who they are – will go fall back into old habits. (Remember, they used third-quarter blitzes in both Games 6 and 7 of the Western Conference Finals.)