Warriors on pace for assist record
Team has excelled to date, but it’s had a weak schedule, and rebounding is still poor
MEMPHIS — Twenty games is often used as a practical sample size by those within the NBA. The Warriors have now played 23 games, winning 20 of them.
So as they prepare to close out this current road trip in Memphis, Minnesota and New Orleans over the next four days, let’s check in on eight relevant statistics that help tell the tale of the first quarter of this Warriors season.
1. Assist explosion — The Warriors have an NBA-best 731 assists this season. The Celtics, at 544, have the second-most assists. The Mavericks, at 395, are last in the league. So that’s a 187-assist difference between the No. 1 and 2 teams in the league and a 149-assist difference between the No. 2 and No. 30 teams
That’s the kind of ball move-
ment chasm the Warriors have created. They’re on a different plane than everyone else. In Steve Kerr’s first season, they led the league at 27.4 assists per game. Last season, they bumped that NBA-best average to 28.9. Through 23 games, they’ve jumped that number to 31.8 per game, seven more than any other team.
It also puts them on pace to average the most in NBA history. The 1984-85 Showtime Lakers averaged 31.4 assists per game, the most ever for an entire season. The Warriors may threaten that record.
2. Rebounding differential — Rebounding remains the most exploitable flaw on this strengthening monster. The Spurs killed the Warriors on the glass in the opener, grabbing 20 offensive rebounds. The Clippers bulldozed to 17 on Wednesday, staying in it with four early putbacks.
This season, Golden State is grabbing only 74.1 percent of available defensive rebounds, the thirdfewest in the NBA. You’re not going to out-shoot, out-small or out-run them. Teams must cling to the hope that they can out-size them inside and pick at that soft spot.
3. Rim protection — Brute size doesn’t always equal rim protection. Length and timing often do the trick. The Warriors lead the NBA in blocks per game at 6.6 and have two guys among the top-18 in the category. Draymond Green averages 1.45. Kevin Durant, who recently had a career-long streak of six straight games with at least two blocks, averages a team-best 1.7.
But it isn’t just the pure block number. It’s the success rate on all contests. Opponents are shooting 48.8 percent at the rim when a Warrior defender is in the vicinity this season, per NBA.com/Stats. That’s the third-stingiest rate in the league and 2 percentage points lower than Golden State allowed last season. A supposed Warrior problem has actually become one of the team’s strengths.
4. Individual/team 3point shooting — Here’s a shocker: Both Steph Curry, at 40.1 percent, and Klay Thompson, at 38.7 percent, are shooting at career-LOW clips on 3s right now. Green’s rate has plummeted, too. He was at 39 percent last season. He’s at 33 percent now. Durant sits at 40.7 percent, slightly up from his career average.
But that’s three of the Warriors’ four main shooters experiencing substantial dips in their 3point percentage, sinking them, as a team, down to 38 percent. Even without Durant, they finished last season at 41.6 percent. That’ll be interesting to monitor, but also scary for opponents. This offense is already scoring with historic efficiency despite shooting uncharacteristically poorly from 3. What if that changes?
5. Turnover barometer — The Warriors averaged 32.5 assists and only 14.4 turnovers in their 20 wins this season. But they averaged 27.0 assists and 17.7 turnovers in their three losses. Which shouldn’t come as a surprise. When the Warriors take care of the ball, they’re dominant. When they flub it away, they’re beatable. The turnover number is often a barometer.
6. Center spot distribution — The most intriguing rotational question entering the season was at center. This is how it has played out, on average, so far: Zaza Pachulia, 17.5 minutes per game, David West 10.7, JaVale McGee 7.3, plus some occasional scraps for Kevon Looney, James Michael McAdoo and Anderson Varejao. That doesn’t equal 48 minutes because, for heavy chunks of games (and often the most important moments), Green is the team’s center.
7. Free throws per game — The addition of Durant was supposed to help the Warriors get more free throws per game. It has. Golden State is averaging 24.9 free throw attempts, 10th-most in the NBA, up from 22.2 last season, which was 23rd. Durant leads the team, taking 6.8 per game. That’s not near his career peak of 10.2, but in this ball movement, non-isolation style, he’ll likely never near that number again.
8. Weakness of schedule — An underrated factor in Golden State’s dominant start: A weak schedule. Warriors’ opponents have a cumulative 49.4 winning percentage, giving Golden State the 12th-easiest strength of schedule so far. And that doesn’t even account for the 10 times they’ve faced a team on the second night of a backto-back and the number of teams who have missed key starters against them (Mavericks, Pacers, Lakers, Jazz).