Warriors get tough 7-game homestand
After an eventful fourgame trip to open the season, the Warriors are 2-2 and bracing for perhaps the most challeng ing stretch of their season.
As the only team in the NBA that has not yet played a home game, the Warriors are looking forward to playing the next seven at Chase Center. But they’re not getting much relief.
“It’s kind of weird, I don’t feel like there’s much home- court advantage having been on the road,” Steph Curry said after playing four games in empty arenas. “But being in our own space, in our routine and to be around our family, hopef ully that’ll be a positive for us.
“We got a pretty tough schedule coming up,” Curry added, “so we’ve got to take advantage” of every edge available to the Warriors.
Starting with Friday’s home opener against the Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State will play seven games in 12 days — six against teams that made the playoffs and another against the surprisingly frisky Sacramento Kings.
This will be yet another challenge in an uncompromising schedule that started with games against championship contenders in Brooklyn and Milwaukee. After getting drubbed by a combined 65 points, the Warriors beat two winless teams — Chicago and Detroit — and started to learn how they need to play.
The Warriors came into the season knowing they wanted to play fast and launch 3-pointers. After four games, they rank second in pace and sixth in 3-point attempts per game with 39.5 — five more than any previous team under Steve Kerr, now in his seventh season as coach.
After failing to score 100 points in either of the first two games, the Warriors scored 129 in Chicago and 116 at Detroit. Granted, the competition was different. But so was the Warriors’ approach as Kerr simplified the offense to incorporate more pickand-roll.
The new approach has allowed Andrew Wiggins to settle into a play-making role, find his rhythm and emerge as a secondary scorer while Draymond Green has been sidelined because of foot and conditioning issues.