Raptors will have hands full with Warriors
Stephen Curry off to hot start averaging 33.4 points a night for defending champions
SAN FRANCISCO— The Golden State Warriors have not reinvented basketball nor have they absolutely perfected the way game is played, but it’s hard to imagine a team dominating in so many ways as they are in the early stages of the NBA season.
They have the league’s most explosive and diversified offence orchestrated by the current most valuable player and his era-defining skills.
They are as proficient at defence as they are at offence, ranked first in the league by most analytical metrics, a facet of their play often overlooked when compared to the strength of their play at the other end.
They are not unstoppable but it must seem that way these days, and into the cauldron of the Oracle Arena go the Raptors, still reeling from coughing up what looked like a certain win on Sunday in Sacramento.
The Warriors are the early-season benchmark for other NBA teams to try to reach; they have not missed a beat since winning the championship last June. They are 11-0, the lone unbeaten team in the league.
The driving force is not hard to figure out.
Stephen Curry is averaging 33.4 points per game despite sitting out an average of more than a quarter each game. He has made 57 threepointers in 11 games, well on his way to eclipsing his league-record 286 set a season ago.
“He makes it look so easy night after night,” teammate Klay Thompson told reporters about Curry on the weekend. “Obviously, it’s tough for him to put these numbers up for 82 games but he surprises us every night.”
Curry’s dominance has not gone unnoticed by others who practise his craft.
“Man, I’m a fan,” Raptors guard Kyle Lowry said. “I’m a fan of the game and I’m a fan of what he’s been able to do and how he’s been able to get better. As a basketball fan, it’s pretty impressive, but tomorrow I’m definitely going to be a competitor.”
As much fun as it might be to watch from afar, it’s torture to try and plan against.
“I tell you what, the key with him is, his range is unbelievable,” Raptors coach Dwane Casey said. “I have never seen anyone in the league in my 23 years or whatever, or even in college.
“You say, ‘OK, we are going to get up into him.’ He takes two or three steps across half court and drills it. That is what makes him so dangerous.”
The Raptors — as it is with any team that plays Golden State these days — are going to have to be nearly perfect to pull an upset in Oakland on Tuesday. They are going to have to be far better than they were against the Kings, when they spit up a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead.
“It sucks that we gave it away, we’ve got to understand we’ve got to get a lot better,” DeMar DeRozan said. “When we’re up 10, whenever we have a lead, we have to understand teams are going to turn it up on their defensive end.”
With the Warriors, the defensive end is just part of the bigger equation. If they slip that way, they have more than enough firepower to make up for it with their scoring.
“One thing about this team is they are going to make shots,” Casey said. “You can’t hang your head, drop your shoulders and let it take your momentum and mojo away. You have to come out next play and not let them take that juice out of you when they make shots. It does test you. You have to be mentally tough to play a team like this.”