Guard scores 44 with 10 assists, McGee starts
While most of his colleagues spent All-Star break vacationing in tropical locales, Warriors manager of basketball analytics Sammy Gelfand pored over numbers.
His assignment was imperative to the stretch run of the regular season: Wade through analytics for the defending NBA champions’ most pressing flaws. Gelfand found that, despite having the same starting lineup, Golden State’s defensive rating in the first five minutes was significantly worse than
it was last season.
Such data prompted head coach Steve Kerr to make a rare midseason rotation switch, supplanting center Zaza Pachulia in the first unit with JaVale McGee. It helped pave the way for the Warriors’ 134-127 win Thursday night over the Clippers at Oracle Arena. After seizing its biggest lead at the end of the first quarter in more than three months, Golden State traded buckets for the most part with L.A., exorcising the memory of its pre-break doldrums.
“I understand we haven’t been as great as most people expect, and we expect, but we’re still a damn good basketball team,” forward Draymond Green said. “We don’t need no ‘It’s a step in the right direction.’ You may get that out of someone else, but I don’t really roll like that.”
Still, plenty of warts remain for a Warriors team that counts complacency, not any single opponent, as its biggest obstacle. It slowly squandered an 18-point, second-quarter lead, letting the Clippers cut the margin to two points early in the fourth and again after a Lou Williams three-pointer with 2:26 left, before Golden State created distance with an Andre Iguodala dunk and two Stephen Curry three-pointers.
A day after its first mandatory practice since the All-Star break, Golden State put on a scoring clinic. Curry poured in 44 points on 14-for-19 shooting (8-for-11 from three-point range). Back to its imaginative, movement-heavy ways, Golden State shot 62.7 percent from the field, including 14-for-25 from deep.
The issue was that in getting out-rebounded 8-3 on the offensive glass, the Warriors enabled L.A. to hoist 13 more shots than them. After winning five of their final six games before the All-Star break, the Clippers hardly wilted when they found themselves in a 46-28 hole early in the second quarter. They opened the fourth on a 10-2 run to close the gap to 104-102 with 9:07 left.
But in a game that featured only one tie and two lead changes, L.A. couldn’t overcome a sluggish start. The Warriors, seemingly well-rested, rode their new-look starting lineup to a 19-11 lead little more than five minutes into the game. By the time Curry drained a 37-foot heave as the first-quarter buzzer sounded, Golden State was up 34-23.
It was all a feel-good development for a team that has had little remedy this season for its lackadaisical starts. Though they had outscored opponents by a combined 488 points in the second, third and fourth quarters, the Warriors entered the All-Star break having been outscored by 24 points over the opening 12 minutes.
Gelfand, a master at finding basketball’s most telling stats, was given strict instructions: Learn what’s ailing Golden State and pass on his findings to Kerr’s staff. By that measure, Thursday’s victory was rooted in the work done while much of the team was relaxing on beaches.
“I just want to stay focused and definitely impact the game in a positive way,” McGee said. “That’s just being a force.”
After the game, Kerr said that McGee would start again Saturday against Oklahoma City. His speed, energy and shot-blocking ability offer a much-needed jolt to a group that has been far less productive than its pedigree would suggest is possible. Pachulia, who started the first 118 games he played with Golden State, was productive off the bench Thursday, scoring six points and setting a slew of textbook screens in seven minutes.
“We are just trying something a little different, that’s all,” Kerr said. “We got off to a good start, so we’ll do it again Saturday and we’ll see where it all goes. We are experimenting a little bit.”