Brooklyn, blahs beaten
Remaining focused is tough before playoffs start
With 18 games left in the regular season, the Warriors appear to be on cruise control. Or is that snooze control?
Tuesday night’s game against the Brooklyn Nets featured a little bit of both. Golden State jumped out to a huge lead, ripping off a 25-0 run at one point in the first quarter. Up by 16 early, it felt like garbage time would start in the second period. The game felt unfair.
Then the Nets woke up and
AL SARACEVIC
the Warriors went to sleep, letting a clearly inferior team back into the game. It was back and forth for a couple of quarters before the natural order was restored. The Warriors prevailed 114-101 with one eye shut.
This is the Warriors’ conundrum. Most every night, all season long, they’re clearly the best team on the court. They can turn it on when they need to, but it seems to be a chore at times. This has been the case for years now, but it’s still the biggest obstacle they face, other than the ever-present danger of injury. (See Bell, Jordan.)
But how can you blame these guys? How do you maintain focus and hunger through a regular season that’s really an
endless rehearsal for the playoffs?
“Tonight, we got off to a great start . ... I don’t think we played that bad in the second quarter,” Stephen Curry said, “but that’s where the talent in the NBA can sneak up on you.”
“If you can’t get motivated at this point in the season . ... ,” he said, before trailing off. “Right now, we can pretty much smell the playoffs coming. We have to understand we’re a talented team. We have the pedigree. But you can’t just flip the switch. It’s enough talking really about that. It’s just going out and executing, building those habits and the right expectations, night in and night out, to get ready for five weeks from now.”
I suppose this is the price of greatness. The Warriors are wrapping up their fourth straight season of greatness, and much of the mystery and intrigue is gone. In a league top-heavy with super teams, the regular season has lost its luster. It’s championship or bust for Golden State and the real games start in April.
I asked head coach Steve Kerr about motivation before Tuesday’s game and he wasn’t too worried about things. But he never is.
“It’s not really my job to keep them motivated,” said Kerr, who laughed when I asked if he’s sick of this question. “It’s more my job to keep them on the right track in terms of how they’re playing. These are NBA players. These games are fun, and they enjoy it. We love to play.”
He’s right, as usual. The Warriors have won six straight coming out of the All-Star break and now they’re talking about running the table for the rest of the season, setting an artificial goal that could keep that focus sharp.
In terms of non-artificial motivation, Golden State only has to look to Houston. The Rockets won their 16th straight game Tuesday, outclassing a good Oklahoma City team to maintain a half-game lead in the Western Conference standings over Golden State. As things stand, the No. 2 seed will face the Thunder in the first round of the playoffs, a fate Golden State would like to avoid, given those two ugly losses to the Thunder this season. It’s a bad matchup for the Warriors, if such a thing exists.
Kerr said he’s more focused on identifying weaknesses — read: turnovers, defensive intensity — and fine-tuning his team before the real games begin.
“I’m not giving rah-rah speeches . ... We try to focus on where we can get better,” Kerr said. “Where we need to lock in on as we head into the playoffs. Areas of weakness that we need to shore up. And that’s what I talk to them about. It’s up to them to get excited about the game.”
This hadn’t been a problem for Golden State in years gone by. Last season, there was a lot of drama coming down the stretch, with everyone awaiting Kevin Durant’s return from injury. Would he be the same? Would the team gel? (Yes ... and yes.) The year prior, Golden State expended a ton of energy to win a league-record 73 games in the regular season, an effort that arguably might have cost the Warriors in the Finals. The year before that, the first championship season, was a pure party, with the long-starved fans of Oakland eating up every unbelievable moment at Oracle Arena. That was sheer joy.
Which brings us to the 201718 season. The Warriors came in as defending champs, wearing their black super-team hats. Fans around the country root against them, like one would against the Yankees or Patriots. The Warriors are a full-blown dynasty now, and they know it.
“I never forget how lucky we are to be in this run that we’re in. We all think about that,” Kerr said.
This postseason, they might face their biggest challenge to date, just getting out of the Western Conference. The Rockets, Trail Blazers, Thunder and Spurs could give them a tough series. And Kerr’s well aware of it. The West is impossibly deep, and seeding clearly will play a huge role.
“The only year that I can remember it being similar was 2015,” Kerr said. “There was a huge logjam then. It all came down to the last few days. It wasn’t quite as deep in terms of the glut of teams you see know, from three to 10. I don’t ever remember seeing this.”
So, this is what keeps the Warriors woke. They know the real tests are coming, so nights like this still matter. They want that pole position and they have to stay sharp.
By the end of the game against Brooklyn, the Warriors had rediscovered their groove. Curry led the way with 34 points. Everyone was cheering the “Kiss Cam.” JaVale McGee had won his sixth straight game as the new starting center. And much of the crowd had left the building.
Just another stop on the long, long road to the promised land. The Warriors want another championship, and they’re putting in the work.