Golden State Warriors’ Defense Shows Up After Jerry West Questions Defensive Effort
By Ryan Viera
The Golden State Warriors second-half defensive effort earned them a 102-94 victory on Tuesday, hours after Jerry West questioned their defensive effort as of late.
For a brief moment in Tuesday nights 102-94 Golden State Warriors victory over the Washington Wizards, heads ached, and stomachs turned.
Late in the second quarter, the 66-7 Warriors fell behind by nine points, and were being outplayed by the 36-37 Wizards in Oracle Arena. This arena that the Warriors call home has been all-too-kind to them as it has not seen a Dubs’ loss since January 27th, 2015 at the hands of a Derrick Rose overtime game winner.
That moment passed ever so briefly, however, as the Warriors closed out the final two minutes and 24 seconds of the first half with a 12-0 run which included a couple Stephen Curry threes.
But that’s just how the Warriors are. They find themselves in moments that most teams just don’t recover from. Like that time they grabbed a victory after trailing by 27 points to the Toronto Raptors in late 2013. Or the time they found themselves down 89-69 going into the 4th quarter to the New Orleans Pelicans in last years first round playoff match-up.
This team is not out of any game.
“I told them let’s go on a 12-0 run to end this half,” Head Coach Steve Kerr joked with reporters after the game, “Those guys did a great job. They scrambled defensively, forced a couple turnovers, and then Steph got going too. I thought that was the key surge in the game.”
The first half saw the Warriors lacking energy, but things got turned up in the second half. The Warriors finished the game with 11 steals and six blocks, also holding the Wizards to 41.9 percent shooting from the field, and 21.7 percent shooting from three, one of their best defensive performances in quite some time.
Tuesday nights win pushed the Warriors record to 67-7, matching their win total from the 2014-2015 season, and putting them six wins away from breaking the 1995-1996 Chicago Bulls‘ iconic regular season record with just eight games to go.
Before Tuesday nights game, Executive Board Member Jerry West talked about how the teams effort as of late has him worried they will break the record everyone has been talking about all season.
“If it would happen it would happen, but I’m not sure that it will happen,” West said on NBA Radio Tuesday, “If we’re just going to play on the offensive end, every team in the league can beat you no matter how powerful you are. And our defense has not been good here in the last nine or 10 games.”
The Warriors jumped on a plane late Tuesday night to head to Utah, where they will play the back end of a back-to-back. The Warriors are 3-0 against the Jazz this season, but had it not been for some late game Curry heroics, they likely would have left Salt Lake City with their first loss of the season.
Next: Which Team Can Upset the Warriors in the Playoffs?
The Jazz enter the game with a 37-37 record, currently holding on to the seventh spot in the Western Conference by a mere half-game over the Houston Rockets.