The Golden State Warriors Back In Bay Area After Perfect Road Trip
The Golden State Warriors’ four-game road trip was a success. They are back at home after winning all four matches, including three against teams with playoff ambitions.
In the first two games, the Golden State Warriors defeated the Toronto Raptors and the Boston Celtics. The first was the team defeated by the Cleveland Cavaliers during the last Conference Finals, while the other was one of the teams that interviewed Kevin Durant last summer.
After these two wins, the Warriors won against the Milwaukee Bucks thanks to a great last-second defensive play, courtesy of Draymond Green. Those were the very same Bucks that were able to put a stop to the Warriors’ perfect 24-0 start last season.
Live Feed
Blue Man Hoop
The last game, against the Indiana Pacers revealed how inconsistent the Pacers’ team is without Paul George and Myles Turner.
But, what were the main factors of these wins?
First, the passes have jumped up. The team has already racked up 30 or more assists nine times this season. No other team has crossed the 30 mark in more than three games so far. The Assist Ratio (a statistic used to show the number of assists in context with the number of turnovers caused) is telling.
The Warriors lead this ranking, and the difference between the Warriors and the second-place team (the Atlanta Hawks) is the same as the difference between the Atlanta Hawks and the 25th-placed Denver Nuggets. Moreover, there is not a single Warriors’ player in the league’s top-eight in assists per game, showing that everyone contributes.
"“It’s just move the ball, find the open guy.” –Stephen Curry"
This has allowed the Warriors to lead the NBA in True Shooting Percentage (the statistic used to gauge shooting efficiency that takes into consideration points scored from three pointers, field goals and free throws) with a difference over the Los Angeles Clippers (second) equal to the difference between the Clippers and the Celtics, the 12th-ranked team.
The defense is improving more and more. On Monday against the Pacers, the Warriors blocked 10 shots. Draymond Green and Kevin Durant are two great defensive players. Durant has at least one block in 13 of the 14 games this season and 18 total, which is top-20 in the league.
Green is 6-foot-7 and for this reason, people usually don’t consider him as a rim protector in the traditional sense. However, he has blocked 24 shots, tied for seventh-most in the league. His 1.7 blocks per game so far is a career-high. If he continues to play with this intensity, he should again be a candidate for the DPOY.
"“Our block shots sort of come in different ways now. They used to come from (Andrew) Bogut and (Festus) Ezeli. Now they come from KD, Draymond (Green), and Andre (Iguodala). It’s a long, active perimeter ends up with a lot of the shot blocks. So it is different.” –Steve Kerr"
Next: Golden State Warriors Offense Is Best Defense
Before this road trip, we wrote the Warriors had to begin to give more intensity on the defensive side of the ball. During this road trip, the Warriors limited their opponents to a 39.6 percent conversion rate at the rim. Before the last four games, the opponents were at 54.4 percent. They’re obviously moving in the right direction.