Harrison Barnes catches the ball to the right of the basket, turns and faster than a sneeze throws down a first-quarter dunk that thunderously gives Dwight Howard a belated welcome to the 2015-16 season with dunk right in the kisser.
“Amazing,” said Draymond Green.
“Quick,” said Stephen Curry.
“Nasty,” said Festus Ezeli.
Curry starts with a dribble near the right elbow, seems cut off by a wall of defenders, then does a how-is-that-possible one, two, three, four crossover dribble move that splits three Rockets and concludes with a left-handed feed to Festus Ezeli that goes down smoother than a James Bond martini ? shaken, not stirred.
“I’ll watch it again later tonight on the video and tell you in the morning what I really think,” said interim coach Luke Walton with a grin.
“That’s just Steph,” said Andre Iguodala.
Close your eyes and you can still see the Warriors jumping and dancing, hugging and celebrating the 2015 NBA title on a wave of flawless execution and unbridled emotion.
Open them and the victory parade through downtown Oakland might as well still be rolling on four months later as the reigning champs show no signs of stopping.
For all the talk of the Thunder, Spurs and the Clippers reloading over the summer in the Western Conference, it would be wise to remember that the Warriors still pack the most guns and now the know-how to use them instinctively.
This one was a 112-92 beatdown of the Rockets Friday night at Toyota Center that hardly looked like a vengeful rematch of the Western Conference finals.
If the Rockets had supposedly closed the gap from last June with the addition of point guard Ty Lawson, Golden State barely even noticed. Houston has now opened the season with back-to-back 20-point losses on its home floor and has even fewer clues about what to do than what’s gone wrong.
“Our offense is really stagnant. We made too many mistakes defensively again,” said coach Kevin McHale. “We better start bringing more multiple efforts on every possession…”
The Rockets have been outscored in seven of the eight quarters they’ve played this season. Harden, the runner-up to Curry in the MVP voting and who maintains he should have won the award, is shooting 10-for-39 and couldn’t look less comfortable if he were wearing shackles.
“There is not a rhythm at all,” he said.
Yet the Warriors are right back out there running up and down and all over the court as if they’re listening to a musical beat that only they can hear.
While each season is an entity unto itself, once a team has made it up to the top of the mountain, the path becomes familiar and the steps required ingrained.
The Warriors were the quicker, lighter-on-their-feet, more lively team to every rebound and loose ball, the ones that treated each play as if it were just that. Play. It’s not the joyful romp that completed the drive through the magical 67-win season and the playoffs to that first championship in 40 years for the franchise, but the knowing, inner confidence that comes from having won it all.
“You feel more confident about yourself,” Green said. “We’re more settled in ourselves. We know how to make the game a lot easier for ourselves. I’m not sure I would say we’re on a high, because last year was last year. It’s over with. But now you have a certain swagger about yourself.”
The swagger carries you through the rough spots and over the missed shots. The experience of having been through it all before and come out the other side lets you stay calm and move on. It was their energy and ability to just throw themselves into the task and compete hard that withstood the only real punch the Rockets threw in the first five minutes of the game. And they did it all without a single one of them playing more than 31 minutes of the game.
“This early part of the schedule shows us where we’re gonna be at as a team,” said Barnes. “We’re playing teams (New Orleans and Houston) that we eliminated in the playoffs. These are good teams. The biggest thing that we’ve done at the start of this season is the energy level. The execution has been sloppy at times, not making shots. But the effort is there.
“We’re a much more mature squad. We’ve all had the experience of winning that championship and now we know the level we need to play at every single night. Right now we’re displaying it. Regardless of made shots and stuff, the level and intensity is there.”
Not to mention the insouciance, the artistry, the sheer fun of seeing Curry seeming to put the ball on a string to do tricks and know that it’s something special.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “You hear the crowd and I know I’ve never really done that move before in a game, in that situation. You kind of feel the moment. I’ve done four crossovers before, but never in that little tight space in that situation and then trying to throw a left-handed pass. That is just trying to be a little creative.”
If not a lot more confident, regardless of what’s happening in Oklahoma City, San Antonio, L.A. or Cleveland.
“We can be the same if it not a better team than last year,” said Klay Thompson.
Something they’ll be happy to remind you.
Fran Blinebury has covered the NBA since 1977. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.
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