The Warriors have lucked into 13 more wins with the fluke of Stephen Curry hitting shots. That’s more good fortune after they delivered the championship to Oakland in June as the first team to ever back into a title while finishing with the best regular-season record, the No. 1 in defensive rating, the No. 2 offensive rating and closing out three of their four playoff series on the road.
Consider the start of this season as the official response to the laughable skepticism about the end of last season. The Warriors remaining undefeated a little more than three weeks into 2015-16 makes them the fifth team to ever open 13-0.
More luck, obviously.
But, the Warriors insist, this is a focused team looking forward as they transition from handling the current NBA to taking on forever, not a reply to doubters. Or at least it’s not intended to be.
It has just worked out that way then. Climbing the all-time list, coming back from 23 points down to beat the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday, the best start ever for a franchise in existence since 1946, the chance to catch the 1993-94 Rockets and 1948-49 Washington Capitols for the record at 15-0, Curry picking apart defenses — they swear it has all come naturally, without a preconceived plan to release a bold statement. And then shove everyone’s face in it.
That would have been understandable, though, after Golden State was expected to apologize for the title path that went through the New Orleans Pelicans’ short-handed backcourt, the Memphis Grizzlies with Mike Conley later estimating he was 50 percent at best, the Houston Rockets with Dwight Howard hobbled and Patrick Beverley out, and, ultimately, the Cleveland Cavaliers mostly without Kyrie Irving and entirely without Kevin Love.
Then, before the champagne barely had time to dry, San Antonio’s great offseason turned the Spurs into the West favorites, not the defending champions that would mostly return the same roster and the same large window of opportunity. (A sentiment shared at the time in some very important voting precincts within Warriors Ground.)
When coach Steve Kerr announced early in training camp he would take an indefinite leave to recover from two offseason back surgeries — one that resulted in leaking spinal fluid causing waves of headaches and fatigue — it increased uncertainty about Golden State. Andrew Bogut missed six games with a concussion. Klay Thompson was not shooting like Klay Thompson. Luck had obviously turned against them.
Or not.
The Warriors are the last undefeated team for the second season in a row. The first four victories were by a combined 100 points. They swept three back-to-backs within the first 12 games. They are 7-0 at home heading into the challenge of going from monster comeback vs. Los Angeles to facing the Chicago Bulls tonight at Oracle Arena (ESPN, 10:30 ET). Last night against the Clippers and their coach, Doc Rivers (who once flamed the luck conversation) gave Golden State a franchise-best 6-0 start on the road.
“This is out first time doing it,” Curry said of responding to life as the defending champions. “It’s about us. It’s not really about sending a message. We know that we’re capable of being a better team than we were last year. We have so much potential in here and so much talent that we don’t want to waste it. We’ve come out aggressive, with a fire in our eyes, and the results have kind of followed suit. We knew we had a tough schedule to start the season and wanted to have something to show for it, especially against all these great Western Conference teams. So we’re on our way.”
As well as could have been expected, in fact. That’s considering two victories over the Grizzlies and one against the Rockets are devalued because those opponents haven’t looked close to worthy of the top-tier expectations in the West. The same goes at a lesser level with beating the Pelicans at home and on the road within the first three games as New Orleans appears unable to live up to playoff predictions. By an opponent measuring stick, though, the Warriors have had an impressive start.
“I think we’ve really upped our focus level,” said Draymond Green, the power forward building an early case for his first All-Star appearance. “We haven’t come in like, ‘Oh, we need to get punched in the mouth to realize teams are gunning for us.’ We know that teams are gunning for us and I think we’ve taken our intensity level to a different level, and that’s important. We’ve taken our intensity level and our focus level up a few notches …
“I think it’s just a maturity level. This team continues to mature. Obviously we’ve been together, we’re getting more and more games together under our belt. We know what it takes. That’s really a big part of it. Everybody’s just mature.”
And by all indications, they’re avoiding making this start about anything other than the standings. The Warriors say they are not getting in anyone’s face about deserving the championship. There is no big-picture statement. Just a team growing by the week and capable of making the title in June a warmup.
Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him here and follow him on Twitter.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Turner Broadcasting.
