The Warriors spent much of the first quarter Wednesday night trying to find their collective pulse and five minutes after tipoff were trailing by 11. That’s a dangerous way for any team to introduce itself to the defending champion Celtics, particularly in Boston.
Gary Payton II entered with 7:21 remaining in the quarter. Over the next seven minutes, the Celtics missed eight of nine shots, committed three turnovers and suddenly realized these were not the same Warriors they smashed by 52 last March at TD Garden.
Golden State discovered its pulse mostly with a defense that was beating with enough force to power a 118-112 victory that surely attracted notice around the NBA.
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“Once we settled into the game, we did a good job of getting into them, making them a little uncomfortable,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Boston.
“It's a statement,” said Buddy Hield, who entered the game 84 seconds after GP2. “If we don’t win this game, everybody is like, ‘Oh, they don’t play anybody.’ So, you’ve got to come and make a statement, right?”
For all the talk about depth and greater emphasis on 3-point shooting, any statement the Warriors make this season must begin with the defense. It has to be the source behind any leap toward success because it plays into their depth, their desired rapid pace and those transition 3-balls that deflate opponents.
The Warriors have won seven of their first eight games because defense is becoming routine. They’re swarming and trapping and lurking in the passing lines. It’s enough to put the most feared offense in the league on its heels.
The Celtics, who entered the game as the NBA’s highest-scoring team, managed seven points over the final seven minutes of the opening quarter and 26 points over the final 16:38 of the first half. They shot 35.1 percent for the half.
Golden State Warriors
“We just try to keep bodies on bodies in the halfcourt,” Stephen Curry said. “We know they have a very specific style. They want to get up as many 3s as possible, they want to pick on certain guys and get (Jayson Tatum) in spots where he can create. They let it fly, and it’s proven successful. You have to live with some of shots because you can’t guard everything. But if you make them play in a crowd, take tough 2s. . .
“We’re a little bigger than we were last year,” he added. “We have more wing defenders. If we can get a rebound, we’re usually in good shape.”
The last 16-plus minutes of the half were representative of a clinic, at times reminiscent of Golden State’s fabled “Death Lineups” that torment opponents into submission for several years once unleashed in 2014-15.
When the Celtics responded with a 72-point second half, it served as a reminder that 1) they were good enough to win it all last season and 2) that Golden State is in the early stages of the kind of transformation that requires time and experience.
But this shift is what led Kerr to hire former NBA player Jerry Stackhouse over the summer as the assistant tasked with coordinating the defense. Stackhouse, who also has head-coaching experience in the G League and at Division I Vanderbilt University, is being lauded by players as the man behind the intensified effort on that end.
“I still give up some buckets, some cheap s—t that I’ve got to be better at,” Hield said, offering a candid self-critique. That’s on me. I’ve got to keep sticking to the game plan. Stack is on me. Everybody is on me. Draymond (Green) is on me. I’m just learning from them. I’m getting better and learning championship habits. That’s what they all preach.”
Yet even in the trial-and-error phase, the Warriors already are exhibiting visible and statistical improvement over last season. Metrics are up across the board, as they are first in rebounds, first in charges drawn, second in defensive rating, second in contested shots, and second in opponent’s field-goal percentage. They are second in deflections, third in contested 2-point shots, fourth in blocks, fifth in steals and ninth in loose balls recovered.
They have evolved from talking about fixing the defense (last season) to actually fixing the defense.
This is an illustrative byproduct of Kerr’s play-everyone concept. With a 13-man rotation, each player knows there is no need to pace himself. Bring all the energy, all the time, and then take a seat and let the next man do the same.
“In theory, if we’re playing a bunch of guys 15 to 22 minutes, they should be able to go all out during those minutes,” Kerr said. “We’re getting that. Tonight was probably the first game we had three guys over 30 minutes.”
That’s what it took to topple the champs. To make a statement. To show the rest of the league that defense, even in the developmental phase, is making a comeback in Golden State.
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