A growth of sharp Warriors defensive teeth fueling a hot start to the season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Warriors spent much of the first quarter Wednesday night trying to find their collective pulse and five minutes after kickoff were behind by 11. That’s a dangerous way for any team to introduce themselves to the defending champion Celtics, especially 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 weren’t the same Warriors they smashed by 52 last March at TD Garden.
Golden State found its pulse mostly with a defense that hit with enough force to power 118-112 win that certainly drew notice around the NBA.
“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 into GP2. “If we don’t win this game, everybody says, ‘Oh, they’re not playing anybody.’ So, you have to come and make a statement, right?”
For all the talk about depth and a greater emphasis on 3-point shooting, any statement the Warriors make this season has to start with the defense. It has to be the springboard behind any leap to success because it plays into their depth, their desired fast pace and those transition 3-balls that deflate opponents.
The Warriors have won seven of their first eight games as defense becomes routine. They swarm and trap and ambush 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.
“We’re just trying 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 certain guys and get (Jayson Tatum) in spots where he can create. They let it fly, and it’s proven to be successful. You have to live with some of the shots because you can’t guard everything.But if you make them play in a crowd, take hard 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 final 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 takes time and experience.
But this change 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 praised by players as the man behind the stepped-up effort to that end.
“I’m still giving up some buckets, some cheap stuff that I need to be better at,” Hield said, offering candid self-criticism. That’s on me. I have to keep sticking to the game plan. Stack is on me. Everyone is on me. Draymond (Green) is on me. I just learn from them. I’m getting better and learning championship habits. That’s what they all preach.”
However, even in the trial-and-error phase, the Warriors are already showing visible and statistical improvement over the 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 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 evolved from speaking on fixing the defense (last season) to indeed repairing the defense.
This is an illustrative byproduct of Kerr’s play-everything concept. With a 13-man rotation, every player knows there’s no need to pace themselves. Bring all the energy, all the time, and then sit back and let the next person do the same.
“In theory, if we play a bunch of guys 15 to 22 minutes, they should be able to go all out in those minutes,” Kerr said. “We get that. Tonight was probably the first game we had three guys for 30 minutes.”
That’s what it took to bring down the champions. To make a statement. Show the rest of the league that defense, even in the development stage, is back in Golden State.
