The New-look Warriors’ defensive intensity is fueling a historic start originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SALT LAKE CITY – To state the obvious, the Warriors’ start to the 2024-25 NBA season couldn’t be better before boarding a plane home.
Carrying over the dominance of a 6-0 preseason, the Warriors en route outscored their first two opponents, the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz, by an NBA record 77 points after leaving Delta Center with 127-86 win Friday night. Buddy Hield was unconscious again coming off the benchscoring 27 points in 20 minutes. Hield’s 12 3-pointers are the most ever by a player through his first two games for a new team.
The depth was so great that Steph Curry played less than 30 minutes in each of the first two games, doing so consecutively for the first time in his career by being able to sit the entirety of both fourth quarters. Draymond Green only needed to play 20 minutes in both blowout wins. The Warriors’ bench has now scored 150 points, the most ever by a team through the first two games of a season, and the most ever in franchise history over two innings.
However, it’s the other side of the ball that has Golden State looking reminiscent of their championship squads. Stifling defense stood out as much as how many points the Warriors scored.
“Something that Steve [Kerr]our coaches, Jerry Stackhouse challenged us on that has to be our calling card,” Kevon Looney told NBC Sports Bay Area. “We have to be physical, we have to be fast, we have to be scrappy. I think the first two games we incorporated They hold us accountable for everything.
“I think our communication was at an elite level to start the season. We have to carry that over. You have a lot of interchangeable guys, a lot of guys with size and length that are really active.”
Height, as always, remains a barrier the Warriors must overcome. They are not filled with 7-footers guarding the basket.
Looney at 6-foot-9 is their tallest player. Trayce Jackson-Davis is also 6-foot-9. But there’s also offseason addition Kyle Anderson, who can guard almost every position and had two steals Friday night against the Jazz. De’Anthony Melton’s 6-8 wingspan adds a new element in the backcourt, and the Warriors are reaping the benefits of a healthy Gary Payton II early.
“Adding guys like Kyle and Melton, [Andrew Wiggins] and [Jonathan Kuminga]Trayce, Draymond is one of the best defenders ever – when we have guys like that on the court who know the game and know where to wreak havoc, we have a lot of guys who have great hands and are really special for that,” Looney said. “It shows what we can be.
“We’re just scratching the surface. Still learning each other, still learning our plans. It’s only the second game, but we can be really, really good.”
The new-look starting five of the Warriors of Curry, Wiggins, Kuminga, Green and Jackson-Davis also outwit each other. That group was outscored 25-11 in the first quarter of the first two games. Then they find a way to flip the script once the second half starts.
In the third quarter through the first two games, that lineup was plus-17.
“The one thing we know is the strength that unit has to bring defensively to start games,” Green told NBC Sports Bay Area.
Green believes the slow starts offensively can be attributed to them coming out rushing everything as opposed to letting the game come to them, something the 13-year veteran blames himself for.
“We come back in the second half and then all of a sudden everyone is settled,” Green continued. “We’ve got to come out, settle in with that group to start the game. … It’s just important for that group to understand what we’re trying to achieve and come out and settle down quickly. Don’t come out and try to do it all in one shot.
“Get out, calm down and then everything will start falling for us.”
Kerr admits the band is not built on spacing. What it is built on is an all-time great scorer and shooter in Curry – who was extremely active defensively gathering a full court – surrounded by length and athleticism that should create an aggressive defensive mentality to give headaches for the opposition.
The formula became the Blazers and Jazz averaged 95 points against the Warriors on 35.3 percent shooting overall and 22.4 percent from 3-point range. The Warriors have 28 steals and 11 blocked shots in two games. They had 15 steals against the Jazz, led by three from Green and Payton. Eight players recorded at least one steal, and five had multiple steals.
“The overall athleticism jumps out at me,” Kerr said. “We didn’t have that last year. … Up and down the roster, we have great defenders. I thought Draymond was awesome [Lauri] Markkanen early, and that set a great tone.”
The Jazz star, whom the Warriors pursued during the offseason, was minus-17 with just 13 points on 4-of-17 shooting and 1 of 5 on threes. Two nights earlier, Markkanen scored 35 points against the Memphis Grizzlies, going 9 of 15 from the field and 4 of 7 from deep.
This is the team Kerr always wanted to be: Fast, combative and full of junkyard dogs welcoming a date that can turn disastrous for any player expecting to have a big scoring night. That’s when the Warriors are at their best, and they’re embracing that exact identity for months to come.
