OAKLAND -- Concern among Warriors fans these days is both legitimate and folly. Yes, they’re still the team to beat. And, no, they’re not as fearsome as they have been in recent seasons.
Which is why mouths go dry and hands start wringing at the thought of what’s coming Saturday night, when the defending champions face the most impressive team thus far in these playoffs.
New Orleans is the only squad to sweep through the first round, dispatching Portland, and that’s enough to create apprehension after the Warriors alternately sprinted and staggered to victory against a Spurs team that might have been the least threatening of any this postseason.
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But the Warriors, with a veteran roster and a strong coaching staff, have a tendency to find a response commensurate to the challenge. And the return of Stephen Curry, whether it’s Game 1 on Saturday, or Game 2 on Monday or Tuesday, will provide immediate adrenaline.
“His energy,” Kevin Durant said Friday, “just kind of lights up the whole team.”
Though Curry was a full participant in practice on Thursday and Friday, his first back-to-back sessions in more than a month, he is only one component of the framework required to cool the Pelicans.
Though the Warriors won 58 games this season and sent four players to the All-Star Game, they haven’t displayed much magic. It has come in spurts, here and there, but the struggle was greater this season than in any since Steve Kerr took over as coach before the 2014-15 season.
Golden State Warriors
There will be opportunities against New Orleans for the Warriors to recapture their indomitable best. They opened the first-round series against San Antonio with a Game 1 that was downright fierce, and they’ll need to do the same on Saturday against a team that under coach Alvin Gentry -- a former Warriors assistant under Kerr -- played at the fastest pace in the league and is playing well now.
“Alvin has got those guys playing at an amazing pace, very uptempo,” Klay Thompson said. “Jrue Holiday is looking like all-NBA type of point guard with his ability to defend and run the team.”
If there is any single element that should be a source of anxiety, it’s transition defense. If the Warriors bring it, from the opening tip, they’ll be fine. If not, the worst fears of the fan base will be legitimized.
“That’s the biggest thing with Game 1 for us, defensively, is adjusting to that pace and adjusting quickly,” Kerr said. “We can’t beat all game. It wouldn’t shock me if we got beat in transition the first five minutes and I call timeout and then we get it right. We can’t wait all game. I know that.”
While the Warriors prefer to play fast, they do it more effectively when Curry is on the court. With his status unclear, they’ll have to do it anyway.
That means keeping with Anthony Davis and Rajon Rondo and Holiday. It means not losing sight and contact with sharpshooting stretch-four Nikola Mirotic.
“Obviously Mirotic has added to their scoring punch and their spacing,” Kerr said. “Rondo and Jrue Holiday have had a great playoff run so far and Davis is Davis. So they have got a lot of threats. They spread you out. They make it very difficult to cover the whole floor.
“So we'll have our hands full.”
Which, for the Warriors, means full attention. Or, as Kerr likes to phrase it, “appropriate fear.” When they know they’re facing a hot team capable to handing a defeat, they know how to find that overdrive gear in the playoffs.
The Warriors have played 13 postseason series under Kerr and the only time they looked truly vulnerable was in the 2016 Western Conference Finals against Oklahoma City -- and we realize they lost the 2016 NBA Finals to the Cavaliers.
The Thunder took a 3-1 lead in the Conference Finals by matching the speed of the Warriors while also playing bigger and stronger. Losing Game 3 in Oklahoma City by 28 and Game 4 by 24, the Warriors looked bereft of answers. They were, it seemed, doomed to defeat.
They somehow found another gear, winning Game 5 in Oakland, Game 6 at OKC and Game 7 in Oakland. So they know they have more than what met the eye against the Spurs and more than what it appears they had in the regular season.
“I know our team is capable of beating anybody,” Curry said. “The coaches have said it and we’ve all seen it during the San Antonio series. The Pelicans are playing really great basketball right now.
“But whether I’m out there or not, we have confidence in ourselves to win this series.”
Believe the man. Until you see otherwise.