The genesis was Detroit. That’s where the Warriors were last Saturday, whistling their way through a road game, coming up losers and slinking out of town.
These Warriors, however, don’t slink for long. And when they emerge, they transform into something beastly.
That’s what attacked the Cavaliers on Monday in Cleveland and then butchered the Bulls on Wednesday in Chicago.
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The Warriors concluded a daunting three-game road trip with a most satisfying 125-94 dusting of the Bulls at United Center, giving the defending champions consecutive routs of Eastern Conference heavyweights.
“We got focused after being embarrassed by Detroit,” interim coach Luke Walton told reporters at United Center after the Warriors lifted their record to 39-4.
“We kind of have that chip back on our shoulder,” Draymond Green said. “It kind of fell off a little but, but we’ve been playing with that the last two games.”
The Warriors’ focus was, once again, sharp enough to cut glass and the “chip” may not have been visible but it sure was visceral.
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They ran out to a 34-16 lead after one quarter and spent the rest of the evening putting on an exhibition of supremacy comparable to that which resulted in a 132-98 destruction of the reigning conference champion Cavaliers two nights earlier.
“We set the tone early,” said Stephen Curry, who scored a team-high 25 points. “We didn’t make any shots the first four minutes (actually 2:16), even though all the shots took were pretty good ones. We were moving the ball side to side. Everybody was involved in making them react and move. That’s how we play. We were able to set the tone for the rest of the game.”
[INSTANT REPLAY: Curry, Warriors trample Bulls in Chicago]
In posting successive road wins by at least 30 points for the first time since 1972-73, the Warriors shot 52.6 percent while holding the Bulls to 37 percent. Chicago shot 5 percent (1-of-20) beyond the 3-point arc, the lowest by any Warriors opponent since February 2008.
Though Chicago guards Derrick Rose (game-high 29 points) and Jimmy Butler (23) shot 50 percent, the rest of the team shot an abysmal 29 percent.
“When you play against playoff caliber teams, you try not to let them get in rhythm or a comfort zone and get the crowd into it,” Walton said.
If those in the sellout crowd were silenced by the Bulls’ helplessness, they were mesmerized by the artful display of the Warriors, six of whom scored in double figures while in ringing up 38 assists.
Walton described it as “beautiful basketball,” as the Warriors looked to be back in early-season mode, playing with the zest and efficiency they did when going 24-0 through the first six-plus weeks of the season.
“The things we said we needed to get back to, we’ve done,” Green said. “We’ve just got to continue to build on that. Moving the ball like it has moved; our assist-to-turnover ratio over the last two games is off the charts. We’ve got to continue to do that. And also continue to defend – and know it’s not just the offensive end that’s worked for us these last two games. It’s the defensive end that starts it, and that carries over to the offensive end.’
Last season, the Warriors lost back-to-back games on four occasions. They have yet to do so even once this season. Their four losses have been followed by wins in which the average margin was 20.2 points.
The margin swelled to 32.5 in the two games against Cleveland and Chicago, which was a response to that 113-95 loss in Detroit in the most disturbing performance since Steve Kerr took over the team prior to last season.
The Warriors were angry with themselves.
“We’re going to have nights like we had in the Detroit game,” Curry said. “But good teams bounce back quick and we were able to do that so it says a lot about our resiliency.”
It says a lot about how the Warriors are capable of playing when fully engaged, when they sense a legitimate threat and summon the best of their competitive selves.
They turn beastly, leaving the Bulls, like the Cavs before them, shreds and scraps.