Leaving Detroit with bruises and stitches, the Warriors will have 48 hours to heal and regroup before coming upon the best team in the Eastern Conference.
“It doesn’t get any easier on this trip,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said after the 113-95 loss to the Pistons in Detroit on Saturday. “We’ve got a great test for us Monday, so we can’t hang our heads. We’re going against a championship-caliber team, so we’ve got to raise our level of intensity.”
The Warriors (37-4) on Monday will be in Cleveland to face the Cavaliers in a rematch of the NBA Finals. And this will be a no-excuses clash for both teams.
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
The Warriors, who won that series in six games, are healthy even though they’ve lost two of their last three games.
[POOLE: Rewind: Warriors suffer most disturbing loss of Steve Kerr era]
More significant, Cleveland (28-10) finally is healthy and finding a rhythm. All-Star power forward Kevin Love missed The Finals and All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving was injured in Game 1 and was out more than six months, returning five days before the Cavs took an 89-83 loss to the Warriors at Oracle Arena on Christmas Day.
“It’s a big game on Monday,” Warriors forward Draymond Green conceded.
Golden State Warriors
Find the latest Golden State Warriors news, highlights, analysis and more with NBC Sports Bay Area and California.
With Irving in basketball condition and finding his timing, Cleveland is rolling, winning nine of their last 10. Love isn’t racking up the stats he did in Minnesota, but he’s still averaging 15.9 points and 10.8 rebounds. And LeBron James is, as usual, in the thick of the MVP race.
These three players are the pillars of the team many speculated that, if healthy, would have beaten the Warriors in The Finals.
“They want to beat us really badly,” Green said of the Cavs. “We’ve got to go in there knowing that and with the mindset and not only match their intensity. We’ve got to rise above their intensity. Just know what’s coming. They’re going to come out and try to beat us like that.”
Even though the Warriors have won eight of their last 10, the two losses both came over the past five days. That’s the troubling aspect for the team that was 36-2 through its first 38 games.
“They’re going to be tough to beat on their home floor,” Warriors center Andrew Bogut said. “We beat them in The Finals and beat them on Christmas, so they’ve got a memory for all of that.”
For the Warriors, the goal will be getting back to the components that allowed them to defeat the Cavs last June and win the franchise’s first NBA Championship in 40 years – and allowed them to open this season with a 24-game win streak.
That means more consistent ball movement, greater overall intensity and, foremost, the hellhound defense that so often triggers their best offense.
“Mentally, we’ve got to give our edge back,” Thompson said. “We’ve got to play with something to lose again.”