New-look Warriors’ defensive intensity is fueling historic start

New-look Warriors’ defensive intensity is fueling 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 have gone any better before boarding a plane back home.

Carrying over the dominance of a 6-0 preseason, the Warriors on the road outscored their first two opponents, the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz, by an NBA record 77 points after leaving Delta Center with a 127-86 win Friday night. Buddy Hield again was unconscious coming off the bench, scoring 27 points in 20 minutes. Hield’s 12 3-pointers are the most ever for a player through their first two games for a new team.

The depth has been so great that Steph Curry has played under 30 minutes in each of the first two games, doing so consecutively for the first time in his career while being able to sit the entirety of both fourth quarters. Draymond Green has only needed to play 20 minutes in both blowout wins. The Warriors’ bench now has scored 150 points, the most ever for a team through the first two games of a season, and the most ever in franchise history for a two game span.

Yet it’s the other side of the ball that has Golden State looking reminiscent of their championship squads. Stifling defense has stood out just as much as how many points the Warriors have scored.

“Something that Steve [Kerr], our coaches, Jerry Stackhouse have been challenging 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 have embodied that. They hold us accountable with everything.

“I think our communication has been at an elite level to start the season. We have to carry that over. You got a lot of interchangeable guys, a lot of guys with size and length that’s really active.”

Height, like always, remains a barrier the Warriors must overcome. They aren’t filled with 7-footers guarding the basket.

Looney at 6-foot-9 is their tallest player. Trayce Jackson-Davis also is 6-foot-9. But so is offseason addition Kyle Anderson, who can…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/look-warriors-defensive-intensity-fueling-065335451.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-10-26 06:53:00

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