Warriors primed for what should be ‘go time’ after winning road trip

Warriors primed for what should be ‘go time’ after winning road trip originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Four days after posting a “statement” win against the defending champion Celtics in Boston, the Warriors completed a feat even more significant:

A “statement” road trip.

Which happens to be sprinkled with fortuitous timing.

Their 127-116 win over the Thunder on Sunday in Oklahoma City concluded a fabulous 10 days that signaled to the NBA that the Warriors are cold-eyed serious about flying high. They don’t care to merely challenge the league’s elite. They’re aiming to join it.

They left the Bay Area on Nov. 1 for their most imposing early-season trip, facing the solid Houston Rockets and the lowly Washington Wizards before staring three legitimate title contenders in the defending champion Celtics, the unbeaten Cleveland Cavaliers and the 8-1 Thunder.

Winning three of five would have been a good trip. Winning all five would have been enough for the Warriors to float home without boarding a jet. Their 4-1 mark, even with an ugly loss to the Cavaliers, is validation.

“Hell of a trip,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters at Paycom Center. “Great way to start the season out, winning eight of our first 10, including a couple road wins against two of the best teams in the league. I feel like our team is in a good place.

“But this is just the beginning of a long season. We’ve got to keep working.”

The Warriors realize they are nowhere near perfect, with one blemish being a befuddling tendency to trick off big leads. It resurfaced again when a 30-point lead in the final seconds of the third quarter dwindled to six with 4:46 remaining.

Stephen Curry assured victory and rocked the Thunder to sleep by blasting them with eight of his game-high 36 points inside the final 3:23, including a dagger 3-ball that put the lead at 10 with 1:13 remaining.

“Those two nights are good for us to look at what we’re doing wrong to give up leads,” Kerr said. “On the other hand, it’s the modern NBA. No lead is safe. … It just feels like this is the modern NBA.

“But we did have turnovers in both games…

Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/warriors-primed-time-winning-road-054304020.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2024-11-11 05:43:00

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