Behind the Warriors’ sudden rebirth — and why they look like legit title contenders again

As much as the dynastic era of Golden State Warriors basketball was built on Stephen Curry fundamentally reshaping the geometry of the sport, it also depended upon defenses that consistently cut off opposing offenses’ oxygen.

The shift started under Mark Jackson, who shepherded a 51-win breakthrough for the long-moribund franchise in 2013-14 behind the scintillating shooting of Curry and Klay Thompson … and a defense that ranked third in the NBA in points allowed per possession outside of garbage time. From there, Steve Kerr and chief lieutenant Ron Adams iterated on the formula to historic success. Golden State finished first in defensive efficiency in 2014-15, en route to the first NBA championship of the Steph era; fourth in the 2015-16 season, which saw the Dubs win an NBA-record 73 games as arguably the greatest regular-season team of all time; back up to first in 2016-17, their first year with Kevin Durant, when they became arguably the greatest team of all time period.

Even in the final two Durant seasons, in which the Warriors at times engaged Chill Mode by relying on their overwhelming offense to breeze past most competition, Golden State still boasted top-10 units. And when Curry, Kerr, Thompson and Draymond Green returned to the top of the mountain in 2021-22, two injury-plagued and “two timelines”-inflected years later … they did it on the back of the NBA’s No. 2 defense.

(Grant Thomas/Yahoo Sports Illustration)

After finishing 15th in defensive efficiency and 10th in the West last season, punctuated by a play-in round exit at the hands of the longtime-little-brother Kings, the Warriors looked poised to plummet: Thompson on his way out, no big fish replacing him, a slew of unproven youngsters and journeymen surrounding Curry and Green, their beards now flecked with gray. But where others saw them rushing toward the bottom, the Warriors saw an opportunity to get back to basics.

“It’s still about winning, and taking the steps necessary to give ourselves a chance,” Curry told Marcus Thompson II of The Athletic this summer after signing a one-year, $62.6 million contract extension. “The…

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Author : Yahoo Sports

Publish date : 2024-11-15 19:01:00

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