After a shocking 29-point home defeat in the season opener, the new look Warriors earned their first win on Friday night, beating the depleted New Orleans Pelicans 122-114, while overcoming a 45 point performance from superstar forward Anthony Davis.
Here are the three big takeaways from the game.
1. Durant shines while offense remains stilted
For the second time in as many games, Kevin Durant lived up to the hype, dropping 30 points and grabbing 17 boards, after posting 27 and 10 in his debut. Overall, the scoring output of the three offensive stars was more balanced than it was against San Antonio, with Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson both having solid performances, adding 23 and 28 respectively.
Still the offense hardly resembled the free flowing and breathtaking juggernaut that we saw nearly all of last season, and it’s become clear through two games that it may take a decent amount of time for this group to start firing on all cylinders. The Warriors movement improved as the game went on, but they far too often seemed to be overthinking instead of reacting, making passes a half-second late that lead to 14 turnovers, most of which could’ve been avoided.
What’s more, Golden State again struggled in an area that is seemingly their biggest strength, shooting just over 32 percent from beyond the arc after going 21 percent from downtown against San Antonio.
The Warriors will eventually figure this out, and when they do it should be a treat, but fans need to remain patient during this awkward phase, as Golden State tries to turn their immense individual talent into something more cohesive.
2. Kevon Looney impresses
One of the biggest concerns going into Friday’s game revolved around the center position, and whether newly acquired Zaza Pachulia would continue to struggle mightily on both ends of the floor as he did in the season opener against San Antonio. Pachulia had a much better all-around second game, especially offensively and on the boards, but the Pelicans had few issues attacking the rim, scoring 64 points in the paint, and finishing over Pachulia on multiple occasions.
Though Pachulia was serviceable, Kevon Looney turned out to be the most impressive Warrior who received playing time at the 5 on Friday, going +13 in just seven minutes, during a crucial stretch where Golden State briefly lost the lead late in the third quarter. The 20-year-old grabbed two important rebounds and found Curry twice on the other end for scoring opportunities, while also providing an impressive assist to Andre Iguodala.
Additionally, Looney showed good defensive instincts, and while seven minutes of playing time from a player still recovering from multiple hip surgeries is far from a representative sample size, it’s a good sign for a team that will need at least one of their unproven youngsters to step up this season.
3. Warriors down to two reserve guards
Speaking of unproven youngsters, the Warriors lost rookie guard Patrick McCaw to a right ankle sprain in the third quarter. McCaw has sprained his right ankle before, and based on his previous recovery time, guessed after the game that he would be out for about a week.
The Warriors will hope that estimate is accurate, as McCaw is one of only three reserve guards on Golden State’s roster (Shaun Livingston and Ian Clark being the other two) making the Warriors already thin backcourt depth even thinner. It will be interesting to see how this affects Steve Kerr staggering his lineups going forward, or if the injury turns out to be more serious, if executive Bob Myers elects to make a move to secure some added depth at the guard position.