OAKLAND — Did Tuesday night feel like the regular season to you? Did it feel like early February?
Well, when you assemble four superstars together on one team, this is what happens early in the postseason. Nobody else can really compete. At all.
The Warriors aren’t letting the lack of competition drag them down. As Steph Curry says, they remain locked in. Obviously, anything can happen in sports, but the Warriors’ path to Quicken Loans Arena in June doesn’t look treacherous or challenging. At all. Thus far, it’s been very boring. Dominance can be boring. After last season’s tumultuous postseason run — getting Portland’s best shot in a series that felt longer than five games, pushed to the brink against OKC, collapsing against Cleveland — boring might just be the best thing for the Warriors.
It’s not the atmosphere that’s been boring. I’m not ragging on the intensity from the fans at Oracle. Honoring and celebrating the ‘We Believe’ 2007 team was one of the liveliest moments of the season, and a reminder of why Oakland is a special sports town. No, it’s not the crowd.
The playoffs don’t feel like the playoffs for Golden State because they are essentially the Western Conference All-Stars. Don’t get me wrong — JaVale McGee flying around and other highlights have been entertaining. It’s just that other teams not only don’t have the manpower, they apparently don’t have the brainpower to defeat the Warriors, either.
“One of the things about Golden State is how quick they think,” Utah head coach Quin Snyder said after a 106-94 Game 1 loss. “Just mentally, they are able to get not just possession to possession, but within a possession. They change things quickly, they back-cut. We’ll have to look at the film, but I thought they were just not smarter — smarter? Yes. More urgent, quicker thinking, more reactive.”
Five games into their quest for a second championship in three seasons, this team has barely been pushed. It’s becoming increasingly clear not only can we simulate future regular seasons in 2018 and 2019, we can start fast forwarding through the first two rounds of the playoffs. The Jazz are an NBA team, but they are not playing in the same league as Golden State.
Normally the formula to beat the Warriors is to shut them down from the 3-point, which Utah did (7-for-28). Didn’t matter. Not one iota. Nobody on the Warriors really made any significant impact on offense — Curry led all scorers with a quiet 22 points. JaVale McGee didn’t even make noise like he had as the series MVP against Portland. And yet the Warriors led by 20 in the third quarter. They didn’t even play close to their best basketball and the decisive wins keep piling up. It was a wire-to-wire win. Golden State is only going to play better in Game 2.
The Warriors themselves aren’t bored, and that’s what’s key here. They still understand the stakes and have mostly raised their level of play. None more than Draymond Green, who has been aggressive scoring the basketball (17 points on Tuesday) and remains the field general on defense.
“This is the best time of year,” Green said postgame. “Every game matters. Every single possession matters. I love to play that way. When you’re just out there playing and it doesn’t mean anything, and whether you’re good or bad, it does not matter, it’s kind of boring to me. But every possession matters in the playoffs. Every little detail. I love playing that way. The stakes are higher. You’re chasing a championship.”
Listen, the Warriors have already hit adversity this postseason. Steve Kerr, the visionary for this budding dynasty, may not coach another game of basketball again. Luckily, Kerr is such a brilliant coach with every detail already mapped out, his absence has barely been noticed. Should the Western Conference Finals take place in San Antonio, the pressure will be on Mike Brown. Until then, it’s business as usual.
Normally teams peeling themselves off the couch after eight days of rest will hit a funk in the game. Curry put Rudy Gobert in blender, Golden State’s defense completely shut down Gordon Hayward (12 points, 4-of-15 shooting), the Warriors committed a franchise low 7 turnovers. This team isn’t making any mistakes. The basketball isn’t flawless, but it is perfection, if that makes sense.
“Give our guys credit,” Mike Brown said. “They followed the game plan.”
What’s sad is that the Jazz are realistically two superstar players away from even thinking about threatening Golden State. Put Blake Griffin and Chris Paul on Utah and this series might go six games. The Warriors have four dollar bills — Curry, Green, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant. Everyone else in the league besides the Cavaliers has just two dollar bills on their team. Nickels and dimes matter for small stretches in an NBA game, but you can’t truly win a championship without these coveted dollar bills.
Maybe next season the Western Conference will play out differently. Maybe the Warriors get a tougher draw on their way to a fourth straight title against LeBron James. Maybe an injury changes everything.
There will be a point when this Warriors team dissipates and you’ll miss a yawn-filled first two rounds of the playoffs. Even though it lacks competitive fire, enjoy this dominance while you can. As Draymond says, the championship chase is on. The end result won’t be boring — either way.