Golden State Warriors: Road Warriors make statement with 6-1 Eastern swing
By Phil Watson
The last time the Golden State Warriors posted a winning record on a road trip of six games or longer, they weren’t even the Golden State Warriors.
So, yes, it’s been awhile since the Warriors put together a run such as the one they had over an 11-day stretch from Dec. 5-15.
Golden State topped the Atlanta Hawks on Saturday night 115-93 to finish their trip with a 6-1 record. Included on the journey was a win at Brooklyn on Dec. 7 and an eye-catching 97-95 victory over the defending champion Miami Heat on Wednesday.
For the record, the last time the Warriors enjoyed anywhere close to this much success on a long road string was in 1970-71, when the San Francisco Warriors were 4-3 on a seven-game road swing from Dec. 7-15, 1970 (per basketball-reference.com). That trip included a neutral-court loss to the Cincinnati Royals in Omaha, Neb., on Dec. 7, 1970, and a victory over the New York Knicks in St. Louis on Dec. 13, 1970.
So, again, it’s been awhile.
At the end of the trip, Golden State is 16-8, in the fifth position in the Western Conference standings and 1½ games behind the Los Angeles Clippers in the Pacific.
To say the Warriors haven’t enjoyed a lot of success lately would be understating the point to a ridiculous level.
This franchise has the third-longest title drought of any team in the NBA that has actually won a title. Only the Hawks, whose only title came in 1958 when they were still in St. Louis, and the New York Knicks, who last raised the trophy in 1973, have had a longer gap since their last title than Golden State.
The Warriors last wore the crown in 1975. But that tells only part of the story. The last time Golden State advanced past the conference semifinals was the very next year, 1976, when the defending champs were stunned in the Western Conference Finals by the Phoenix Suns.
The Warriors have just four series wins since and haven’t been to the playoffs since 2007, when they shocked the No. 1-seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round before losing to the Utah Jazz in the Western semis.
The surprise is they are winning at a .667 clip despite getting just four games, 73 minutes, 24 points and 15 boards from Andrew Bogut.
Instead, Golden State is winning small with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes combining for almost 39 shot attempts per game, Jarrett Jack playing nearly 27 minutes a game off the bench and Festus Ezeli making 19 starts at center.
The Warriors’ X-factor this season has been power forward David Lee, who may not be worthy of Most Valuable Player discussion but should certainly be in the mix for an All-Star Game appearance, averaging 19.2 points and 11.5 boards a game while shooting more than 52 percent from the floor.
But the most shocking development regarding Lee is that he’s actually doing things on the defensive end. According to 82games.com, Lee was worth -4.0 net points per 100 possessions when he was on the floor last season, just a half-point better than when he was off the court.
This year, however, Lee is actually a positive contributor at 3.1 net points per 100 possessions in the game and -7.0 when on the bench. His net value has risen a whopping 9.5 points per 100 possessions from last season, from 0.5 points to 10 points.
Lee will never be a shot blocker—he has just five this season—but if he can at least be respectable (or at the very least not an utter disaster) on the defensive end, that will go a long way toward keeping the Warriors in the hunt.
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