Golden State Warriors: 3 takeaways from Game 6 win vs. Rockets

3. Their bench plays the game correctly

After Durant went down, a number of people wrote the Warriors off, considering how reliant they had been on his offense through the first five games of the series.

In Game 6, they received 60 of their points from the splash brothers, but they also got 33 points from their bench. That mark of 33 was 16 more than the Rockets got from their reserves. The Warriors’ greatest strength when their run started was their depth, and it looks like that might be a sneaky strength again.

After being extremely quiet all season, Shaun Livingston had 11 points on the night. That was just his fourth game scoring greater than 10 points all year.

Kevon Looney went an extremely efficient 6-of-8 to go with five rebounds. Looney has been a reliable big man for the Warriors while they’re without DeMarcus Cousins. They don’t ask him to be a major part of their offense, and he is able to play his role to the letter.

When looking ahead, of the five remaining teams, only the Milwaukee Bucks look like a clearly deeper team as things stand right now. The Warriors are getting contributions from various players, and they played 11 guys within the first 13 minutes of the game. If Durant is out for an extended number of games, they’ll need the bench to continue playing at this level.