A great way to start the second half.
The Golden State Warriors have looked like an entirely different team since acquiring Jimmy Butler III in a deadline deal with the Miami Heat. But while they went 3-1 in Butler’s four games before the All-Star break, there was one giant negative caveat: their lone loss in that span came against the one team they faced that they were competing with in the standings.
So Friday night’s start to the second half of the season was both pressure-packed and a litmus test. The Dubs were finishing off a stretch of seven consecutive road games, and were facing the team directly ahead of them in the standings, the Sacramento Kings. Lose, and the Warriors would sink further into the 10th spot; win, and they’d leapfrog the Kings in the standings.
You don’t get extra points in the win column for impressive victories or blowouts. But you do get to make a statement to yourself, your opponent, and the rest of the conference.
Statement made.
Golden State went into a lively Golden1 Center and thoroughly dominated a motivated and energetic Kings team, and left the court with a 132-108 win.
Unlike in many of their other recent wins, the Warriors didn’t fall behind early, though it still took them a while to fully find their rhythm. A little electricity from Steph Curry early on gave the Dubs a 10-6 lead and forced a Kings timeout, but Sacramento responded with back-to-back threes that sparked a 10-2 run. Behind a spirited effort from DeMar DeRozan, the Kings were playing fast, playing hard, and playing physically. But the Warriors kept having responses, and brought plenty of energy of their own. Buddy Hield in particular brought a huge first-quarter spark with 10 points in the frame, including a three on the front end of a two-for one. The Warriors followed it up with a steal, and Butler found Brandin Podziemski in transition for a layup to make it a 31-28 lead after the first quarter. Golden State missed a lot of layups and easy shots, but had outscored Sacramento 10-0 in points off turnovers.
The second quarter was when the big lead was built. It started with Moses Moody who, after a strong first quarter, scored the first five points of the second frame for the Dubs. Quinten Post gave Golden State a fascinating look in the quarter, providing some size (they started with a small-ball lineup) and also some shooting. A pair of threes by Post (who had three of them in the quarter) helped push the lead to double digits and, less than halfway through the frame, a Podziemski three punctuated a 24-6 run that had spanned both quarters. With just under four minutes left, Hield scored on one end, the Warriors stole the ball on the other, and Curry found a streaking Gary Payton II with a full-court pass to push the lead to 20 points.
All was well until the very end of the quarter, when the Warriors botched a two-for-one. They went empty on both of their possessions, with Hield fouling DeRozan on a three-point attempt in between. It was still a 68-53 lead at the break, but it felt like the Warriors should be up by more … and like Sacramento had started to shift the moment.
That momentum shift carried over into the third quarter. Sacramento quickly made it an 11-point game, prompting a very early timeout from Steve Kerr. The Kings added a three out of the berak, making it an eight-point game and signaling that they weren’t going anywhere.
Golden State didn’t seem to care though. They bit down on their mouthpiece and came roaring back, with a run led by Moody’s offense and Draymond Green’s defense. They built the lead back to 15 points, prompting a Sacramento timeout. After the action resumed, the Warriors rattled off five straight points, prompting another Sacramento timeout. You could tell the Kings knew their chances were fading. Still, they kept punching, but the Warriors punched back, with Butler once again putting the team on his back late in the third quarter.
It was a fully in-control, 100-83 lead going into the fourth quarter. But we’ve seen the Warriors squander those before; this is a team that has not afforded us the luxury of putting our feet up when there’s a late lead.
Perhaps that will change going forward. Hield drained a three on the first possession to push the lead back to 20 points. Led by fantastic rebounding, the Warriors controlled not just the score but the energy and flow of the game. A few minutes into the quarter and it was a 24-point lead. A fading three in the corner by Curry made it 117-90 as we neared the halfway mark, and signaled that the only thing left to be determined was the final score.
A few minutes after that, both teams turned things over to the back of the bench. And a few minutes after that, the buzzer rang, marking an emphatic and impressive 24-point victory.
While Curry, Butler, and Green were the backbone of the success, it was the role players who showed up and showed out. The three leading scorers were Moody (22 points), Hield (22), and Podziemski (21). Moody was wildly efficient (8-for-11 shooting, 5-for-8 threes, 1-for-1 free throws) and played exceptional defense while drawing an opening assignment on Zach LaVine. Hield was equally efficient (quite literally: he had the exact same shooting line), and brought tremendous energy all night long, with tons of little hustle plays that set the tone. Podziemski struggled a little with efficiency (9-for-20 shooting, 2-for-9 threes, 1-for-1 free throws), but his playmaking, defense, and the timeliness of his buckets more than made up for it.
Curry finished with 20 points and six assists on 7-for-13 shooting, while Butler had 17 points and seven assists on 5-for-10 shooting, once again living at the line (he went 7-for-7). Green had six points, eight rebounds, and nine assists, and finished with a game-high plus/minus of +23.
But nothing showed how much the team has changed quite like the points off turnovers. Turnovers killed the Warriors early in the season, as did their inability to capitalize on other team’s mistakes, or minimize damage from their own turnovers. That seems to have changed with Butler’s arrival, and Friday was a shining example, with the Warriors ending the game with an eye-opening 38-5 advantage in points off turnovers.
The Dubs are now 4-1 since Butler debuted and, despite all five of those games being on the road, they’ve outscored their opponents by 62 points during that span. They’ve moved up to the ninth seed in the West, and will get a chance to exact some revenge from last week’s frustrating loss to the Dallas Mavericks, as they host Dallas on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. PT on ABC.
Here they come, folks.