The Monday Dubs: Euphoria surrounds undefeated Warriors

As I watched the final minutes of the Warriors-Blazers game Sunday night from my living room, I figured the game was close to slipping away when Andre Iguodala split foul shots with 26 seconds to play and kept the score at 90-89 Blazers.

“Back end of a back-to-back, fatigue settling in, and facing a tough Blazers squad,” I thought to myself. “I’ll take the moral victory that at least they made it a close game.”

Except the Warriors executed a perfect trap on Wesley Matthews on the ensuing inbounds play, forcing him to cough it up and commit a turnover (thank you, Steve Blake‘s backside), giving the Warriors the ball back with 14 seconds on the clock, down by one.

“Ok, great; now iso Stephen Curry at the top of the key against Damian Lillard, let the clock wind down, and let him work his magic,” I reasoned, thinking back to all the game winners he hit last season.

Instead, the Warriors went quick on a gorgeous play design by Steve Kerr. Curry acted as a decoy, inbounding the ball to Andre Igoudala, who fed Klay Thompson coming off an Andrew Bogut screen on the left block. Thompson took one dribble to the middle, then rose and made a tough shot over the outstretched arms of Wesley Matthews to give the Warriors a 91-90 lead.

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In my mind, though, I wasn’t celebrating. I was more concerned about the fact that 8.7 seconds remained, that all Portland had to do was feed it to LaMarcus Aldridge — who had dominated the smaller Draymond Green — and all Aldridge had to do was turn and fire over Green to win the game at the buzzer.

“Lot of time left,” I texted a friend. To which he responded, “LaMarcus time.”

“Should’ve took the last shot so Portland couldn’t go back to that matchup,” I said.

Well, the Warriors proved me wrong one final time. Green, shadowing Aldridge at the three-point line, knocked away the inbound pass from Nicolas Batum, and Thompson quickly corralled it for a steal. The Warriors sealed the game on four Curry free throws and another steal in between.

“Or they could just do that,” I thought, feeling relieved and rather dumbfounded.

That’s how I turned off the TV last night feeling: dumbfounded, astounded, euphoric even. Here are the Warriors, sitting at 3-0, ranked No. 1 in the latest NBA.com power rankings. Here are the Warriors, with Kerr at the helm, looking dynamic on offense and even more superb on defense, leading the league in defensive efficiency. Here is Thompson immediately justifying his $70 million contract extension by leading the league in scoring through three games and yelling “Kevin Love who?” while knocking down game-winning shots.

Here are the Warriors playing with perfect symmetry under a budding head coach in a locker room with no dysfunction, no divides, and no controversy.

Small sample size? Yes. Wishful thinking? Um…yes. But please, for a fanbase that hasn’t seen glory for 39 years, let us gloat in this euphoria and the surreal possibility that the Warriors are the best team in the NBA.