Golden State Warriors Face Latest Obstacle: Too Much Rest
By Dale Johnson
You know the Golden State Warriors are having a special season when the biggest challenge they will face this week is the #firstseedproblem of too much rest.
With Golden State’s series vs. New Orleans wrapped up in a quick four games, they now await the winner of the Portland-Memphis series. The soonest they could be back on the court is Sunday, and it could be even longer if Portland continues to prolong the series.
Rest vs. rust. That is the question.
In an obviously small sample size, the Warriors went 2-0 during the regular season with 4+ days of rest. One was an oddity in the schedule, a four-day break before taking on the Utah Jazz at home on Nov. 21, a game the Warriors defensively smothered the Jazz 101 – 88. The other game was after the All-Star break, a contest they also won by putting a pretty convincing beat-down on the Spurs 110 – 99 at Oracle.
So the Warriors have played decently when well rested. It also helps that, no matter the opponent, the Warriors will start this series at home. Nothing like Roaracle to get the juices flowing.
A few days off will also help the nagging injury concerns of Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala. Remember, Green missed a week to rest his shins as the season was coming to a close and Iguodala sat intermittently throughout the season to rest his knees. Neither are in danger of actually missing a game, but a break like this can only help alleviate some of the pain they are playing through. Iggy looked really good coming off that nine-day rest after the All-Star break, and the Warriors will need more production out of him this series.
This break could also help David Lee, who didn’t play at all in the New Orleans series. He was in street clothes for the first two games, and was available off the bench but didn’t play in the final two games. I think that was a combination of New Orleans being a bad matchup for Lee and him just having not been part of the game plan since he wasn’t available during preparation for the series.
Mo Speights made literally one good play the entire first round, so I don’t think it would be far-fetched to see Lee steal a few minutes if he can be productive. This break gives him an entire week to get back in to game shape and prepare for the series.
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Time off can only be a good thing for the heady Warriors coaching staff as well. Golden State was out of whack during long stretches of the New Orleans series, part of that due to the presence of one Anthony Davis. But I imagine the mad scientist trifecta of Steve Kerr, Alvin Gentry and Ron Adams have studied every single second of game film searching for ways to improve. (Sidenote: can you imagine being in a fantasy basketball league with those three? Good luck).
No matter the perceived benefits that rest may have given the Warriors this week, following the conclusion of Game 1 vs. the GrizBlazers, the narrative will go one of two ways:
“Well rested Warriors crush (insert second round opponent)”
“Warriors fail to shake off rust in loss to (insert second round opponent)”
Rest. No rest. All that matters are results for the Golden State Warriors as they try to keep this magical season going.