After seeing their winning streak snapped at the weekend, the Golden State Warriors came roaring back on Wednesday night.
Having gone 24-0 to start the season, there was a sense that the streak was becoming more of a burden for the Golden State Warriors rather than a celebration in the latter part of last week. Hard-fought wins over the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics proceeded the end of the run, with the Milwaukee Bucks ensuring that there would be no further history making with a 108-95 win.
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Despite the obvious disappointment of seeing the streak come to an end, there was arguably relief within the Warriors camp that they were no longer being targeted by their opposition who were bringing their best with the purpose of ending their streak amid what was undoubtedly a draining sequence of games.
As a result, it was always likely that the run would have an adverse effect on the players in some way, whether it was from a physical point of view, or in terms of the way that they were playing.
With such desperation to keep the streak alive, Golden State were perhaps moving away from the aspects that had been so pivotal to their success last season. It became more about winning consecutive games than the ultimate goal of winning another championship, but fortunately that cloud lifted after the Bucks defeat and we were treated to a sensational performance on Wednesday night at the Oracle.
Having become dependent on Stephen Curry for the most part in recent weeks, the win over the Suns showed what the Warriors are capable of when it becomes about the bigger picture. Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were crucial, and it showed that they are far from one-dimensional.
Thompson’s 43 points and Green’s fourth triple-double of the season showed how our ‘Big Three’ can dominate when given the chance, as things weren’t predominantly run through Curry.
In addition, the defense was much improved as they performed well on both ends of the court to get back to their way of playing that proved to be so successful last year.
Aside from the performance and result, it was also important to see Curry limited to just 30 minutes of action. Although we all want to see the MVP do his thing as much as possible, the fact is that the Warriors need to get everyone going and the load on Curry needs to be lessened as the season goes on in order to ensure that he is fresh for the playoffs.
As fun as the streak was while it lasted, last weekend’s defeat to the Bucks could prove to be a blessing in disguise. While there is nothing to suggest that the Warriors can’t go on a similar run during the course of this year, Wednesday night showed that the squad excels when they can play pressure-free and focus purely on what’s in front of them.
The defeat to the Bucks could have been a blow to the confidence within the group and got them off track, but instead we got the ideal reaction from the players to get back to winning ways.