Golden State Warriors: The impact of rest on Game 1 for the Dubs dynasty

Over the course of the Golden State Warriors dynamic five-straight Finals run, has rest played a role in their Game 1 success?

Too much rest can be viewed as a bad thing, yet too little rest will create players not physically or mentally ready. That said, the Golden State Warriors have had 19 series throughout the last five years, meaning 19 Game 1s where rest may impact the result.

Of those 19 series, seven of them were played with over five days of rest between the final game of either the regular season or the previous series. In those games, the Warriors were 6-1, winning by an average of 9.4 points per game.

That means, the Warriors played 12 series in which they had under five days of rest. Undefeated in those, the Warriors were a perfect 12-0 with an average margin of victory of 14.3 points per game.

There obviously isn’t much difference between the two.

The lone Game 1 loss was against the Oklahoma City Thunder who were ironically led by Kevin Durant the season prior to his signing with Golden State. One of the most iconic series in the Warriors dynasty, after being down 3-1, they fought and clawed their way to a Game 7.

Overall, in the 19 series, there isn’t a trend that supports the extensive need for rest. While it’s certainly something the Warriors craved, keeping the win-now mentality that the postseason instills on players is ideal.

However, given the fact that the Raptors and Bucks may go seven games, the Warriors’ opponent will be guaranteed less rest than Golden State. That said, we get a first-hand view on the importance, or lack thereof, of rest.

At the same time, having maximum time to rest goes deep into the series. The one series which Golden State lost, the historic 2016 NBA Finals, they played an entire 82 games series in which they won a league-setting 73 games. Then, they went deep into a series against OKC.

The Warriors haven’t played all-out like that since the 2015-2016 regular season. That’s not what’s happened to them over the last couple of years, so don’t expect that type of built-up fatigue that we saw in 2016.

Either way, the facts are scattered and help prove the importance of rest, but overall, they certainly aren’t conclusive on how important it is to the first game in the following series.