Analyzing the Golden State Warriors’ home and road disparities
There’s no secret that the Golden State Warriors have produced an historical start to the season — holding both the NBA’s best home record (16-2), and the league’s worst road record (3-16). But exactly why have the reigning champions been unable to take their show on the road this season?
In a surprise to no one, it’s been the defensive end of the floor. Just watching the games would give you a perfect illustration of the Warriors’ defensive disparities at home and on the road, but the numbers also give a startling contrast of what’s been taking place.
The Golden State Warriors’ point-of-attack defense is simply a different beast at Chase Center compared to other arenas around the league.
To put it rather simply, the Warriors struggle to contain dribble penetration on the road compared to at home. Basketball is a simple game — the closer you are to the rim, generally the more efficient you’ll be. Golden State give up a ridiculously low 12.9 field-goal attempts in the restricted area at Chase Center — to put that in perspective, Washington has the second-lowest at 18.8 opposing attempts in the restricted area on their home floor.
On the road, the Warriors give up nearly double that amount — 24.3. That’s a recipe for success for opposing teams given they shoot 70.3% from the restricted area. When drivers get to the rim, Golden State’s defense collapses, and shot attempts from three are subsequently far greater looks. The Warriors give up the second-highest three-point percentage (41.2%) on the road, yet the lowest (29.4%) at home. There’s some natural variance to this that should smooth out over the remainder of the season, but that’s far too big a difference to be considered coincidental.
The final result — Golden State have the league’s second-best defensive rating (106) at home, and the worst defensive rating (130) on the road. So, what’s the anecdote to the Warriors finding consistency between both?
Some believe it’s a personnel issue, focusing on the loss of Gary Payton II during the offseason. While you can never have enough quality perimeter defenders, the Warriors’ capacity to remain an elite defensive team at home shows it’s not really an issue of roster construction.
The primary reasoning just comes down to intensity and concentration. It can also be as simple as saying that outside Andrew Wiggins, the team’s best perimeter defenders are Donte DiVincenzo and Jonathan Kuminga. Those guys are role players for the most part, and there’s the old adage that role players perform much better at home than on the road.
Golden State’s defense is predicated on making it as difficult as possible for opposing guards/wings to get to the rim. If Wiggins, DiVincenzo, Kuminga and the like do their job at the top, then it’s much easier for Draymond Green to perform his role as a help defender/rim protector.
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We saw the ideals of this scenario play out against Portland on Friday. DiVincenzo and Kuminga harassed Damian Lillard and Anfernee Simons on the perimeter in the closing minutes, allowing Green to come up with some huge stops at the rim. The Trail Blazers had two points in the final five minutes as the Warriors closed on a 16-2 run to win the game.
This team is still more than capable of being the best defensive team in the league, they just need to manufacture it on the road between now and playoff time.