The Weekly Dish

For the week of Monday, Nov. 17 – Sunday, Nov. 23

It’s official, the 2014-15 Warriors are off to the best start in franchise history. Until their victory over the Thunder last night, never before in the 69 years of existence of the Warriors’ franchise has the team begun a season with a 10-2 record. The Dubs have maintained the high level of play that got them off to an unbeaten 5-0 start, and now sit atop the Pacific Division with the third-highest winning percentage in the entire league. Yet what distinguishes this second five-game winning streak from the one that began their season is how the Warriors are proving that they can win different kinds of games. For instance, Friday’s blowout victory over the Jazz at Oracle was the kind of game that troubled the Warriors from time to time a year ago. Andrew Bogut explained that last season, they occasionally had to win games two or three times against lesser opponents because they didn’t “step on their throats” when they had the chance early on in the game. Well, on Friday night, they left the Jazz speechless…or rather, throat-less. Golden State used a 12-0 start to outscore Utah 28-13 in the first quarter, the fewest points the Warriors have allowed in an opening frame this season. From there, the Warriors never looked back with their largest lead reaching 30 during the third quarter, earning their first wire-to-wire victory of the season. While the Jazz have some pieces for a bright future, the Warriors are the superior team at the moment, and Friday’s victory proved that beyond any doubt.

Golden State did not have as easy of a time against the Thunder on Sunday, however. Playing in Oklahoma City, the Warriors had their poorest shooting output of the season at 35.5 percent from the field, the first time they’ve shot below 44 percent in a game this season. Without the aid of Andrew Bogut (orbital contusion) and Leandro Barbosa (knee) for the majority of the contest, the Dubs were forced to find a way to win without two of their core rotational players in the midst of this tough shooting performance. With the help of a game-high 28 points from Marreese Speights, the Warriors grinded out a 91-86 victory over the Thunder, despite Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combining for just one field goal in the second half. Over the course of an 82 game season, you’re not going to be at full strength every game, nor are you going to shoot the lights out every time you step out on the court. Sunday’s road win proved that even when faced with unaccustomed adversity, the Warriors are still capable of proving equal to the task.

It would be easy to give this recognition to Speights for the second-straight week. His season-high 28 points against the Thunder constituted his fourth-consecutive double-digit scoring output, a span in which he’s scored 79 points in 75 minutes over the course of the four games. But in The Weekly Dish, we like to spread the love around, so this week, it’s Draymond Green’s turn. In the Warriors’ two wins in a three-day span, Green averaged 10.5 points, 9.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists and 2.0 steals in 33 minutes. He’s done an admiral job filling in for the injured David Lee all season long, harassing opposing players with his stifling defense, while averaging a career-best 12.5 points (double that of 6.2 last season) and 1.7 three-pointers per game. In fact, the Warriors’ starting lineup of Curry-Thompson-Barnes-Green-Bogut is outscoring the opposition by a ridiculous 28.6 points per 100 possessions. And when you substitute Iguodala for Barnes, that number jumps to a ludicrous 48.4 points per 100 possessions, albeit in 84 fewer minutes of playing time. Those are the two most-often used lineups for Steve Kerr, and obviously there’s a lot of consistency there, but Green’s impact cannot be ignored. He’s definitely made the case that he should receive heavy minutes moving forward, and it will be interesting to see how the inclusion of David Lee, once he returns from injury, affects that distribution. If you ask Kerr, that’s a great problem to have, and it’s assuredly the envy of his coaching counterparts.

Although the Dubs have proven plenty over the season’s first 12 games, one thing they haven’t had a chance to display is their ability to win on the road over an extended trip. That all changes in the week ahead, as the Warriors will round out a five-game roadie with games in Miami, Orlando, Charlotte and Detroit. The games against the Heat and Magic fall on a back-to-back beginning Tuesday night, and although the West continues to assert its dominance over the East with a 45-19 inter-conference record, this trip will be no easy task. It offers our first chance to get a glimpse at how the Dubs will handle themselves for an extended time away from the friendly confines of Oracle Arena. As always seems to be the case with Golden State, their ball control will have a large say in how well they fare, and their recent improvement in that area could not have come at a better time. After being far too careless with the ball over the first seven games, the Warriors have obviously made a concerted effort to improve in that area, averaging just 13.6 turnovers per game over the course of their current five-game winning streak. Winning on the road against any team in the NBA is a tough assignment, but if the Warriors aren’t beating themselves, they’ve got a good chance against anyone. If they can keep up the recent trend and get back to their prolific shooting ways, they’ve got a real opportunity to gobble up several more wins over this Thanksgiving trip.