The Weekly Dish

Riding a six-game winning streak and having won 11 of their last 12 games, the Warriors look as good as they have all season long.

For the week of Monday, Mar. 16 – Monday, Mar. 23

Last night, a poetic coalescence of the Warriors' past and present took place at Oracle Arena. Honoring and celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1974-75 Championship season, the Dubs put on a display that made some of the most iconic and successful players in Golden State history stand up and take notice, demolishing a solid Wizards team by 31 points in coincidentally their 40th double-digit victory this season. Prior to game, Hall of Famer Rick Barry spoke of togetherness, the word inscribed on the inside of the championship rings he and his teammates received following what he believes to be the greatest upset in NBA Finals history. Togetherness, as he explained, was more than a catchy motto to them; it was their mission statement, the method by which they would overcome the odds and achieve greatness. Togetherness worked for the Warriors then, and as we’ve seen throughout this great season, it’s still working for them today. This team has an uncanny self-confidence, particularly for their first year under a new coaching staff, but it’s more in each other as a whole than it is in any individual. They figured out how they need to play, and the second half of this season has been about perfecting that modus operandi, so that it becomes nothing more than second nature. It’s as if they’ve solved the linchpin box of a Sudoku game, and now the rest of the puzzle is systematically falling into place. They’ll surely still encounter some bumps in the road that cause them to pause and readjust, but one by one, the grid is beginning to fill up.

Watching the NCAA tournament, I was struck by the words of Wichita State coach Gregg Marshall in his pregame address to his players before they took on in-state rival Kansas, and thought they were quite applicable to the Warriors: “You don’t have to be perfect. Your best is good enough.” As the Dubs have proven, their baseline (no pun intended) is considerably higher than perhaps any other team in the league, and if they play their game, they’re seemingly almost impossible to beat. They broke Monday’s game open in the third quarter in which they outscored the Wizards 28-8 and held Washington to an abysmal 1-of-18 shooting from the field. Within the last week, they’ve also soundly handled the top-seed in the East, a Western Conference playoff contender currently in desperation mode, and the best team in the West since the All-Star break, all by an average of 16.7 points. Including their win over the Lakers last Monday, the Warriors have now been outscored in only two of their last 20 quarters. All of those contests occurred at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors just became the first team in NBA history to go 6-0 or better on two homestands in the same season. With the magic numbers to clinch the division (one), best record in the West (five), and home court advantage throughout the playoffs (eight) all on the immediate horizon, now’s a great time to revisit this undeniable fact: not only will the Warriors playoff opponents possibly need to sweep the Dubs - the best road team in the league - on their own home floor, they’ll also have to steal at least one game at Oracle Arena, where the Warriors have lost only one game – in overtime, mind you – since November 12. Considering the way the Dubs are rolling right now, well, good luck with that.

This acknowledgement could have gone several different ways, with Harrison Barnes, Leandro Barbosa and Marreese Speights all combining to do an admirable job filling the void while Klay Thompson recovered from injury, but Andre Iguodala’s impact was too consistent and too vital to go unnoticed. For the first time in his Warriors’ regular season career, Iguodala has now recorded double-digit scoring outputs in each of the last four games. Over that span, he’s averaged 13.8 points, 2.8 assists, 2.0 rebounds and 1.0 steal in 26.0 minutes per game on 60.6 percent shooting from the field and 40.0 percent from the three-point line. As has always been the case in his tenure with Golden State, Iguodala’s impact cannot be evaluated by counting stats alone. A reigning First-Team All-NBA Defensive Team member, you could make the case Iguodala is the Warriors’ best defensive player, which is saying a lot considering that would mean bypassing both Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green. His veteran presence is an incalculable commodity to an otherwise relatively young team, and his versatility on both ends of the court allows his teammates the freedom to do what they do best. If Green is the Warriors’ Swiss army knife, and Bogut is their hammer, Iguodala is Golden State’s adjustable wrench – adaptable, strong and efficient. The Warriors would not be where they are today without his contributions, and they’ll continue to depend on him more and more as the games get tougher and the outcomes more significant.

Riding a six-game winning streak and having won 11 of their last 12 games, the Warriors take their momentum on the road for their longest remaining road trip of the season, a stretch of four games in four cities in eight nights. First up is a matchup with the Trail Blazers in Portland tonight, where the Blazers possess the second-best home record in the West at 28-6. Having played last night, the Warriors will have the odds stacked against them, but that hasn’t deterred them from success before, as the Dubs bring a 13-3 record in the second game of a back-to-back into tonight’s contest. They’ll have an additional opportunity to improve upon that mark later in the week, when the Warriors play in Memphis and Milwaukee on Friday and Saturday night, respectively. The Grizzlies remain as the only team the Warriors have yet to beat this season, having lost in Memphis in their only prior encounter back on December 16. Andrew Bogut didn’t play in that game, so assuming the Dubs are at full strength, Friday should be a good test to see if they can dispatch a team that has owned the matchup in recent seasons, having defeated them in 12 of their last 14 games. The Warriors will close out their week against the Bucks the following night, as Milwaukee looks to right the ship before the playoffs. Losers of 11 of their last 13, including a defeat at the hands of the Warriors on March 4th, the Bucks are struggling as of late, but still possess enough talent to pose significant problems for the Warriors in a game in which the Dubs will most certainly be fatigued. That’s another demanding week ahead for the Warriors, after which they’ll only have four remaining road games left on the season.

The Dish has been served.