The Weekly Dish

As the Warriors get closer to full-strength, they look more and more like the record-setting team that began the season.

For the week of Monday, Jan. 11 – Sunday, Jan. 17

Little by little, the Warriors are getting healthier, and with every player that returns to the fold, they look more and more like the record-setting team that began the season. Harrison Barnes, Brandon Rush and Festus Ezeli all returned to action last week, and with Leandro Barbosa and James Michael McAdoo seemingly not far behind, the Warriors are about as close to full strength as they’ve been in a month. Sure, Stephen Curry’s lower leg contusion seems to still be nagging him from time to time, but when the full strength Warriors play up to their potential, it tends to create plenty of opportunities for Curry & Co. to get some well-deserved rest. Such was the case this past week, when the Dubs coasted to another four victories, none of which were all that close. After adding four more instances to the count last week, the Warriors have now won their last 87 games in which they’ve led by at least 15 points at any point during the contest. That’s a streak that dates all the way back to April 14, 2014, meaning it’s been approximately 21 months since the last time the Dubs blew a 15-point lead in a game they lost. While the unbeaten streak speaks to their resolve, the fact that they’ve had 87 chances to blow a 15-point lead hints at just how dominant they’ve been over the last two seasons.

Now, it’s certainly not breaking news that the Warriors are a great basketball team. For years they’ve been lauded for their team-wide shooting and scoring prowess, focused namely on the Splash Brothers. Over the last several seasons, the statistics have also supported the narrative that the Warriors are a tremendous defensive team, both individually and as a unit. And while plenty of attention has been paid to their phenomenal ball movement, I believe this is an area where they have not received adequate reverence. Quite simply, the way they pass the ball - the intertwined confluence of efficiency and unselfishness with which they do so - is downright unparalleled. And, just as 15 seems to be the Warriors magic number as it relates to leads, 30 is equally indicative of their success as it pertains to assists. Golden State accumulated 35 assists in their win over the Kings on Saturday, marking the 19th time already this season that the Warriors have dished out 30 or more assists. For comparison, the San Antonio Spurs rank second in the league in that same category, with seven games with 30 or more assists. Last season, the Warriors led the NBA with 22 games with 30 or more assists, while the Clippers ranked second with 10 such instances. That means that since the beginning of last season, the Warriors have met the 30-assist barrier in a staggering 34.5 percent of their games, going 40-1 in those contests.

You can credit their shooting, you can tout their staunch defense and you can laud their ball movement, but the truth of the matter is, it’s the combination of all these factors that make the Warriors the powerhouse team that they are. Even at 35-2, it would not be shocking at all to see the Dubs take their game up another notch as the roster nears full-strength status.

Just how good are the Warriors? Well, Draymond Green recorded two more triple-doubles, and he still couldn’t outmaneuver Klay Thompson for this week’s Spotlight. Thompson averaged 29.3 points in 34.7 minutes per game in the four victories last week, shooting 51.2 percent from the field and 48.8 percent from three-point range. He led all NBA players in individual plus-minus for the week, as the Warriors outscored their opponent by 87 points while Thompson was on the court. And, even though this is a weekly award, his performance was basically just the continuation of a dominant individual stretch that dates back six weeks. Since December 1, only Curry (27.0) and James Harden (26.6) have averaged more than Thompson’s 26.3 points per game, and only Curry and Green have posted a higher individual plus-minus over the same span. He’s now up to 118 three-pointers in 35 games played this season, putting him on pace for 270 treys by the end of the year, which would be the most three-pointers made in a single season in NBA history by anyone not named Stephen Curry. As of the most recent All-Star balloting update, Thompson had received the fourth-most votes among Western Conference guards, sandwiched between the Clippers’ Chris Paul and the Rockets’ Harden. Whether he’s voted in by the fans or named an All-Star Reserve by the coaches, it doesn’t make much difference in the end. Considering his personal qualifications – not to mention the Warriors’ accomplishments as a team – you can bet he’ll be in Toronto for his second-consecutive All-Star Game. Still, you should keep voting anyway.

The Warriors have another four-game slate this week, including two games against opponents they’ve already beaten in 2016. First up is a matchup with the visiting Miami Heat tonight, in what will be Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh’s lone visit to the Bay Area this season. Then the Dubs play a road-home back-to-back, first traveling to Denver to take on the Nuggets on Wednesday before returning home for a matchup with the Lakers on Thursday in Kobe Bryant’s final game at Oracle Arena. After that, the Warriors round out the week with a road game against the Detroit Pistons on Saturday, which will kick off a three-game road trip leading into next week. Looking ahead, the schedule gets about as daunting as it can get in late January, so the Warriors would be wise to take advantage of the less imposing opponents while they can.

Till next week.

The Dish has been served.