On the rare occurrences in which the Warriors have struggled, they've rebounded with a championship response.
For the week of Monday, Feb. 22 – Sunday, Feb. 28
Record: 1-1
Every team, even a constantly record-setting squad like the Warriors, is going to have its’ down moments over the course of an 82-game season. But the best ones, the ones that have the potential to withstand and prevail over considerable adversity when the stakes are highest, are the teams that climb back on the horse immediately after getting thrown from it. Sure, Friday’s loss in Portland was certainly not the Warriors’ finest moment this season. They were outplayed and outworked from start to finish, and to the Trail Blazers’ credit, they took full advantage. The Dubs got their piece of humble pie and, with a game in Los Angeles less than 24 hours later, didn’t have a whole lot of time to consume it.
Playing without a center, as both Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli were on the shelf with injuries, the Warriors rebounded like the championship-caliber team they have consistently proven themselves to be, and halted their longest losing streak - if you can call it that – at a whopping total of one game. With five total losses on the season, that’s been five opportunities for the Warriors to stem the tide, and each time they’ve passed with flying colors. In the games following a defeat this season, the Warriors are 5-0 with an average margin of victory of 16.8 points. That number could actually be substantially larger considering Golden State led the Clippers by 16 points with less than two minutes remaining in the game, but the larger takeaway remains. The Warriors will have off-nights every now and then, but on the rare occurrences in which they do, you can bet they’ll come back with a championship response.
Standout Spotlight: Draymond Green
It would have been somewhat understandable if Draymond Green suffered from a small degree of All-Star hangover, considering the first-time All-Star was quite busy throughout the Weekend, but when it comes to Green, you can throw your reasonable expectations out the window. The former second round pick has made a living proving doubters wrong, and he got the post-All-Star break portion of his season off to a similar note as the one that preceded it. In the two games last week, Green posted averages of 16.0 points, 11.5 rebounds and 9.0 assists and notched his league-leading 11th triple-double of the season against the Clippers on Saturday. Heading into tonight’s matchup with the Hawks, Green has already recorded triple-doubles in consecutive games on four separate occasions this season, constituting the most such instances in a single season since Michael Jordan did so eight times in 1988-89. Any time you’re mentioned in the same sentence as MJ, you know you’re doing something right, and if Green keeps this up, that won’t be the only Hall-of-Famer he shares something in common with.
The Week Ahead:
The Warriors are a third of the way through their post-All-Star break road trip, and despite the degree of difficulty in the first two games, the week ahead doesn’t get much easier. The Dubs will tip off the week with a game in Atlanta tonight against the Hawks before proceeding to Florida for a road back-to-back against the Miami Heat and Orlando Magic on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively. After that, they’ll head to Oklahoma City for the final game of their extended trip on Saturday. Of those opponents, only Orlando currently sits outside of a playoff spot, so the Warriors will certainly have their hands full, particularly at the end of a long trip. Once they get back from the road, however, 17 of their 24 remaining games will be played at the friendly confines of Oracle Arena, where they haven’t lost a regular season game in well over a calendar year.
Till next week.