The Weekly Dish

Even in defeat, the Warriors make a statement about where they're headed.

For the week of Monday, Mar. 21 – Sunday, Mar. 27

You’d be hard-pressed to find another instance that better fit the concept of a 'schedule loss' than the Warriors’ defeat at the hands of the Spurs on Saturday. Ninth game in 14 days, back end of a back-to-back, playing without Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala, against a team on-pace for the third-highest win total in the history of the sport; you can see why the odds may have been more stacked against the Dubs than your standard contest. But, that didn’t stop Golden State from producing one of their best all-around efforts in recent weeks, to the point that Steve Kerr began his postgame press conference by saying, "I couldn’t be prouder of our guys. What an effort. Incredible."

And that’s what it was – an incredible effort. The Warriors certainly played better in defeat than they had in numerous victories this year, but they came up against an opponent that’s been right on their historic heels all season long, and Saturday’s outcome was the manifestation of what happens when two great teams meet. Lucky for us, it won’t be the last time the Spurs and Warriors meet this season. Despite Golden State only having 14 more games remaining on the schedule, two of those come against San Antonio in the final week of the season, and logic would seem to say that there’s a high likelihood the two sides could ultimately meet again in a postseason series. Of course, tell that to your busted NCAA tournament bracket. The future is not guaranteed, but what is solidified is the superiority of two squads on a historic trajectory, seemingly well ahead of the other teams in the Association.

So you can bet the Warriors weren’t hanging their heads over Saturday’s loss, nor should they have been. There’s certainly enough of a sample size now to know what the Dubs are potentially capable of accomplishing, and one individual outcome does not alter that landscape. In fact, that was the Warriors first defeat in 12 tries this season against opponents with a winning percentage of .600 or better, and while that’s a tremendous mark, that’s not to say there aren’t areas of relative concern to nitpick about. If there’s one particular area where the Dubs could improve against those premiere teams, it’s rebounding. The Spurs outrebounded Golden State 53-37 on Saturday and turned 15 offensive rebounds into 24 second chance points, the second highest total the Warriors have allowed this season. Saturday was also the fourth time in the last two months that the Warriors were outrebounded by at least six boards, with the other three instances coming against the Oklahoma City Thunder (twice) and Los Angeles Clippers. Granted, Saturday was the only one of those four occasions where the Dubs didn’t ultimately prevail, so it’s not as if winning the rebounding battle is the end-all, be-all to the Warriors’ chances at victory. However, those are the kinds of teams the Warriors are likely to see as they go after their second consecutive Championship, and every possession will carry that much more weight in postseason play. Ideally, the Dubs will have both members of their center tandem back in action and fully healthy at that point, but in the meantime, they can use the remainder of the regular season to focus on not only locking up home court advantage, but refining these areas of relative concern.

He had a rough shooting night against the Spurs, but then again, nearly every member of the Warriors did. The great thing about Klay Thompson is you can bet he’ll keep on shooting, because that’s what all-time prolific shooters do. In the three victories to begin last week, Thompson posted averages of 25.3 points and 5.0 rebounds per game on 56.0 percent shooting from the field and 60.7 percent shooting from three-point land. After going through a moderate shooting slump at the end of last month, Thompson has righted the ship recently and has been arguably the best shooter in the entire league over the last two weeks. Over that span, he’s averaging the 10th-best scoring average in the NBA, shooting 50.7 percent from the field and 53.4 percent from behind the arc, and his 39 made three-pointers are second to only Stephen Curry’s 43 in the entire league, on 25 fewer attempts. To put that in perspective, Thompson has made more three-pointers over the past two weeks than three other entire NBA teams, including tonight’s opponent, the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Warriors get a chance to rebound from Saturday’s tough defeat when they take on the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight in the final game of their current three-game road trip. Following tonight’s matchup, the Dubs will return home to play eight of their next nine games at Oracle Arena, including the next four in a row. The homestand will tip off with the Warriors’ final meeting of the regular season with the division rival Clippers on Wednesday night and continue on Friday against the Dallas Mavericks in a potential first round playoff preview. Finally, the Warriors will round out the week with a game against the 76ers on Sunday in Philadelphia’s lone trip to the Bay Area this season. With San Antonio right on their tail, Golden State cannot afford to let up at any point in these final three weeks of the regular season, and can set the tone for a strong finish with several victories this week.

Till next week.