The Pacers received their basketball tutorial in how to play small and fast on Tuesday and it was a harsh lesson. Perhaps everyone should have expected nothing less from the defending NBA champions, who have been nothing short of perfect this season.
Golden State's 131-123 victory at Bankers Life Fieldhouse played out before a sold-out audience, the vast majority of whom were disappointed by the outcome but enthralled by the Warriors' brand of performance art. It felt like it was over by halftime, when the visitors hit 11 3-pointers to build a 79-60 lead on 63 percent shooting. The Pacers put together a 40-point fourth quarter and whittled a 28-point deficit to seven, and could have made it four had C.J. Miles' 3-point shot with 47.9 seconds left dropped, but were short of time and fuel by the end.
Golden State is now 23-0, the best start an NBA team has ever had. 13 of those victories have come on the road, also a league record for the start of a season. They've won 27 in a row dating back to last season, trying Miami for the second-longest win streak, and are in the conversation for the record of 33 straight won by the 1971-72 Lakers.
They're playing a game with which the entire NBA was once unfamiliar, and is now mostly trying to copy. The Pacers are one of those teams attempting to spread the floor and rely heavily on 3-point shots, but don't yet have the experience, confidence and personnel to turn it on the masters.
"They got the league in a frenzy right now, trying to go that direction," said Miles, who was the most efficient Pacers player with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting. "They just happen to have the right formula first, and everyone else is trying to figure out what spice they're using. They have a special group of guys, a special group of unselfish guys. We're trying to do to the same thing here. We're just trying to put all the pieces together. It takes time."
If it's about spice, Miles suggested the Warriors must be going with cayenne. Something hot, certainly. They burned the Pacers with a 22-0 run in the first quarter that took them from a 21-15 deficit to a 37-21 lead, and scored 44 points in the period. They were up to 50 with 10:37 left in the second quarter and actually cooled off a bit to settle for 79 at the half.
Fans in Bankers Life Fieldhouse were buzzing throughout the halftime break, stunned and perhaps perversely pleased by the 79-point onslaught they had just witnessed. The Fieldhouse hosted the circus last week, but this was a hardwood version of the greatest show on Earth. One nobody has figured how to stop. They move the ball and themselves so well, and release their shots so quickly, that fans are left gasping at the array of 3-pointers and lob dunks.
"There's some video game type stuff going on over there," Miles said.
"Those guys have a quick trigger, so if you're scrambling you're probably already too late."
George Hill and Paul George said a seldom-used defensive scheme didn't work out as hoped, but then nobody has found one that does against the likes of backcourt Splash Brothers Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry.
They combined for 68 points on 24-of-44 shooting – 39 from Thompson, who matched his output here last season when Curry sat out to nurse a mild injury. Curry, though, remains the Warriors' focal point, the MVP candidate who draws the most attention from defenses, and draws the most fans to the arena. He settled for 29, along with 10 assists and seven rebounds.
"We tried to switch," said George, who led the Pacers with 33 points, but hit just 11-of-27 shots. "We've done it a few (times) against teams that played small ball, but we obviously weren't all the way tied together with this switching idea. It was a great idea, you have to do that against a team like this and just take pride in guarding guys after the switch.
"After the switch there was a lot of constant movement."
You can blame former Minnesota president David Kahn for this, partly. Donnie Walsh, when he was running the Knicks basketball operations, wanted to trade up in the 2009 draft to take Curry out of Davidson, and was ready to give Kahn just about anything he wanted for either the fifth or sixth pick. Kahn, who had been Walsh's assistant general manager with the Pacers, wouldn't budge, and took Ricky Rubio and Jonny Flynn. Golden State then took Curry with the seventh pick, leaving Walsh to draft Jordan Hill with the eighth.
Had Kahn conceded and Walsh succeeded, Curry would be playing in New York now. The Knicks would be better, of course, but probably not a championship contender, and the Warriors would be something else entirely.
The Pacers, meanwhile, are trying to regain their identity. They had won six in a row for a 12-5 record until losing the final two games of last week's Western Conference road trip, and now are dealing with a three-game losing streak. They opened the season with one of those, and believe the same formula that extinguished that one will take care of this one.
"We just have to get back to our game," George Hill said. "We've been focusing on the offensive end a little bit too much, and (need to) get back to Pacer basketball – that smash-mouth defending well (style)."
Golden State is wreaking havoc without its head coach, Steve Kerr, who is recovering from back surgery. Assistant Luke Walton has stepped in and made it look easy, and perhaps it is to coach these kind of players. A championship template has been set, and players and coaches alike are just following along. Walton said before the game he talks with Kerr almost daily, ignoring the temptation to stage a coup and stop taking his boss' calls.
"I don't answer my phone a lot, but when Steve's name is on it, I make sure to pick that one up," Walton said.
The win streak could be an annoyance, a distraction, or a royal pain in the whatever because of all the attention it brings. They're a national story everywhere they go now, and the media bandwagon mounts with each victory.
They don't see anything negative about it, though. In fact, it's something to fuel them through the rigors of the seven-game road trip which still has two to go, in Boston and Milwaukee.
"It's fun; it really is," Walton said. "Our guys enjoy it. I think it helps us bring it every night – play with that edge. With the long road trips like this and how many games are in the season, you have letdowns. Every team does. We will, too. But I don't think our guys want to lose a game because of a letdown now. It's enjoyable for the guys."
If anyone should be tired of it, it's Curry, the NBA's leading scorer (32.2) and primary focus of the spotlight that follows the Warriors' every step. But he shows no hints of fatigue, frustration or boredom. That was obvious from his pre-game shooting routine. It was all business, a focused, uptempo session that crammed in as many game-like shots as possible from the 3-point line, many of them guarded by an assistant coach.
He's obviously not tired of anything, least of all the win streak.
"Never," he said earlier in the day. "It's fun, man. Winning is fun. If winning becomes a burden you've got some issues."
The Pacers insist they have no major issues, despite the three-game losing streak in which they've allowed 123, 122 and 131 points. They admittedly panicked a bit and lost focus in the first half against the Warriors, but took pride in their comeback and take solace in their history.
"We just have to keep pushing, keep going," Miles said. "There's 62 games left.
"There's too much talent in our locker room, too many guys willing to give up parts of themselves to do the right thing, for us to continue to have a losing streak."
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