The Warriors: Making a (home) stand
If hoops is a game of streaks, right now the Warriors are Frank the Tank. They're flying so high, they're looking down on the Democrats. They're looking so good, Gavin Newsom is jealous. They're buzzing so hard, they're getting calls from Courtney Love (and Mel Gibson?).
These kinds of things will happen when a team struggling to find its identity suddenly notches a few quality wins in a row.
The (hopefully) friendly confines. Photo from Warriors official web site.
Well smoke 'em if you got 'em because the Warriors are the proud owners of a three-game winning streak, including a 32-point pasting of the formidable (but decaying) Detroit Pistons on Saturday and last night's impressive fourth quarter comeback win over an up-and-coming Toronto Raptors team. The win against the Pistons, in case you missed it, was as good as the Warriors have played in years. They dominated Detroit from the opening tip, doubling them up in the first quarter and outscoring them in all four frames. Sure, it was a get-away game for the Pistons, the final game of their four-game road trip, and possibly a bit of an ugly stepchild to them after their dismantling of the more high-profile Fakers the night before. But it was huge for the Warriors because it represents the kind of dominating win against a quality opponent (other than the Dallas Mavericks) that hasn't been seen around these parts since the last time the Democrats controlled Congress.
The team is playing really well right now, and it may be that coach Don Nelson's incessant tinkering is itself a viable strategy. In eight games, Nellie has gone with eight different starting lineups, with seemingly better results each time. The Detroit lineup, which featured Baron Davis, Monta Ellis, and Jason Richardson in the backcourt with Andris Biedrins and Troy Murphy up front, has looked the best so far, but our guess is that Nellie ain't done rolling the dice just yet. In fact, he may be intentionally abandoning any pretext of structure altogether in order to get the players comfortable with playing in any lineup in any situation for any amount of time. That will go a long way toward building the depth of the bench and getting everybody ready to contribute in March and April.
And that's fine with us, because even though we question Nellie's small-ball strategy, we heartily applaud his willingness to try anything and everything. We're not sure whether former coach Mike Montgomery lacked vision when it came to lineup decisions or whether he was hamstrung by demands from the front office to play the guys with the big contracts (namely Mike Dunleavy and Adonal Foyle) no matter what, but whatever the reason, Monty held fast to his sinking ship for far too long last year. By the time he realized that his one lineup wasn't working, it was too late in the season to really get Biedrins, Pietrus, or Ellis into the mix. We needn't remind readers how that season turned out.
Forget the painful past for now though Warrior nation, because the current homestand could be A New Hope. It could be the turning point for a franchise that has been looking for an exit from Loserville for more than a decade. We're not lining up to kiss Nellie's ring (would it were that he had a championship ring to kiss) just yet, but we're at least ready to pop in a breath mint.
Fortuna's wheel, in conjunction with the league's schedule makers, is currently spinning upward for the Warriors. Starting with last Thursday's impressive win over the NOK Hornets, the Warriors play 11 of 12 games, including 7 in a row, under the all-seeing roof of the Oracle. The War's have a legitimate shot at going 9-3 during this stretch; they just need to do their part and take advantage.
Most importantly, 8 of the 12 games are against Western Conference opponents. If the Warriors can go 9-3 during this stretch -- a legitimate possibility given their 3-0 start -- it will not only give them a nice bounce in the won-loss column, it will help them start to gain an advantage in the competition for those last couple of Western Conference playoff spots. Yeah, that's right, we're saying it, we're feeling it, we're thinking it -- playoffs baby!
A strong homestand would also give the Warriors momentum heading into the month of December. While they play the majority of their games on the road in December, 10 of those games are against teams that had losing records last year. If the Warriors can go 9-3 (or better) in this month's critical extended homestand, then beat just last year's losers in December, they'll be sitting at 18-12 heading into the new year.
So a strong homestand this month will not a playoff berth ensure for the Warriors, but it will damn well put them in a position to shoot for the playoffs come the new year. We're willing to defer payment to the piper for all these home games until later on in the season, because for now, this homestand is the Warriors future.