(By e.Chang)

Currently: 25-14; 6th place in the Western Conference

Last Week:
at Washington D.C. (WON)
at Milwaukee (WON)
at Brooklyn (lost)
v. Celtics (WON)

This Week:
Wed: Nuggets
Fri: at Oklahoma City
Sat: at New Orleans

And the bench just got deeper. On my BART ride into work today, I read a nice little article in the sports pages of the Chronicle about Warriors' back-up point guard Toney Douglas and his efforts to prove himself in his role behind Steph Curry. Good for him, I thought. Then the texts started coming in: Warriors sending Douglas to Miami, getting Jordan Crawford from Boston.

Intriguing.

Steph Curry is the spark plug of the Warriors' electric offense. The Dubs need him to run, juke, distribute, and most importantly, shoot. And they've called on him to do so — a lot. He's averaging about 38 minutes per game, 6th most in the NBA. He's getting fatigued, and it's been showing. If we look beyond his highlight reel and at his actual numbers, what we find is not pretty. Over the last 10 games, Steph's field goal percentage has been under 40% as often as it's been above. He remains 3rd in the league in 3-pointers made, but he's been far less efficient from that range in comparison to the other league leaders. When you find yourself actually hoping that Steph stops attempting 3's, you know something is off (that Brooklyn game, man).

Enter Jordan Crawford. When Boston's all-star point-guard, Rajon Rondo, went down with an injury, Crawford stepped up. He's been averaging 30 minutes per game, with 13.7 points and 5.7 assists. In other words, both Steph and Klay Thompson can afford to take a much-needed breather every now and again.

This is all still in the works, and nothing has yet been confirmed, but if true, someone buy Warriors' GM Bob Myers a beer.

*****

About four weeks ago, this column started with this sentence: “So a funny thing started happening 14 games ago—the Dubs started losing.” The Warriors were coming off stretch in which they went 5-9 and were uncomfortably close to the shameful side of .500. They were 13-12 and in 9th Place in the West.

Then a funny thing started happening 14 games ago—the Dubs started winning. They have gone 12-2, including a 10-game win streak, and are sitting at 6th Place in the standings. Why? How?

One. The Warriors are a scoring ass team. That’s never been in doubt. Their defense, though, has been somewhat less than consistent. In the 14 games preceding the current stretch, opponents scored in the triple-digits 11 times. Since then, they’ve only done so six times. In five of the past 14 games, opponents couldn’t break 90 points. That’s a stout defense.

Two. Oh, and look! The losing stretch began when Andre Iguodala went down with an injury and the winning stretch began when he returned. When Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, David Lee, and Andrew Bogut are all in uniform and starting, the Dubs are 20-4. Remember in 1995-96 when Michael Jordan and the Bulls made history by going 72-10 in the regular season? The Warriors’ starting-five are juuuuust about keeping pace with that. Yes, small sample size and all that, but that is utterly insane.

Three. The home court/field advantage is real. It’s consistently true in every team sport around the world. The exact reasons as to why teams lose on the road is debatable, but it’s undoubtedly a combination of jetlag, unfamiliar settings, disruption of routine, hostile crowds, and referees not wanting to incite those crowds. If a team can win a wee bit more than they lose on the road, they’re in good shape. Eight of the last 14 Warrior games have been on the road, including a seven-game road trip, and yet the Dubs have won them all but one. Why? Because Eastern Conference. Seven of the eight road games have been against Eastern Conference teams. The East, in basketball and otherwise, is ass. They have three teams with winning records. The Warriors’ 6th Place counterpart in the East is 17-19 (.472). They only have two teams of note and the Dubs beat one of them (Miami Heat) on this last road trip. Teams and fans typically dread long road trips and can’t wait to return to friendly confines, but no one wanted this Feast of the East to end.

The Warriors are finally back to playing like everyone thought they should, could, and would. Perfect timing, too, because the rest of January includes games against the Thunder, Pacers, Blazers, and Clips.