At 16-3, most NBA teams would believe they are doing almost everything right. Those teams would not be the Golden State Warriors. They started last season 24-0. That start led them to the best NBA record in history at 73-9.
The downfall of the 2015-16 Golden State Warriors, however, was their quest for greatness. In the previous season, there was some talk of chasing history, which Steve Kerr was against. Instead, he wanted his team focused on winning a championship, which they did.
Don’t get it confused, last season’s Golden State Warriors were great and if they got better calls, they would be two-time champions going into this season. But, because they didn’t, the Warriors went out and signed Kevin Durant. Since that move was considered “too good,” a lot of people hoped the Warriors would fail.
On opening night, the Golden State Warriors failed on multiple levels, and the Tim Duncan-less San Antonio Spurs owned Oracle, beating the home team 129-100. Focus was put on Klay Thompson and his poor shooting night and social media was filled with people saying Thompson was the odd man out with Kevin Durant in town. A couple of games later, a loss to the Lakers confirmed this, in their eyes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTL1j2EA0Qs
When a team goes 73-9 in a season, a drop off is going to happen and it doesn’t matter who is on the team. The 72-10 Bulls had Michael Jordan on their team and even they couldn’t keep that level of winning going. So, the Warriors’ “falling apart” isn’t that big of a deal, they are the best team in the NBA, just like everybody predicted, but they seem more human than they have since that Game 7 loss to the Clippers.
After their next loss, the Warriors won 12 games straight and it seemed like everything was right with the world. The squad got back to doing what they do, Steph Curry and Kevin Durant suddenly got it together and Klay Thompson got his groove back. Then, there was the Taye Diggs comment that nobody is going to let go of for the obvious reasons, that ish happened.
If not for last season’s Warriors’ team, their 16-2 start would have been the best in NBA history. But, the Warriors set the bar high, last year, doing everything imaginable to end up not winning the championship. Now, the Warriors are up against their record-breaking season from last year and then getting back to the Finals and getting revenge against, presumably, the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Then, earlier this week happened, when the Houston Rockets finally got some revenge on the Warriors. This crew is beginning to look like the little brothers to the Golden State Warriors, losing 4-1 to them twice in a row, while GSW went to the Finals. None of that mattered when the Rockets outlasted Golden State in Oracle, beating them in double overtime, 132-127.
Watch highlights of the Warriors’ second home loss to the Rockets below:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nh-E-LtepHc
Since losing at home to the Rockets have now lost two games at home, which wouldn’t be all that bad if they hadn’t lost only two games at home the season before. Now, there are rumors of Steph Curry leaving the Warriors in free agency this upcoming offseason, which is probably untrue, but still. Seeing how successful the Warriors have been, are the first nineteen games of this season a struggle for them?
