The Warriors lost to Miami on Tuesday night.
Off with their heads!
Or, something like that, right?
The notion of “analyzing” the Warriors’ seventh loss in 45 games is probably a non-starter. They’re playing basketball at an .844 win percentage. That’s a 69-win pace. That would tie them with the 1972 Lakers and 1997 Bulls for the third greatest win total in NBA history, trailing only the 1996 Bulls and, yes, the 2016 Warriors.
But simply saying, “The Warriors are fine, check back in June” does not jive with the world we live in today, which is a world of instant over-reaction, microscopic dissection of random occurrences and general nonsensical ranting.
In other words, welcome back to my Jock Blog.
All I want to say is this: The Warriors are now 3-4 in games when trailing in a game decided by five points or less in the last five minutes.
I know, you got a headache just reading that. I found it from CBSSports basketball writer Matt Moore. When I tried to decode it, it reminded me of my junior year in advanced algebra, which I only passed because I “sought aid” from my desk neighbor Sandy Murray during tests. (What’s up, Sandy? Thanks, man.)
But, if there’s anything to take from the Heat loss that maybe, just maybe, is worth keeping in mind, it’s that statistic.
In other words, if there’s anything we’d like to see the Warriors do in their next 37 games, it’s show us more execution in what Bay Area News Group beat guy and KNBR insider Anthony Slater called in his game story “crunch-time reps”.
There still remains the question of who takes the big shots in the big moments. It used to be one guy, and he’s won the last two NBA MVPs. Now, they have another guy, and he wears No. 35. So they have two options.
That should be a good thing. It can also cynically be seen as the same adage they used to say about having two good QBs on an NFL roster: If you have two good QBs, you don’t have a QB.
I know, I know. This is all insane. Having Steph Curry and Kevin Durant as options in close games down the stretch is generally AN AWESOME THING TO HAVE.
All I’ll say is, when I covered the 49ers in the heyday of the 1990s, they used to crush teams like the woeful Atlanta Falcons, and after the game sometimes, Jerry Rice would be hot. Very mad. Usually, it had to do with his lack of touches, but his general message was: This isn’t good enough. If you think blowing out this team solves everything, you didn’t see everything we did wrong out there.
It’s a demanding standard. Then again, Jerry Rice demanded himself into the greatest player in NFL history. So, demanding standards can work in the positive.
Let’s just look to see how the Warriors handle these “crunch-time reps” in the next few weeks. Let’s study how carefully they handle the ball. Let’s study their ball movement on offense. Let’s study who gets the best shots when it matters most.
And then, let’s watch the Warriors get even better.
