© Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
OAKLAND – We’re now two weeks removed from Kevin Durant and Draymond Green’s spat. It’s still brought up during interviews, but at this point, it feels tired. As for Durant, Green, or Steve Kerr? At least publicly, they’re past it.
And maybe that’s the product of enough time having gone by and the Warriors putting a good spin on a bad incident. It’s entirely possible, even likely Durant is still bothered by what Green said to him, and that’s understandable. But on the court, that’s no longer an issue.
The Warriors, after going 2-6 along with four-straight losses – the longest such streak of the Steve Kerr era – following Curry’s injury, have now won three-straight games. Durant has scored 125 points in the last three games and 93 in the last two – the most he’s ever scored in a two-game stretch.
Sure, a one-point win over the Sacramento Kings and a six-point win over the Orlando Magic are hardly impressive. But without Curry, without Green – and even Alfonzo McKinnie, who’s absence has rarely been mentioned, but has been evident on the court – the Warriors aren’t the best team in the NBA. Yet, when the regular season is over, a one-point win and a 20-point win mean the same thing.
The truth is that the Warriors aren’t going to get worse than they were a week or two ago. Four-straight losses is not anywhere in the team’s future. Curry is on pace to be back as soon as Thursday. Green might be out longer, but his return is most likely weeks, not months away.
Oh, and DeMarcus Cousins – who, to be fair, is a very large man coming back from one of the most devastating injuries any athlete, let alone one of his stature can sustain – is going to join the lineup at some point this season. At the very least, he’s a threat, and a distraction from the myriad other weapons the Warriors already have. At best, he’s one of the most dominant centers in the league.
Remind yourself, for a moment, how dominant the full-strength Warriors were to open this season. They went 11-1 and won eight-straight games before losing to the Milwaukee Bucks and Curry. The only team that has proven it could beat the Warriors in a playoff series in the past four years was the LeBron James and Kyrie Irving-led Cleveland Cavaliers – and that’s only after the Warriors effectively beat themselves and lost Green to suspension.
The Houston Rockets came close last season, but they’re worse than they were last year. They lost the architect of their defense in associate head coach Jeff Bzdelik and a pair of defensive studs in Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute. Even with that group, the Warriors pulled through that series, albeit with the Rockets missing Chris Paul.
Maybe the Toronto Raptors, with Kawhi Leonard spurring (yes, that pun is intentional) them to a league-best 17-4 record can threaten the Warriors’ dynasty. Thursday night – if Curry is healthy – might be a hint at what that seven-game series would look like. Still, the Warriors will be without Green, who’s likely to provide serious defensive pressure on Leonard and the rest of the Raptors offense.
Even if the Warriors are crushed by the Raptors, it doesn’t really mean anything. This team is 15-7 and that record is genuinely disappointing. Imagine you’re a fan of any other team in the league. Are you going to be disappointed by a 15-7 record? Not a chance.
When the regular season concludes, the Warriors will have a top two playoff seed in the Western Conference, and coast through at least the first round of the playoffs, and likely the second round, depending on the matchup and injury situation. You can book that.
To this ludicrously talented team, the regular season is still an afterthought. In the NBA, we love to hang onto controversy for dear life – and there is plenty – and engineer carefully crafted narratives that can often be birthed for to breed more controversy. Why do we do this? Aside from the being NBA the most personality-driven and socially-aware major sports league in the U.S., it’s because deep down, we know the reality:
The reality is that there is still no team that can beat a healthy Warriors team in a seven-game series.
Nothing is greater proof of that than Thompson and Durant’s looming free agency and every other team and fanbase licking their chops at the chance to lure either one away and see the Warriors become beatable.
But until that happens, even a beleaguered, beaten-up Warriors team can relax. And if/when the Warriors are healthy, like Durant said, the only team that can beat them is still just themselves.