NBANBATell us if you’ve heard this one before, but the Warriors look like legit contenders. Behind Jimmy Butler and a rejuvenated Steph Curry, Golden State is fully back.
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By Michael PinaApril 4, 12:52 pm UTC • 4 min
Breaking news: The Golden State Warriors are, once again, a frightening title contender. On Thursday night, in a confident win over a fully healthy Los Angeles Lakers team, Golden State flaunted so much of what makes it so dangerous.
Steph Curry’s game-high 37 points came with breathtaking craftsmanship—a medley of backbreaking 3s and drives into the paint that ended with a layup, floater, or whistle. Draymond Green hit some big shots and single-handedly obliterated several Laker plays from the back line. Jimmy Butler lurked around the periphery (his first basket was a cutting layup several minutes into the second quarter) until it was time to stop a run or exploit a mismatch—a one-man exit strategy at any time. As a group, Golden State generated quality looks from behind the arc (and made a handful of silly ones, too) by going at L.A.’s weaker defenders and forcing rotations off the perimeter. The Warriors’ depth shined alongside their athleticism and tenacity.
But the biggest reason why the Warriors are a legitimate threat to win their fifth championship in 10 years lies in their ability to wreak total and complete havoc on the defensive end. They held the Lakers to a sorry 106.8 offensive rating in the first half last night—a number on par with those of the Hornets and Wizards—and cruised into halftime with a double-digit lead. The Dubs look and feel as experienced, relentless, resourceful, and undaunted as any team in the league right now.
In the second half, L.A. figured some things out (which LeBron James and Luka Doncic always do) with a little help from Austin Reaves, who made multiple 3s from the parking lot. But none of it was enough to change my fundamental belief in Golden State’s defensive identity. The numbers back it up. Heading into Thursday night, no team since the trade deadline has had a lower defensive rating than the Warriors, largely thanks to their new starting lineup—Curry, Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, Green, and Butler—which has allowed just 102.4 points per 100 possessions (second lowest out of 21 five-man units that have played at least 100 minutes). Despite some size-related issues, this team rebounds well, forces a ton of turnovers, and applies top-tier ball pressure with help behind the play.
They switch, then help and recover with precision, discipline, and trust. Every team in the Western Conference is susceptible to the wrong matchup in a playoff series. The Lakers probably aren’t a great opponent for Golden State given how big they can be at every position—but if the Warriors’ defensive principles hold strong, they could ride them all the way to the Finals.
The individuals on board are a big reason why my belief is so strong. It starts with Green being a legit candidate for Defensive Player of the Year—something that should surprise no one who has ever watched a Warriors game. At 35 years old, he’s still everything everywhere all at once, disrupting opposing sets, taking away the paint, roaming into empty space and claiming his territory in a way no one else either does or can, selling out to protect the rim, battling on the glass. Green helps force turnovers. He communicates what both teams are doing and then unleashes his physicality on the ball. He’s still the total package.
Butler doesn’t flinch against literally anyone. He can hold his own across the board, taking a seat between his man and the rim and mucking everything up from the weak side, darting in and out of passing lanes and splattering real trouble onto whoever has the ball while ignoring less threatening players. Butler hustles out to shooters and gets his hands on errant passes a split second after he baits someone into throwing them. He’s reliable, smart, and—though not as inclined to check the opponent’s primary option for 44 minutes, like he did when much younger—still able to make scorers work for their space in what’s more often than not an uncomfortable head-to-head matchup.
Of the 101 players averaging at least 30 minutes per game since the trade deadline, Butler and Green have the second- and sixth-lowest defensive ratings. Just look at their effort and synergy on the possession below. After Jimmy switches off LeBron, he stays on the strong side to protect Quinten Post. When James skips it over to Rui Hachimura because there’s no room to drive, Green and Moody x out on the two weakside shooters. Draymond then runs Jordan Goodwin off the corner, right toward Butler, who’s in great position to bother the shot:
In the postseason, when they will almost certainly run into larger opponents who can anticipate their aggressive help and then proceed to poke holes in it, the Warriors won’t have a ton of options. They can ramp up the pressure, double the post, be in a constant scramble, pepper in some zone, or play some bigger lineups that aren’t ideal with two non-spacers (Draymond and Jimmy) already on the floor. We saw a little bit of it against the Lakers, with Kevon Looney and Jonathan Kuminga sharing the court and then getting the better of Luka at least once on a switch-heavy possession that ended in frustration:
Simply put, the Warriors can be menacing when they want to. Their defense is creative, adaptive, and jam-packed with energy. Making it back to another Finals isn’t necessarily likely—the West is not fun, and the Warriors are currently the no. 5 seed—but it does seem distinctly possible, so long as they turn every defensive possession into a chess match, their collective brainpower constantly keeping them one step ahead.
Michael Pina is a senior staff writer at The Ringer who covers the NBA.
