In their dogged pursuit of megastar Kevin Durant, the Warriors weren’t particularly concerned with depth. The priority was to get the best possible starting five, and they met that goal by adding Durant to three incumbent All-Stars.
Durant’s absence for at least the next several weeks, though, leaves the Warriors turning, on a game-by-game basis, to rawboned rookie Pat McCaw and veteran Matt Barnes, who turns 37 on Thursday, as starters at the small forward position.
Though the Warriors can live with this, as long the bench is productive, they can’t love this group unless Andre Iguodala lifts his game.
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Which he did Monday night, scoring a season-high 24 points on eight shots and pushing the Warriors to a 119-111 win over the Atlanta Hawks. He made jumpers. He got to the line and converted. He found teammates for easy buckets. He brought his usual pesky defense.
He spearheaded a bench brigade that scored 55 points.
“(It was) kind-of like a flashback,” McCaw told reporters at Philips Arena. “Old Andre. Highlights that I used to watch of him. But it’s always great seeing him take shots when he’s open and scoring the ball because he’s very catchy sometimes and passes up open shots. I’m glad he had a nice game tonight.”
Warriors coach Steve Kerr was beyond glad. He was downright ecstatic.
Golden State Warriors
“Andre had a tremendous game,” he said. “Andre, by the way, has been absolutely phenomenal the last couple of weeks. He just looks so spry out there and young and confident and such a great basketball player – makes the right decision at both ends of the floor just over and over and over again.
“To me, he is kind of the unsung hero of our team right now.”
Now is the time for the “hero” to start singing. Durant’s absence removed 25 points, eight rebounds and robust defense from the equation. While Barnes and McCaw will share the starts, Iguodala will be needed because his skills come closest to Durant.
That Iguodala’s basketball IQ is among the highest in the NBA also brings comfort to coaches and teammates.
Asked if Durant’s absence forces him to make adjustments, particularly on offense, Iguodala answered carefully.
“It’s nothing in particular,” he said. “Just go through a couple games, try to sort things out, see where you can help out and see where you can step up. It’s nothing that the other guys did. Collectively, as a unit, we try to make up for KD’s (absence). Tonight, we did a great job of that.”
Iguodala, 33, also played a season-high 35 minutes, something the Warriors know they will have to monitor insofar as his knees require more maintenance than most. The Warriors would prefer to keep him around 25 minutes per game, about what he was averaging prior to Durant’s injury.
“I’d like to keep his minutes down,” Kerr said. “I think tonight, he was at 33 and probably over 30 against New York (on Sunday). But he’s feeling great. He’s in great shape. He takes really good care of his body.
“As we go, we’ll have to keep an eye on him. But he’s in such a good groove I don’t mind playing him big minutes.”
Iguodala has averaged 31 minutes over the last four games. That may not change much, unless Barnes finds his groove and McCaw continues to improve.
In which case, depth at small forward won’t be much of an issue.
“With the weapons that we have, even with a guy down, we’re still capable of doing some good things,” Iguodala said. “We just have to pay attention to the details a little bit more.”