Programming note: Raptors-Warriors coverage starts tonight at 6:30pm with Warriors Pregame Live on CSN Bay Area, and streaming live right here.
OAKLAND – James Harden has stopped his barking and Doc Rivers squelched his braying.
The bettors are buying in and shelling out.
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Three sweet weeks of statistical perfection, an 11-0 record, has persuaded the basketball universe to accept the Warriors as “legitimate” NBA champions and to submit to their unparalleled excellence.
They’re going to lose at some point, maybe this week, because that’s how the highest levels of competition are designed to work. Steph Curry has tumbled from his incredibly magnificent first six games to a merely superb last five. Draymond Green is putting up fabulous numbers, making his usual impact, and now is fighting the flu. Klay Thompson’s back is aching. Andrew Bogut in his first month sustained a broken nose and a concussion.
[POOLE: Thompson back, Draymond absent from Warriors practice]
And Steve Kerr, the coach who presided over their championship season, is nowhere near the sideline.
Golden State Warriors
Yet the raves are coming in waves. The betting lines, so infatuated with the Cavaliers and Spurs in October, placing them 1-2 as favorites to win it all, are leaning toward the Warriors.
Meanwhile, opponents can’t stop gushing.
“They understand how to play,” Nets coach Lionel Hollins says. “They know what their strengths are and they know what their weaknesses are and they play to their strengths every night.”
Nuggets coach Michael Malone, asked what it takes to beat the Warriors, all but waves a white flag.
“You have to find a way to take away the 3-point shot, which is much easier said than done,” he says. “That’s a big part of their game and when Steph and Klay get it going, all of a sudden it’s just boom – you’re down 20 in the blink of an eye.”
The Warriors are No. 1 in point-differential, at plus-16.27 – roughly four points better than the all-time record of 12.28 set by the 1971-72 Lakers. The Warriors are No. 1 in points per game (114.1), second in field-goal percentage (47.6), in 3-point field-goal percentage (40.2) and in field-goal percentage defense (27.4). They’re No. 3 in field-goal defense (41.9).
There isn’t a lot left to do to succeed on a basketball court.
People are noticing. People are talking. Respect has arrived.
The Warriors, true to their credo, insist they are not listening.
“We don’t pay any attention to it,” Curry says. “It’s almost like, ‘How much do we have to do for that to happen? So the whole mindset to begin with was not to worry about it. We’ve been playing well for the last 12 months, really, building and building and getting better. And that’s all we’re focused on.
“Obviously, to start out the season the way we have, we’re feeling pretty good and pretty confident every time we step on the floor. We want to keep that going, regardless of what’s being written or what’s being said, individually or as a team.”
Failure to lose has a way of bending minds, of confirming the believers and captivating the skeptics. The Warriors can afford to ignore the love coming their way, because they’re playing not for anybody’s love but for accomplishments that speak on their behalf.