Warriors’ defensive performance fuels historic two-game start in 2024-25 NBA – NBC Sports Bay Area and California

SALT LAKE CITY — To state the obvious: The Warriors’ start to the 2024-25 NBA season couldn’t have gone better before they boarded a plane home.

The Warriors continued the dominance of a 6-0 preseason, outscoring their first two opponents, the Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz, by an NBA-record 77 points on the road after defeating Delta Center with a 127-86 win on Friday night had left. Buddy Hield was again unconscious when he came off the bench and scored 27 points in 20 minutes. Hield’s 12 3-pointers are the most ever made by a player in his first two games for a new team.

The depth was so great that Steph Curry played less than 30 minutes in each of the first two games, doing so back-to-back for the first time in his career, while also playing the entirety of both fourth quarters. Draymond Green only played 20 minutes in both stunning victories. The Warriors’ bench has now scored 150 points, the most points ever scored by a team in the first two games of a season and the highest point total in franchise history over a two-game span.

But it’s the other side of the ball that makes Golden State reminiscent of their championship teams. The stifling defense stood out, as did the number of points the Warriors scored.

“Something that Steve [Kerr]our coaches Jerry Stackhouse challenged us, that has to be our calling card,” Kevon Looney told NBC Sports Bay Area. “We have to be physical, we have to be fast, we have to be combative. I think we embodied that in the first two games. They blame us for everything.

“I think our communication was at an elite level early in the season. We have to transfer that. There are a lot of interchangeable guys, a lot of guys with size and length that are really active.”

As always, altitude remains a hurdle for the Warriors to overcome. They are not filled with 7-foot players guarding the basket.

Looney is their tallest player at 1.90 meters. Trayce Jackson-Davis is also 1.90 meters tall. But that also applies to offseason newcomer Kyle Anderson, who can defend almost any position and had two steals against the Jazz on Friday night. De’Anthony Melton’s 6-8 wingspan adds a new element to the backcourt, and the Warriors benefit early from a healthy Gary Payton II.

“When you add people like Kyle and Melton, [Andrew Wiggins] And [Jonathan Kuminga]”, Trayce, Draymond is one of the best defenders of all time – when we have people like that on the court who know the game and know where to wreak havoc, we have a lot of people who have great hands and really something in that regard “We’re special,” said Looney. “It shows what we can be.

“We’re just scratching the surface. We’re still learning each other, still learning our plans. It’s only the second game, but we can be really, really good.”

The Warriors’ new starting lineup, consisting of Curry, Wiggins, Kuminga, Green and Jackson-Davis, is also understood. This group was outscored 25-11 in the first quarter of the first two games. Then they find a way to flip the script once the second half begins.

The lineup was plus-17 in the third quarter and first two games.

“The one thing we know is the power that this unit has to put up defensively to start games,” Green told NBC Sports Bay Area.

Green believes the slow starts on offense are a result of them rushing things instead of letting the game come to them, something the 13-year veteran blames himself for.

“We come back in the second half and then all of a sudden everyone settled in,” Green continued. “We have to come out and settle with this group to start the game. … It’s just important that this group understands what we’re trying to accomplish and gets out quickly and calms down. Don’t come out and try to do everything in one fell swoop.

“Come out, calm down and then everything will fall into place for us.”

Kerr admits the group isn’t based on distance. What it’s built on is Curry, an all-time great scorer and shooter – who was extremely active defensively and occupied the entire court – surrounded by length and athleticism that should create an aggressive defensive mentality that should give opponents headaches.

The formula was that the Blazers and Jazz averaged 95 points against the Warriors, shooting 35.3 percent overall and shooting 22.4 percent from 3-point range. The Warriors have 28 steals and 11 blocked shots through two games. They had 15 steals against the Jazz, led by three from Green and Payton. Eight players recorded at least one steal and five had multiple steals.

“The overall athleticism stands out to me,” Kerr said. “We didn’t have that last year. … We have great defenders up and down the roster. I thought Draymond was great [Lauri] Markkanen early, and that set a great tone.”

Steve Kerr was impressed with the Warriors’ athleticism on defense early in the season pic.twitter.com/zvccctrBw4

– Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 26, 2024

The Jazz star, who the Warriors pursued in the offseason, was a minus-17 with just 13 points on 4-of-17 shooting and 1-of-5 on three-pointers. Two nights earlier, Markkanen scored 35 points against the Memphis Grizzlies, going 9 of 15 from the field and 4 of 7 from deep.

This is the team Kerr always wanted to be: fast, lively and full of trash dogs, welcoming a date that could be disastrous for any player expecting a big scoring night. Then the Warriors will be in top form and will continue to adopt this identity in the coming months.

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