Kurtenbach: 5 big takeaways from the Warriors’ win over the 76ers
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Another game, another blowout win for the Warriors, who have now won six straight games, all by 17-or-more points.
The first big takeaway from Saturday’s 135-114 win over the Sixers is that this is starting to get boring.
Yes, the Warriors are a thrill to watch, but don’t you miss that early-season intrigue a bit?
I miss it — it was fun to have the outcome, even if it was through self-sabotage, in question for a bit.
But now the Warriors look like the world-beaters we all thought they would be and it’s forcing us to appreciate games because they represent the pinnacle of athletic expression, with the Warriors standing as perhaps the closest thing to perfection this game has ever seen. 76ers Games.
BORING!
Here are four other, far more serious, takeaways from yet another Dubs win…
Everyone should root for Kevon Looney
Did anyone — anyone at all — expect Kevon Looney to make this kind of an impact for the Warriors this season?
The former first-round pick had one of the best games of his career Saturday night against the Sixers, playing 15 minutes, scoring four points, and blocking three shots.
The numbers don’t stand out, but anyone who watched Saturday’s game knows how impactful — yes, impactful — Looney was for the Warriors in the win. 76ers Games.
The third-year player’s plus-14 rating in 15 minutes only told part of the story — he was a plus-19 in 12 critical minutes before playing some garbage time in the fourth quarter.
Looney told me after the game that he hasn’t felt this healthy since he was a senior in high school. For a player who had to have surgery on both of his hips over the first two years of his NBA career, that factor cannot go overstated —it’s the primary component of his breakout campaign. 76ers Games.
But Looney also lost 20 pounds this past offseason because he knew what kind of a role he would need to carve out for himself on this Warriors’ team.
Looney knew coming into this season that the league values versatility more and more every year. Call it the Draymond Green effect: to be a viable big man, particularly as a back-up, you have to be able to switch onto multiple positions on defense. Looney, while long-armed and smart, wasn’t able to physically do that at the start of his career. 76ers Games.
And just having healthy hips — as important as that was — wouldn’t be enough to make Looney a plus perimeter defender. So he dropped the weight.
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To say that Looney is the Warriors’ most improved player is a drastic understatement — he’s become a viable rotation piece on the best team in basketball and even, on nights like Saturday, an impact player.
Looney went up against Joel Embiid — one of the best centers in the NBA — for a good chunk of his minutes Saturday and you’d be hard-pressed to say he didn’t get the better of the Sixers’ big man. Looney’s three blocks were no accident — they were the byproduct of great defensive positioning (ok, maybe one wasn’t — but the point stands).
Just as impressive was Looney’s ability to switch off of Embiid and play on the perimeter. This isn’t a new development — Looney has been showing it off all season, but Saturday’s game was his best performance in that regard. He might not be a true 1-to-5 defender, the way Green is, but those are few and far between. That said, you don’t fear Looney going onto a point guard and he’s rock solid 2-through-5 — those kinds of defenders are rare too. 76ers Games.
Looney said that now that he’s healthy, he couldn’t help but improve as a player (not that we had a great sample size from which to compare) — he practices against the best team in the world every day. Maybe he will become that 1-to-5 defender soon.
How can you not root for this guy? He has (comparatively to his superhuman counterparts) everyman athleticism, an infectious smile, and an excellent perspective on life in the NBA. Factor the human element of his struggles to stay healthy and his impactful play so far this season, and you should have a fan favorite. 76ers Games.
Third quarters bring the reckoning
You might have noticed, watching games this season, that the Warriors seem to be playing really well in the third quarters — it seems as if after halftime, they run away from teams.
You’re right — the Warriors have been out of this world in third quarters this season.
With Saturday night’s 36-21 frame against the Sixers, the Warriors improved their third-quarter net rating (offensive rating minus defensive rating) to 27.0 this season. 76ers Games.
That’s an absurd number and it’s the best mark for any quarter in the NBA this season.
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The Warriors have a shooting percentage of 56 percent and a true-shooting percentage of 67.8 in third quarters this year — both are insane numbers — and they’re winning the third quarter by an average of 6.5 points.
Needless to say, the Warriors’ quarter was in the third quarter.
So what is Steve Kerr saying to the team at halftime?
Turns out, not much.
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“I’d like to be a first-half team, too,” Kerr joked after Saturday’s game. “It does seem like teams come after us early.”
The real key is turnovers. The Warriors have averaged nine turnovers in the first half of games this season — the third-worst mark in the NBA — and they had 13 at halftime Saturday.
In the second half against the Sixers, the Warriors stopped turning the ball over — they don’t always do that, but as of late, they have been. The Warriors had only two turnovers in the third quarter and that sealed the game. 76ers Games.
There’s a bit of a frustration to the turnover dilemma, particularly to start games, but the Warriors have won six straight games, all by blowout margins — the turnovers haven’t been much of an issue.
“If we play possession to possession, there’s no team in the world that can play with us,” Warriors forward Omri Casspi said.
As such, we should appreciate a bit of sandbagging. Keeps things interesting.
Could you imagine a four-quarter effort from this team? They might win by 70.
Yep, Steph Curry is still really good
After a 22-point, nine-assist performance Saturday, let’s check in with Stephen Curry’s advanced numbers:
Yep, they’re still preposterous.
Curry was a plus-29 Saturday — a crazy number — which put him at plus-203 on the season with an average plus-minus rating of plus-15.6 per game. 76ers Games.
Those are not normal numbers. I know it’s only 13 games in, but extrapolated out, those would all be records.
Curry’s net rating is also league-leading — he’s at 23.5 on the year, the byproduct of a 122.6 offensive rating (!!!) and the best defensive rating among the Warriors’ starters, 99.1. 76ers Games.
Curry is playing incredible ball right now. I’ll leave it at that.
Zaza is playing an important role on this team
The Warriors’ starting center gets plenty of flack and there’s no doubt that some of it are deserved — but on Saturday night, he showed us, once again, what his role on this team is.
There aren’t going to be many games where Pachulia gets serious run — there aren’t enough true, position-locked centers, to necessitate that — but he does serve a purpose: he’s the muscle. 76ers Games.
There aren’t too many enforcers around these days, but Pachulia has proven his worth over the last three games, all against impressive centers.
Against the Heat, Pachulia played a big role in getting in Hassan Whiteside’s head and getting him out of the game. Whiteside played only 16 minutes and was 1-for-9 from the floor in the Warriors’ win earlier this week. 76ers Games.
Minnesota’s Karl-Anthony Towns was good during the Timberwolves’ visit to Oracle Arena, but he wasn’t great and he never seemed to get going against Pachulia.
And Saturday, Embiid saw an early substitution against Pachulia and went scoreless in the first quarter.
Yes, Zaza is a pain to watch on offense at times, but he’s setting a tone in the paint for the Warriors this year. It doesn’t show up on the box score, but Pachulia is fulfilling an important role for the Warriors this season. 76ers Games.
So lay off him for a bit.
The article was originally published here.
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