SAN FRANCISCO — After a few weeks of constant questions about where her team is headed in the coming seasons, the warrior sent a stark reminder on Tuesday that if this happens, they should still be feared.
Golden State celebrated its 2022 championship with a ring ceremony and a breezy victory over the Lakers on opening night. The weeks leading up to the game were filled with speculation about the Warriors’ future. Can Draymond Green and Jordan Poole get along? Will Draymond be on the team after this season? Can the younger players develop to serve as contributors today and as a bridge to the future?
The dubs did not necessarily provide answers to all these questions in one evening. But they showed that this team can pick up right where it left off the last time we saw it when Golden State was the last team to make the playoffs. The 123-109 win over the Lakers followed a script similar to countless Warriors games from their prime. An almost carefree first half. An absolutely dominant third quarter. And a general attitude that at no time were they afraid of their opponent.
It helped Golden State start its season against a lifeless Lakers team that just can’t shoot at a level required to be competent in the modern NBA. The rotation of the dubs had almost a pre-season dress rehearsal vibe. Stephen Curry was the only player to play more than 30 minutes, and even then it was only a leisurely 33. And there were plenty of minutes for the bench, with Poole, Jonathan Kuminga and James Wiseman among those who all got real time on the floor . (Even Moses Moody fired four shots in eight minutes.)
It remains to be seen whether the young players can develop into stars alongside the established legends. It would certainly help them compete against stronger competition. At the moment, the Warriors’ plan is at least in focus. Find time to allow the deep bank to develop, then lean on the starters if that team needs to go on a run. Dividing up the minutes will not always be easy for Steve Kerr. But he has the luxury of always having Curry and anyone else running it to fall back on.
“It reminds me of 14-15,” Kerr said of the strength of the team after the game. “It reminds me a lot of the level of talent. This team was a veteran. This team is young. The talent is really evident.”
And that talent remains an issue for the rest of the league. The Warriors may not be runaway favorites in the way they were during, say, the Kevin Durant Years. But they don’t have to. Not in the current NBA, where no team is superior to the other and super teams have largely gone the way of star duos.
The extrajudicial intrigues really don’t affect what this team is capable of. Contracts, luxury tax numbers, future plans: they all felt insignificant on Tuesday. Something everyone on the team has repeated since the Green-Poole incident has been a focus on repeating themselves as champions. It may be early to say that the championship focus is already in place. Still, the Warriors certainly resembled the version of themselves that could win it all in Game 1.
“We went out there. We had a job to do tonight to win a game,” Poole said, answering a question about his status at Green. “It was ring night and that’s what we really focused on to finish the first game. It was a huge win against a really good team.”
There’s no real point in overreacting to opening night. Those who remember the Spurs’ 29-point drubbing against the Dubs on Kevin Durant’s debut will tell you that no champion will be crowned in October. What emerged Tuesday was a very early season vibe check. For now, at least, the Warriors have earned a respite from all the noise about their future. In the present, Golden State is still very much primed to compete for the ultimate prize.
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