Growth of Warriors’ sharp defensive teeth fueling hot start to season originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors spent much of Wednesday night’s first quarter trying to find their collective pulse and trailed by 11 five minutes into the game. That’s a dangerous way for any team to introduce themselves to the defending champion Celtics, especially in Boston.

Gary Payton II entered the quarterfinal with 7:21 remaining. Over the next seven minutes, the Celtics missed eight of nine shots, committed three turnovers and suddenly realized that these were not the same Warriors they had beaten by 52 at TD Garden last March.

Golden State found its pulse, especially with a defense that hit with enough force to pull off a 118-112 win that certainly turned heads around the NBA.

“Once we got settled into the game, we did a good job of locking into them, making them a little uncomfortable,” coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Boston.

“That’s a statement,” said Buddy Hield, who came into the game 84 seconds into GP2. “If we don’t win this game, everyone will say, ‘Oh, they’re not playing anyone.’ So you have to come and make a statement, right?”

With all the talk about depth and a greater emphasis on 3-point shooting, any statement the Warriors make this season has to start with defense. It has to be the source of any leap towards success because it plays to their depth, their desired fast pace and those transition 3-balls that take the air out of opponents.

The Warriors have won seven of their first eight games because defense becomes routine. They swarm out, catch and lurk in the passing ranks. That’s enough to put the league’s most feared offense in its place.
The Celtics, who entered the game as the NBA’s highest-scoring team, scored seven points in the final seven minutes of the first quarter and 26 points in the final 16:38 of the first half. They shot 35.1 percent at halftime.

“We just try to keep body on body in the halfcourt,” Stephen Curry said. “We know they have a very specific style. They want to make as many 3s as possible, they want to pick certain guys and put (Jayson Tatum) in spots where he can create. They let it fly and it proved successful. You have to live with some shots because you can’t guard everything. But if you get them to play in a crowd, take hard 2s. . .

“We’re a little bigger than last year,” he added. “We have more wing defenders. If we can get a rebound, we’re usually in good shape.”

The final 16-plus minutes of the half were representative of a clinic, at times reminiscent of Golden State’s fabled “Death Lineups” that tormented opponents into submission for several years after being unleashed in 2014-15.

When the Celtics responded with 72 points in the second half, it was a reminder that 1) they were good enough to win it all last season and 2) that Golden State is in the early stages of a transformation, time and time requires experience.

But that move was the reason Kerr hired former NBA player Jerry Stackhouse as an assistant to coordinate defense over the summer. Stackhouse, who also has experience as a head coach in the G League and at Division I Vanderbilt University, is being praised by players as the man behind the increased efforts in this area.

“I’m still giving up a few cheap things that I need to get better at,” Hield said, practicing open self-criticism. That’s up to me. I have to continue to stick to the game plan. Stack is on me. Everyone is on me. Draymond (Green) is on me. I just learn from them. I’m getting better and learning championship habits. That’s what they all preach.”

But even in the trial and error phase, the Warriors are already showing visible and statistical improvements compared to last season. The metrics have increased across the board as they rank first in rebounds, first in drawn tackles, second in defensive rating, second in contested shots and second in opponent field goal percentage. They are second in deflections, third in contested 2-point shots, fourth in blocks, fifth in steals and ninth in loose balls recovered.

They evolved from that talk about repairing the defense (last season). Strictly speaking repair the defense.

This is an illustrative byproduct of Kerr’s play-everyone concept. With a 13-man rotation, each player knows there is no need to set their own pace. Bring all your energy the entire time, then take a seat and let the next guy do the same.

“If we play a group of players for 15 to 22 minutes, theoretically they should be able to play their best in those minutes,” Kerr said. “We’ll manage that. Tonight was probably the first game where we had three guys over 30 minutes.”

That was what it took to topple the champions. Make a statement. To show the rest of the league that Golden State’s defense is making a comeback even in its development phase.

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