The Warriors’ Steph Curry-free win over the Bucks on Tuesday graduated the team to a new tier of contention.
It wasn’t the fact that they beat Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard’s team that pushed the Dubs up a tier.
No, it was that the Dubs tamed themselves without their superstar, just one night after everything went wrong against the Nuggets.
Not to excuse or justify it, but losses like Monday’s to Denver happen in the NBA. It’s a long season.
But for the Warriors to bounce back — sans Curry — the way they did against another top NBA opponent speaks volumes to the character of this revamped team.
It’s a kind of character that was taken for granted before Tuesday. Curry, Draymond Green, Kevon Looney, and Gary Payton II have nothing to prove when it comes to performing in big games. They have rings on their fingers, after all.
Jimmy Butler might not be a champion, but no observer of the NBA can question his bonafides regarding heart, grit, and rising to the occasion in the biggest games.
Surely, this team would dig down deep when the moment was called for it.
But with apologies to the Charlotte Hornets, the Warriors’ opponent following an embarrassing loss to the Sixers to start the month, the Warriors had not found themselves in a situation where they had to prove something since Butler’s arrival. They’d been riding high.
And just as a loss on Tuesday would have spoken volumes about the Dubs’ vulnerabilities, a win speaks to the team’s strengths.
Ultimately, good teams measure themselves against others.
But great teams — true title contenders — measure themselves against, well, themselves.
Tuesday, the Warriors showed they should be put in the category of great teams.
As such, the formula for evaluation for the Warriors moving forward is quite simple: Are they bringing their A-game?
Specifically, it’s asking if they’re sound in the three E’s: Effort, Energy, and Execution.
When the Warriors can mark all that down with a Y, they should fear no one in the Western Conference or perhaps even the NBA.
And they unquestionably did just that against the Bucks.
Green and Steve Kerr delivered a defensive masterpiece against the Bucks. The game plan was perfect, and Green brought it to life in ways that harkened back to the Dubs’ salad days, when the team’s defense—led by the (only) one-time defensive player of the year—anchored the team.
Green guarded Antetokounmpo—who is second in the NBA in scoring and deserves far more MVP consideration—roughly 60 percent of the time the Greek Freak was on the floor, 40-something possessions. In the modern NBA, that’s considered a primary matchup.
Guess how many points Antetokounmpo scored when Green defended him?
Three.
Yes, only three points in all that time. Antetokounmpo shot 0-for-7 from the floor.
It’d be hard to believe those numbers if I hadn’t watched the game. But having done that, it almost feels like they underrate Green’s defensive impact.
Green, of course, wasn’t working alone. The Warriors brought scrap and hustle to the second end of a back-to-back Tuesday and it carried for the vast majority of the 48 minutes of regulation.
Pair that with a true “Playoff Jimmy” performance by Butler, and you have a big, face-saving win for the Dubs.
Butler wasn’t kidding when he said, “I can score whenever I want to… When it’s my time, they’ll know that it’s my time.”
Tuesday was that time, and Butler knew it early in the contest. After coming up flat and short on roughly 100 straight 3-pointers over the last few weeks (give or take), Butler nailed a tough one at the start of the first quarter and looked over to the bench with a coy grin.
It was on. That was the only 3-pointer he made, but he finished with 24 points and 10 assists. That’s the Butler the Warriors were betting on landing when they traded for the six-time All-Star.
DPOY Green, Playoff Jimmy, role players understanding their jobs and fighting on every possession. It’s hard to imagine the Warriors will lose many games when they do that.
Add in Curry, and the sky is the limit for the Warriors.