As expected, the Warriors dominated yesterday’s outing against the Pelicans. Determined to bounce back from their listless play in Game Three, they hit the ground running and stayed sharp until the final buzzer. It was a wire-to-wire effort that underscored their superiority over their no-less-resolute but decidedly overmatched opponents; they simply have too much firepower to be contained by any force other than their own.
The Warriors are, to be sure, not defending champions for nothing. On offense, they force the competition to pick a poison. They run an egalitarian system predicated on crisp ball movement, and when it’s stifled, they have the luxury of relying on Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant to produce off the dribble. And with Draymond Green’s court vision and Klay Thompson’s on-point shooting backstopping the effort, the result invariably overwhelms.
As the Warriors’ triumph yesterday proved, however, it’s their defense that truly makes them stand out. Most Valuable Player candidate Anthony Davis can be a handful considering his unique blend of size, athleticism, mobility, and skill, but he looked decidedly mortal in Game Four. True, he still managed to put up 26 and 12. Then again, he had to work for all that he put up on the board; he canned just eight of his 22 field-goal attempts and had a single assist to show in the face of concentrated coverage.
Granted, the Warriors still aren’t out of the woods. The Pelicans are, if nothing else, determined, and Davis is certainly a transcendent talent who can orchestrate a comeback under the right conditions. Still, the real enemies of the blue and gold are, well, the blue and gold. If they try not to be too cute and limit their turnovers while forcing their rivals into more, as they did yesterday, they’re all but unstoppable. They smell blood, and they’re ready to move on.
Anthony L. Cuaycong has been writing Courtside since BusinessWorld introduced a Sports section in 1994.
