With Attitude, Clutch Play, Warriors' Bench Showing It Takes Backseat to None
Among the many surpluses this year's Golden State Warriors enjoy that last year's did not—not one but two All-Stars, not one but two shot-blocking centers, not one but two head coaches—it's rarely noted that they damn near have not one but two starting lineups.
Two fire-starting lineups, to be sure.
If they didn't, they might be heading to New Orleans for Game 3 with the Oracle Arena rafters still stuffed with yellow confetti and their home-court advantage with the Pelicans being swept out the door instead.
Thanks, though, to Draymond Green and the four reserves who started the second quarter—Marreese Speights, Andre Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Leandro Barbosa—the Warriors survived the discovery of what they look like when their Splash-Brothers-centric offense of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson becomes waterlogged. Rest assured it won't be the last time that group will have to ride to the rescue if Golden State hopes to reach the Western Conference Finals.
The Pelicans showed Monday night in a 97-87 loss that any starting five capable of switching on defense can get the Warriors to gag on their own defensive medicine. There aren't a lot in the league who can, but there are a few, and unless the Warriors show more resolve to move the ball and not get three happy (they took 30, making nine), one of those defensively versatile teams is going to upend their magical season.
New Orleans, if nothing else, will give them plenty of practice.
"That's who we are," said Pelicans coach Monty Williams, referring to his switching defense. "That's how we've played all year. We just lost our way a bit in Game 1."
The Warriors' reserves, meanwhile, are that in name only. They see themselves more as the starting unit that gets the team going if the first starting unit doesn't. And why not? This is the first season of Iguodala's 11-year career that he wasn't a starter. Speights and Livingston have both been starters on playoff-qualifying teams in the last three years. Barbosa hasn't been a full-time starter since his rookie year but is a former Sixth Man of The Year award winner.
"We've done a good job of establishing our identity," says Iguodala. "When the first group is struggling, we look to pick them up. Tonight was a perfect example. They were taking quick shots and over-dribbling and we had to go in and show them the way we want to play."
They did that to start the second quarter after the Pelicans quieted Oracle Arena—the crowd needing only round goggles to resemble 19,000-some pensive Minions in their matching bright yellow shirts—by taking an 11-point lead. The desire to inspire delirium in the crowd with a big three prompted the Warriors to take 10. Problem: Far too many were hurried, resulting in three makes. The second unit, swinging the ball from side to side, opened up gaps that Barbosa exploited for more layups (three) in the first three-and-a-half minutes of the period than the starters scored in the entire first quarter (one Andrew Bogut dunk).
"I thought in the first quarter we were trying for hero shots," coach Steve Kerr said. "That was really the second unit that got us on the right track. Barbosa, Livingston, Speights, Andre, they were fantastic. I didn't give the bench enough of a chance in Game 1."
Hard to blame him: The starters jumped out to a 15-point lead and New Orleans wouldn't have ever been within shouting distance had Thompson and Curry not missed five of 12 free throws in the second half.
To say Speights blamed Kerr would be wrong; to say that Speights was acutely aware of how little he played in the first game would not. He quickly corrected every reporter who approached him after Game 2 and mentioned he only played a minute. "Forty-one seconds," he said, smiling. "I didn't even know I played. I forgot."
He had no problem rounding up his Game 2 total—12 minutes, 34 seconds—to 13 minutes after it produced five points, four rebounds, two blocked shots, an assist, a steal and drew a momentum-shifting charge on Anthony Davis. Known as Mo Buckets because scoring is normally his primary contribution, Speights was as central to everything the second unit did as his box score would suggest.
"I had a chance to impact the game," he said. "I still only played 13 minutes but it felt like 30."
The Pelicans don't have a second starting five and the leader of their second unit at the moment, point guard Jrue Holiday, didn't play in Game 2 because of a sore right leg after providing five points and five assists off the bench in Game 1.
"Not having Jrue hurt us," Williams said. "I had to play Anthony and Tyreke [Evans] more minutes than I wanted to."
Iguodala, for one, is confident the Warriors can maintain their second-unit advantage no matter who plays for New Orleans, a confidence developed over the course of the season.
"You see teams come out and feel good about how they've started the game," he said, "and I'm thinking, 'They're going to have to keep this up for 48 minutes. They have to sub at some point and then we're going to take advantage of them.' ''
Point proven against the Pelicans Monday night. On the day that the Toronto Raptors' Lou Williams won the NBA Sixth Man of the Year award, the entire Warriors' bench played like the league's best group of Sixth Men.
Or, as they see it, First Men in Waiting.
Ric Bucher covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter @RicBucher.
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