Golden State Warriors: What Else We Learned from Opening Night

A lot of people seem to be pretty down on the Golden State Warriors after their loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on opening night. After all, they did lose by 19 points at home to a completely new team. Yet I was very impressed in their loss. Why is this?

Well, most experts are predicting the Clippers to win somewhere from 45 to 50 games. The Warriors more than kept up with them for over 40 minutes. In fact, if the Warriors could shoot at all, which they couldn't thanks to Stephen Curry's bad ankle and a lack of preseason, they would've blown them out.

First of all, Monta Ellis looked at least focused. His jumper wasn't there, but he dished out eight assists. That's decent for a guy in the middle of a sexual harassment case. Curry did a great job on Chris Paul until CP3 went nuts with five minutes left in the fourth to break it wide open. Dorell Wright wasn't shooting lights out either.

But considering the Warriors are arguably the best perimeter shooting team in the NBA, the fact that they hung with the Clippers without shooting well in the slightest is impressive. So I'm hopeful. 

Andris Biedrins looked better than he did all last year. He had reportedly lost some significant weight, and it showed, as he was grabbing boards and blocking shots he had never been able to do before. His hook looked good too.

David Lee looked like the 2009-2010 David Lee, putting up 21 and 12 while playing decent defense. In fact, he won his matchup with Blake Griffin.

The bench looked better than usual. Klay Thompson, Ekpe Udoh and Brandon Rush stood out the most, but it's just nice to see that for once, the Warriors' bench and frontcourt were not a joke. It was just obvious that with some new additions and a new mindset, the team was rather complete, and once those shots start falling, the Warriors will not have any obvious weaknesses. In fact, they'll be a force to be reckoned with.