How the Golden State Warriors Can Build Off Early Season Success

The Golden State Warriors got their first big win Thursday in an electrifying game against the title-contending Oklahoma City Thunder, who were back full force with a healthy Russell Westbrook.  The talented Warriors need to continue playing well together against high-caliber teams to become a legitimate title contender.

Before Thursday's win against OKC, the Warriors had been winning against teams they were supposed to beat; the Los Angeles Lakers the Sacramento Kings, the Philadelphia 76ers and the Detroit Pistons.  All wins, all weaker teams.

Golden State's losses this year have come from playoff and title-contending teams: the Los Angeles Clippers, San Antonio Spurs and the Memphis Grizzlies.

Their win against the Thunder was their first big win over a title-contending opponent.

And they did so in exciting fashion with a game winning three by Andre Iguodala.

The young Dubs can build on this win if they continue to play well together, play well at home and take advantage of their multiple weapons on offense.

Playing Well Together

The Warriors are averaging 25 assists per game, good for fourth in the NBA behind the Clippers, the Atlanta Hawks and the Miami Heat.

They are playing really well together.  Stephen Curry has cut down on his turnovers since the beginning of the season and has become amazing in the Dubs' pick-and-roll offense.  With a screen, he can create for himself, or he can draw two or three defenders, setting up his teammates.

Here is NBA.com's Assist of the Night for Thursday.  It's Curry hitting Andrew Bogut rolling to the basket off pick-and-roll action.

The Warriors are great in transition as well.  They always seem to be able to find each other. 

Here, Steph finds fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson in transition for a three.

Here's another Curry to Thompson in transition, this time with a little flare.  

Even Iguodala, who is new to Dub Nation, always seems to know where his teammates will be.  In their big win against the Thunder he actually played backup point guard when Steph went out and totaled nine assists.

Here are some of Iguodala's highlights from his big game against OKC.  The first three clips are all assists

This team knows how to play well together, and in fact, seem to feed off of it.  When they are playing well together, everything is fluid, unlike when they force-fed Harrison Barnes and David Lee inside against the Thunder in an attempt to foul out Kevin Durant.

This team has great chemistry and fluidity with each other, especially at home.

Playing Well at Home

Oracle Arena in Oakland, California may be one of the toughest places to play.  Dub Nation is excited about the revival of their Warriors and love to watch their Splash Brothers rain threes.  

As reported by Dan Nakaso of San Jose Mercury News, Amy Brooks, senior vice president of business operations for the NBA, weighs in on Golden State's fans saying, "The Warriors have historically had a very loyal and passionate fan base. Their recent success has just driven this to a higher level."

Golden State is averaging 19,596 in attendance at home games.  That's good for 5th in the league, jumping from 14th in the league just two years ago. 

The fans love their Warriors and the Warriors love their fans—evident in Stephen Curry and the rest of the Warriors thanking their fans after their loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Semifinals last season, seen in the video below.

The fans are definitely not the only reason the Golden State Warriors were so successful last year, but they definitely didn't hurt.

It's much easier to ride on the momentum of a Splash Brother three-pointer when the crowd erupts rather than just lamely applauds.

Here is the Inside the NBA crew talking about Stephen Curry's shooting and the electric atmosphere in Oracle Arena, especially when he's shooting so well.  At 1:53, Kenny Smith says "when he's shooting the ball that way, I would say it's the top arena in the country."

It's hard not to get excited when your team has so many different ways to make an exciting play happen.

Take Advantage of All of Their Weapons

The Warriors are insanely deep.  Not necessarily at every position.  With Toney Douglas and Jermaine O'Neal out with injuries, Golden State is a little thin coming off the bench.  But the Warriors are deep in the amount of options they have on offense, especially in their starting five.

Curry, Thompson, David Lee, Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala all have the ability to score consistently.  Add in Harrison Barnes as the sixth man coming off the bench who can post up smaller guards, and Mark Jackson can basically close his eyes and choose an option and it would probably be a good coaching decision.

In fact, with Igoudala's game winner, the entire Golden State starting five and sixth man may be in this season's All-Star game, as fans voted on Twitter after Iggy's buzzer-beater.

Their multiple offensive threats make their pick-and-roll offense so deadly.  Steph gets into the lane with the help of a screen and from there he can pick and choose from all of his options.

He can keep the ball for himself.  

He can kick to Klay for a three.  

He can hit David Lee or Andrew Bogut on the roll.  

He can kick to Iguodala for three in the corner.

All of these options are great options, and Steph has a great ability to find the right one.  When Klay's hot, he gets him the ball.  When Curry's hot, he keeps it.

Who do you think would take a last-second shot for the Warriors?

Your answer is probably Curry, but he's not the only one you could choose.

Mark Jackson chose Iguodala in Golden State's buzzer-beating win over Oklahoma City.  He had this to say about choosing Andre and the importance of the exciting win in Oracle Arena. 

"

The play was actually for Andre. They over-played him and the guy has a big-time basketball IQ.  He read it, he reacted, Klay was patient taking the ball out of bounds, got the catch, and made an incredible shot.  This is a big win for my guys. I’ll tell you what, that last timeout, it was dark in that huddle. You can tell. But I’m proud of my guys because we fought and we found a way to come up with a victory, even when things seemed to be pretty bad.

"

As Jackson said, it was a big win for the young Warriors.  They needed to know they could beat a big time team and they did.  And they did so in the clutch.  It would have been easy to just give up, call the game over.  They had lost their lead and were down by one with 2.3 seconds left in the game.

But the Warriors pulled out the win against Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook and now have proven they can beat title-contending teams.

They carried their momentum from this game into a double-digit win against the Utah Jazz at home Saturday and will face the Jazz in Utah tonight.

The Warriors will have a rematch with the Memphis Grizzlies, who beat Golden State earlier this season.  Steph and the Warriors will face the Grizz at home.  

If the Warriors can play well together and at home while taking advantage of all their offensive weapons, Mark Jackson's team can go on a pretty big win streak here.

Their win against the Thunder was big, but it means nothing if they follow it up with losses to easier teams. They need to run with this momentum, beating the next few teams healthily, until they play OKC again on Nov. 29.

With another win against Oklahoma City in the same month, the Golden State Warriors will solidify themselves as a title-contending team.

Let's go, Dub Nation.