With NBA Title in Hand, Warriors Now Face the Hard Part...Defending Their Crown
ANAHEIM, Calif. — On the final night they would go to work without the rings they've earned, the Golden State Warriors played like the champions they are.
They wanted that feeling back.
That unselfish, active, dominant feeling.
So they just went out and grabbed it. Inspiring, right?
Suckers. They didn't even realize the trap into which they'd fallen.
The overwhelmed Los Angeles Lakers were the Warriors' roadkill. The score of the teams' exhibition finale Thursday night was 136-97 but felt like 197-36 with all the breathless combination punches the Warriors landed.
The whirlwind felt as familiar as a Stephen Curry swish, and it was reassuring. Curry had flatly predicted it before the game, saying about their colorless preseason: "We haven't shown it, but we have it."
So the Warriors blew the disjointed, inexperienced Lakers off the floor. They felt like the champs again—and all was right with their world once more.
Peeking ahead to ring night Tuesday and the regular-season opener against the New Orleans Pelicans, Draymond Green smiled and said: "We knew this was our last chance to get feeling good."
The line between feeling good and being content is a fine one after winning a title.
While everyone else in the league is trying to cook up something fresh and new (exactly what the Warriors did last season), the home of the defending champion winds up with a stinky cauldron of ego, entitlement and complacency.
Chests puff out, role players come back with big heads from summer vacations full of congratulations and distractions crop up out of all the luxurious attention.
That poison pot might be big or small, but it invariably exists. Look no further than the reality that those strong, smart, humble gents from San Antonio have never repeated as champions in five tries.
So the Warriors establishing in their mind that they can turn it on when they want to is not such a good thing.
They've made clear already that they're not lacking confidence, firing back at slights both real and perceived. Meanwhile, their foundation for this season has been rotted by their head coach missing most of training camp.
Curry acknowledged "the vibe is different" without Steve Kerr, who is struggling through complications from July and September back surgeries and is likely to miss the start of the regular season.
It might feel like no big deal because the playoffs are a million miles away right now, but that's the fallacy champs accept over and over: There'll be time to make up the ground later.
It's nice, easy and fun to celebrate the past, as the Warriors did with Kerr asking for a special "Game of Zones" video for his team and as Curry repeatedly is asked to rehash his wonderful MVP season.
Luke Walton, filling in for Kerr as head coach, said the messages in camp have been to evolve and find deeper layers or more sophisticated reads in the system. Especially in the past week, the challenge has been to tap into the intensity again.
But it's human nature to let down, no matter how the experience Walton (consecutive titles with the Lakers in 2009 and '10) and Kerr (Chicago Bulls in 1996, '97, '98 and Spurs in '99) had as players would seem to position the Warriors against it.
For his part, Walton is waiting for another day to sound off about that.
He said the Warriors' excellent focus during the first week of training camp—perhaps more momentum still carrying over from last season's glory—deterred the coaching staff from dwelling on the title defense trap.
"There was no reason to bring up the championship hangover that is something that happens to teams," Walton said. "Our guys came in ready to go, so we never talked about it."
Far more important than what Walton and Kerr accomplished as players, though, is how ready Warriors leaders Curry, Green and Andre Iguodala are to fight the malaise.
Just look at how voraciously Lakers youngster Julius Randle went right at Green in the teams' two exhibitions. In 36 combined minutes, Randle totaled 23 points and nine rebounds. If Green isn't a champion, that simply does not happen.
That is how hard teams are going to go at the Warriors this season. Their speed ball won't be so shocking to opponents' systems anymore. Even worse, their acceleration game can especially tilt toward sloppiness without everyone truly connected.
We got a reminder Thursday night of what Curry called the "focused" Warriors. And they sure are gifted when they've got it going.
They helped each other on defense consistently, triggering easy offense from their active defense. An even greater barometer of the Warriors' level of unselfishness could be seen, as it often is, in the play of Harrison Barnes, who is frequently the beneficiary when Golden State moves the ball. In Barnes' 22 minutes on the floor, the Warriors outscored the Lakers by a mind-boggling 38 points.
Much of Thursday's mismatch was the Lakers being bad. Much of it was the Warriors wanting to prove something.
"It was more about us," Curry said.
Curry's feeling is only natural. He's rightly conditioned to believe in his team. The gorgeous rings handed out and the unshakable smiles on their faces Tuesday night will drive the point home even more.
The Warriors are the champs.
But the blessing is followed by a curse.
As emboldening as it is to become a winner, the season after success is all about keeping overconfidence in check.
Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.
