Secret to Warriors' Success Is as Plain as the Name on Back of Curry's Jersey
OAKLAND, Calif. — No, we don't give consistency the proper respect. The same stuff over and over is hard not to take for granted.
That's why streaks are so useful. They turn humdrum consistency into something really cool.
It becomes breathtaking, because the tightrope walker can and will fall at some point.
And as much as the undefeated defending champion Golden State Warriors are portrayed as one collective group of skilled circus performers, there is still one guy who above all walks that rope, one guy who outclasses all those teammates the same way the Warriors lord over the rest of the league now.
Stephen Curry has been simply unrelenting in his greatness this season.
When the Warriors will finally suffer their first loss of this season is hard to assume. Now 15-0, they figure to set the new NBA record for most victories to start a season Tuesday when they play host to the 2-11 Los Angeles Lakers.
Maybe the 7-6 Suns can get it done Friday in Phoenix, but the Warriors don't face a team currently more than a game better than .500 until Dec. 5 at Toronto—and the Warriors just beat the 9-6 Raptors last week.
For the Warriors to have been this consistent to start the season, they had to get steadily excellent play from many corners. Along those lines, you could debate who stands as Golden State's second-best player to date: Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes or Andre Iguodala.
The first-best, however?
C'mon.
Curry's play has been the cornerstone of Golden State's consistency. His 471 points were the most by a player through a season's first 14 games since Michael Jordan's 506 points—in 1988-89, when those Bulls started 6-8.
The key has been Curry's efficiency amid that output. On field goals, Curry is shooting 51.5 percent. On three-pointers: 44.1 percent. And free throws: 93.8 percent.
The worst Curry has shot from the field in a game this season is 38.9 percent. (For comparison, Kobe Bryant has shot that high only twice in his 10 games this season, while averaging almost five fewer shots a game than Curry.)
As much as the Warriors are the popular example of team ball in today's NBA—and Curry tries hard to push that story angle—this league is still the same as it ever was in a basic way:
Start with a superstar who is so good at scoring points that everything results from how compromised opposing defenses must be in their commitment to him.
There are times Curry will drop improbably deep threes or do absurd ball-handling tricks with dudes all over him. Yet Curry is truly unique in how he is willing and able to step back when the defense does sell out to stop him—and he does it so seamlessly that his teammates practically keep time to his rhythm.
So often the Warriors' best moments are when Barnes is the lucky recipient at the end of a series of passes against a defense that has no way of rotating fast or well enough to recover from its initial trap of Curry.
The Clippers' game plan to double-team Curry down the stretch last Thursday—something Blake Griffin didn't seem all that enthused with when he recounted it after the game—was the impetus to Golden State capping a rally from 23 points down. Worth noting, too, is that the Warriors did not double-team Griffin down the stretch, but Griffin could not make them pay, as is a superstar's contractual obligation.
What is truly next-level, though, is not just that Curry will score on his man and will pass when double-teamed. The magic lies in Curry's sense of when to step aside and just spot up behind the arc instead of chasing the ball.
Those moments empower Green, especially, to unleash an array of weapons that also makes the team look so good together.
Curry is, both in his attack and his deference, even better than he was last season.
"He's probably doing everything better than last year," Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton said, also citing Curry's improved defense.
And just to the eye test, what has gone off the charts this season is Curry's confidence.
The whole team is emboldened by its champion status, but Curry has become more secure in himself as the reigning NBA MVP instead of self-satisfied.
Just look at this steal and lob pass to Iguodala in the third quarter Friday night against the Bulls:
The sequence just screams fearlessness. (By contrast, you can see the lost certainty on that play of the struggling Joakim Noah, who, when he was first-team All-NBA in 2013-14, looked and felt as unstoppable as the Bull on the franchise's logo.)
While Curry's attitude has spread through the entire roster—sparking key contributions from an Ian Clark one night against the Clippers and a James Michael McAdoo the next night against Chicago—let's just not get too carried away about how the Warriors' streak is all about teamwork and depth.
Curry is the trigger for this team's work, even when he scores a season-low 19 points and gets to sit out the fourth quarter in a win over the Nuggets. Without Curry charting the course, the depth is nothing to see.
Because of him, though, everything is perfect.
Kevin Ding is an NBA senior writer for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, @KevinDing.
