When the Golden State Warriors are working on all cylinders, there is no team they can’t beat in the league.
Need proof? They are the only team to beat both the Miami Heat and Indiana Pacers on the road this season. The problem is that the Warriors have not been clicking on all cylinders for much of the season.
While boasting the third best defensive rating in the league, their 13th best offensive rating has often been bad enough to cost them plenty of games. Things have been smoothing over – particularly for the bench unit – on offense since the acquisition of Steve Blake just before the trade deadline, but their over-dependency on Stephen Curry’s wizardry and Klay Thompson’s 3-point shooting has given them mixed results thus far.
Golden State hoped to be one of the top four teams in the West, but has been sitting sixth or lower for much of the season. Because they are in a dog fight with three other teams just to make sure they get into the playoffs, every game moving forward will matter in the standings. After inexplicably blowing a sizable lead and losing to the Toronto Raptors in their previous game, the Warriors had to dig deep to find a way to beat the Pacers on the road on Tuesday.
After being in control for much of the game, they again blew a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter and allowed the Pacers to tie the game with less than a minute remaining in the fourth quarter. Fortunately for them, the Pacers failed to take advantage of a two-for-one situation and essentially allowed the Warriors to have the final possession of the game after missing badly on their attempt to take the lead with less than 24 seconds left on the clock.
With Paul George draped all over the smaller Curry, the Warriors elected to go to a mismatch between Thompson and George Hill. Thompson posted up the smaller defender, spun to his right, and shot a fade-away jumper for the game-winner.
The Pacers still had 0.6 seconds left and actually got a 3-point shot off before the buzzer sounded, but George’s shot hit the back of the iron to end the game. After the 98-96 victory, Thompson got on twitter (something he rarely does) and shared his thoughts on what helped the team come out with the win:
Great W 2night. Bench came up huge. Gotta come out strong tomorrow in Boston tho #DubNation
— klay thompson (@KlayThompson) March 5, 2014
He chose not to credit himself for just the second game-winner of his career, but no worries. Teammate Harrison Barnes made sure the biggest shot of Thompson’s career didn’t go unnoticed:
Big road win… @KlayThompson with the clutch fadeaway!! One more to go…
— Harrison Barnes (@HBarnes) March 5, 2014
Thompson’s playing time has been reduced to just 32 minutes in February after averaging nearly 38 minutes for much of the season. Part of it has to do with the team’s acquisition of Jordan Crawford, but more of it may have to do with his lack of discipline on both ends of the floor at times. If he plays more like he did against the Pacers (25 points on 10-of-20 shooting and five rebounds in 40 minutes) moving forward, those minutes should climb back up in no time, and the Warriors’ chances of making it back to the playoffs for the second consecutive year will be that much better.
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James Park is the chief blogger of Sheridan Hoops. You can find him on twitter @SheridanBlog.