By Ken Cheng
The Warriors have spent a large chunk of the season’s first half as the (mostly) consensus best team in the league, playing with a collective fluidity, confidence, and determination that has proven them to be more than just the sum of their individual roster parts. Fans have been treated to a near nightly buffet of dazzling highlights during what is quickly becoming a franchise-defining season.
Trying to narrow so many of these highlights into a Top Five list wasn’t easy — which is why I cheated and included seven. Balancing flash with a play’s overall impact in context of the season was the trickiest part. But armed with a mediocre memory, fast wifi, and plenty of time to waste on the Internet, I decided to nominate the following five (err, seven) highlights as the best of the first half.
5. Warriors vs. Rockets (11/8/14, W 98-87, 5-0)
Last season, the Rockets were the portrait to the Warriors’ Dorian Gray – a mirror image team designed to outshine the Warriors at seemingly every turn by doing the very things they were supposed to do well. Their first matchup this season was an early statement game; the Warriors were going into Houston at 4-0 while the Rockets were off to a slightly better 5-0 start. There were two plays in that game, however, that typified two of the biggest areas of improvement for the Warriors this season. Klay Thompson’s newfound playmaking (specifically his ability to slash and kick to a wide-open Steph Curry, something that NEVER happened last season) and Steph Curry’s astonishing pick off rate of balls in play have been key to the Warriors 39-8 start. That they occurred on back-to-back plays to give the Warriors a lead they would not relinquish was especially sweet. The Warriors won, taking the first of what would eventually become 4 straight wins against their bizarro, rival, selves.
4. Marreese Speights vs. Charlotte Hornets (11/28/14, W 106-101, 13-2)
After an amazing start to the season in which he played like the Platonic ideal of himself, Marreese Speights has come back to Earth in predictably Speights-ian fashion. But there was a period in November when the uber-Speights single-handedly won the Warriors two games in one week. These were close games (against the Durant and Westbrook-less Thunder and the weirdly pesky Hornets) that the Warriors almost surely would have lost last season. Against the Hornets, in Charlotte, Speights went off for 27 on 60% shooting with 16 coming in the 4th quarter. He added 5 boards, 2 assists, a steal, and a block in less than 24 minutes of PT. Then he fouled out of the game for added entertainment value! It was, perhaps, the best all around Platonic Ideal Speights game of the season and it saved the Warriors from embarrassing themselves against Charlotte for a second straight year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcpsJKEWlpY
4. (tie) Draymond Green vs. Chicago Bulls (12/06/14, W 112-102, 17-2)
“The Warriors need a stretch 4” was a common argument made in support of the Kevin Love trade last summer. Despite Draymond Green’s status as the beating heart of the Warriors’ elite defense for two seasons running (a skill that has made him a legit Defensive Player of the Year candidate this season), his ability to keep opposing defenses honest beyond the arc has been inconsistent, at best. Green’s career-best game against the Bulls in early December, however, served as a sobering example for opponents of just how punishing the Warriors’ offense can be if he’s able to further improve his 3-point-shooting beyond its current 34% clip. Green’s 31 points in the game came so easily (and on so many wide open 3s), that it’s easy to forget the amazing defense he played against the Chicago’s vaunted front line with 7 boards, 4 steals, 3 blocks, and 3 assists.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KXzttIw23A
3. Steph Curry Clowns Russell Westbrook (01/05/15, W 117-91, 27-5)
It’s very possible that if the Warriors hang on to the 1 seed in the Western Conference for the rest of the season, they’ll be rewarded for the effort with a first round matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Yes, the Warriors went 3-1 against them this season, but still. To alleviate the anxiety that comes with thinking about that hypothetical scenario, I present what was probably the single-most Vined Warriors play of the season so far.
2. Steph Curry’s Game Winner vs. Orlando Magic (12/02/14, W 98-97, 15-2)
The Warriors went 27-14 at Oracle last year. Among those 14 defeats were losses to the Nuggets (twice), the Timberwolves, the Bobcats, the (LeBron-less) Cavs, and the Knicks. With over half the season complete, this year, the Warriors are 23-2 at home, with the only losses coming against the Spurs and the Bulls. Early in December, the awful, bottom-of-the-East-dwelling, Orlando Magic almost made that list a threesome. The Warriors were one Steph Curry-pull-up-3-in-transition-with-less-than-five-seconds-left away from being 22-3 at home this season. Instead, Curry (who was 2-of-8 from 3 before that final shot) hit another game winner for the 10th consecutive win in what would become a 16-game win streak.
2. (tie) Steph Curry’s 51 vs. Dallas Mavericks (02/04/15, W 128-114, 39-8)
Two years ago, Steph Curry scored a (still) career-high 54 points against the Knicks in Madison Square Garden. It was a gonzo scoring barrage that also included 7 assists, 6 boards, and 3 steals. The Warriors still lost the game 105-109. Last night, with the Warriors down big in the first quarter, Steph harnessed the power of our yellow sun on his Kryptonian cell structure and unleashed a 51-point outburst on the team that, for some reason, has become his favoriteNBA piñata. In a game that was close until the final minutes, Steph had 8 made 2s, 10 made 3s, 9 freebies, 4 boards, 4 assists, and a steal. He willed his team from a 22-point deficit to a 14-point win. If that’s not the work of an MVP, I’m not sure what is.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CJ_zszwyms
1. Klay Thompson’s 37 in the 3rd vs. Sacramento Kings (01/23/15, W 126-101, 35-6)
I’ve already written about how Klay Thompson has morphed into an elite NBA superstar here — so, this is a pretty easy pick for the best highlight of the first half of the season. This game was tied and the Warriors were looking flat, midway into the 3rd quarter, before Thompson decided to make an absolute mockery of the Kings’ defense (not to mention Ty Corbin’s coaching) en route to another blowout home win. Simply put: the Warriors are not sitting on top of the Western Conference unless Klay Thompson makes the leap into a 3-time-Western-Conference-