The Golden State Warriors rebounded from two blowout losses to even their record. That’s better than last season, but what can be said about Stephen Curry’s new crew?
Steve Kerr sat down in front of the computer screen and tried to spin the kind of positivity that has been hard to feel throughout 2020. After watching his young team grind through an underwhelming 116-106 win over an undermanned Detroit Pistons squad on Tuesday night, the basketball lifer tried to let the numbers do the talking. „I think coming into this trip when the season schedule came out, we all looked at it and we all thought if we could go 2-2 that’d be a really successful trip,“ Kerr said, during a video conference with reporters. „Especially given the length of our offseason and everything going on with our team. Draymond (Green) being out, Draymond missing camp, all that. So I think we all feel great, we’re excited to get home. And our confidence level should be rising because we’re starting to see the type of team that we should be.“Editor’s PicksA record for 3s and five more wild stats from the Bucks‘ beatdown of the HeatKerr on Curry’s return: ‚Feels like it’s on again‘ 1 Related Kerr spoke with the kind of paternal optimism rarely needed throughout the Golden State Warriors glory years. And it’s a noticeable shift in tenor that underscores exactly what the group learned during its first road trip of the season. The days of just being able to roll the ball out and expect the Warriors to overwhelm anyone in their path are long gone. It’s a change that was already starting to take place at the beginning of last season, but was stifled when Stephen Curry broke his hand in the fifth game of the year. It’s a realization of just how much the Warriors miss Klay Thompson and a reminder that Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston are not going to be able to ride in and save the day. Sure, the Warriors may be 2-2, but Kerr knows better than anyone in the organization that all wins are not created equal. After getting blown out by East powerhouses Brooklyn Nets and Milwaukee Bucks in the first two games of the season, the Warriors needed a Damion Lee game-winner to beat the lowly Chicago Bulls on Sunday night. The Warriors needed 17 fourth quarter points from Andrew Wiggins to beat a bad Detroit Pistons team that shot 15-for-50 from the field in the first half (30%) and still led at halftime — while playing without Blake Griffin (concussion protocol) in the second half. After nine months off, and four games into a condensed year — what do we really know about a group that is still learning about itself? Any conversation about the positives starts with rookie center James Wiseman. The 19-year-old continued to impress his teammates and coaches throughout the trip, showing an offensive versatility that few expected this early after the Warriors selected him with the No.2 pick in the 2020 Draft. „He’s just a kid and he’s just learning,“ Kerr said.
