Saturday, December 26, 2015

Despite struggles, Warriors put away Cavaliers late

Despite struggles, Warriors put away Cavaliers late

Champs (28-1) unhappy with recent performances, but help may be on the way with possible return of Steve Kerr, Harrison Barnes

  • POSTED: Dec 25, 2015 11:30 PM ET
OAKLAND - The "struggling" Warriors on Friday won for only the 28th time in 29 games, an 89-83 victory over the Cavaliers in a Finals rematch at Oracle Arena with a season low in scoring while shooting 41 percent, including 5-for-18 from three-point range
What are we? Twenty-eight and one? You're 28-1 and you're not near playing well, that's exciting.
- Draymond Green
It would have been impossible on opening night to imagine the Warriors would stand at 28-1 under any circumstances, let alone 28-1 with a coach younger than several players around the league and stepping in with two previous seasons as an assistant, with a concussion costing Bogut six games and Barnes' absence. Now imagine the Warriors at 28-1 and thinking they will start to play better in the future.
"Maybe a little bit," Bogut said.
Maybe more than a little bit.
"There's part of it that [makes me mad] and there's part of it that makes me very, very happy," Green said. "I think we've got a lot of improving to do, and we will."
Mad because the Warriors are not happy with how they have played lately. The happy: "Because what are we? Twenty-eight and one? You're 28-1 and you're not near playing well, that's exciting. We know we know how to get to that point and we know we'll reach that point. And when we do, I think that's trouble because if we're 28-1 and we're not playing well, imagine where we are. That's why it excites me.
"I think the world has definitely had a lot of views of us when we play well. That's when the offense is flowing and the defense is getting back-to-back-to-back stops and not giving up offensive rebounds. I just don't think we've done that. Our offense hasn't been flowing. We haven't been executing very well and we haven't been putting the amount of stops together that we want, so there's some things to clean up. But at the end of the day, a win like (Friday), you have to definitely take it. Obviously you can grow off of it, but it's a good win."
For a Golden State team that needed some positives for a change and all. The Cavaliers imposed their will, slowed the pace to their liking, forced the Warriors to trudge through the marsh, and it still didn't make a difference in the end. The defending champs won anyway to improve to 28-1 with the bonus of being able to look forward to returning to full strength very soon, if only they can hang on.
Scott Howard-Cooper has covered the NBA since 1988. You can e-mail him hereand follow him on Twitter.
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http://www.nba.com/2015/news/features/scott_howard_cooper/12/25/warriors-outlast-cavaliers-in-finals-rematch/index.html?ls=iref:nba:specials:homepage:headlines

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