The Golden State Warriors are giving us a lot of eye-catching numbers to start the 2024-25 season. Newcomer Buddy Hield made a franchise record with 12 3-pointers in his first two games with the team. Steve Kerr is rolling out 12 players, which is almost unheard of in the NBA, even this early in the season. Golden State won its first two games by a total of 77 points.
Indeed, after beating Portland 140-104 on Wednesday, then beating Utah 127-86 on Friday, the Warriors became the first team in NBA history to open a season with two victories by at least 35 points.
Before we get ahead of ourselves, let’s remember that the Jazz and Blazers are two of the worst teams in the league. However, such outbursts rarely happen regardless of the gap between the two teams involved, let alone consecutive matches. For example, the Brooklyn Nets have a vested interest in losing as many games as possible, and they were only at the end of their first two games by 19 points.
“We couldn’t have imagined this,” Steve Kerr said. “Winning two games on the road the way we did, guys defending the way they did, the energy, the communication, supporting each other. No one really plays that many minutes but everyone feeds off each other. It’s been fun to watch.”
Again, two games, especially against two teams at the bottom, doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of an 82-game season. However, with the Western Conference so close, two games could be the difference between a playoff spot and a playoff spot for the Warriors, who failed to reach the playoffs last season despite winning 46 games.
Arguably more important than the wins at this stage and in the context of this team is the way in which they happen, which is what Kerr alluded to. With the aforementioned Hield, De’Anthony Melton and Kyle Anderson all new to the rotation, establishing that kind of chemistry early could be big.
Kerr is playing with a spatially compact starting lineup in order to prioritize defense, with Trayce Jackson-Davis, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga — four players defenses will happily ignore beyond the arc — joining Stephen Curry. This could end up being a big problem against better teams, but these easy early wins allow for a confident rhythm to set in before it comes to that.
This Warriors team is deceptively good. These new pieces really fit. Hield is a dream to get around and catch shots in Kerr’s system. Milton is solid only. Anderson is calling from both ends. Additionally, having 12 legitimate rotation players makes the Warriors a prime candidate for a potential 3-for-1 trade in the future if they turn out to be good, but perhaps not good enough to truly compete.
Either way, the Warriors couldn’t have asked for a better start to their season.
