The Week that Was:
While teams cannot win any playoff series in November, the Warriors did an excellent job showing the league why they will be dangerous if they can come into the playoffs healthy. Despite carrying deficits in road games against Miami and Charlotte (two teams who made the playoffs last season even though Charlotte has been a major disappointment), Golden State pulled off comebacks and victories in each.
Sunday’s game against Detroit showed a little of how far this team has come because a terrible first quarter did not sink them against a clearly inferior opponent. The Warriors would dominate if they only had to face the Eastern Conference and I am excited to see how they far against quality Western Conference opposition in December.
I should give a special shout-out to Marreese Speights, the subject of last week’s Soapbox. He played a decisive role in Friday’s comeback against the Hornets by scoring 16 points in a fourth quarter when no one else could get going. As someone who was critical of Bob Myers for signing Speights to his current contract and Coach Kerr for giving him minutes over Festus Ezeli (which I still do not love when Mo plays Center for defensive reasons), I will admit my mistake. Even though it is monumentally unlikely that his excellent stretch is any sort of new baseline, Speights has earned a role on this squad and made David Lee even more expendable.