The Warriors exploded out of the gate this season. They own the best record in the NBA and they are expected to win every time they step out on that court. Unfortunately, that was not the case last night against the Oklahoma City Thunder and for the sixth time this season, the Warriors get to experience the taste of defeat.
The Thunder are a desperate team attempting to position themselves among the top eight teams in the Western Conference and with not Andrew Bogut and Andre Iguodala, you would expect that to be the reason they weren’t able to get the win last night. According to Rusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle, Steph Curry is disappointed they weren’t able to pull off the victory regardless of the circumstances:
Curry on playing w/o Bogut/Iguodala: “There was no letdown in expectation for us. We’re still disappointed that we didn’t get the win.”
— Rusty Simmons (@Rusty_SFChron) January 17, 2015
Steve Kerr decided to rest some of his veteran players last night in anticipation of four games in six nights. Kerr is focused on the ultimate goal, which is winning an NBA championship and although they could have used Bogut and Iguodala last night, they will be better off having them healthy in the post-season.
For Steph Curry, that wasn’t an excuse for them to lose the game. The Warriors are considered the deepest team in the NBA, which is why Curry still expects to win, even if two key players are not in action. It’s nothing new, the Warriors have had multiple players out this season and they’ve adopted the “Next man up” mentality.
We like to put the focus on stars in the NBA, but the Spurs taught us that a deep team with a balanced attack is the formula to win an NBA title. For the Spurs, it’s lead to multiple titles. Hopefully the Warriors can follow the same path.