The Warriors winning at home was as close to a sure thing as we get in the NBA, and that’s been the case all season long.
Golden State dropped just two home games during the regular season, and had won its first five games of the playoffs overall before Tuesday night’s loss to the Grizzlies which evened their second-round series at a game apiece.
But losing at home for these Warriors is far from the end of the world -- a fact that Draymond Green made clear with a somewhat silly postgame remark.
From ESPN.com:After the game, Curry preached calm, saying, “We’re not going to shoot 6-for-26 many times over this series, so we’re not going to overreact to one bad shooting night, as long as we get quality shots the next game.”
Draymond Green had a similar message, saying, “Nobody expects us to lose a game at home. Now the whole world has collapsed, the Bay Area’s just been hit by an earthquake. Everything’s going wrong.” He then downshifted into a reassuring tone, saying, “We’ll be just fine.”
Green is likely correct; the Warriors have been juggernauts on both ends of the floor for the entirety of the season, and after one game where their opponent was able to push the right buttons, there’s no reason to panic just yet.
The biggest issue may be what Curry was talking about, which is being able to get what he called quality shots. The MVP is right in theory when he says his team is unlikely to go 6-of-26 from three-point distance again, but if the Grizzlies are focused on taking away those looks and Golden State doesn’t exploit that by going inside the arc for two-point attempts instead, it could be a longer series than any of us expected.