#9
The 2014-15 Golden State Warriors
Regular season: 67-15 (81.7)
Playoffs: 16-5 (76.2)
Total: 83-20 (80.6)
Award winners;
Andrew Bogut: 2nd Team All-Defense
Stephen Curry: League MVP, 1st Team All-NBA, All Star
Draymond Green: 1st Team All-Defense
Andre Iguodala: Finals MVP
Klay Thompson: 3rd Team All-NBA, All Star
Steve Kerr: All Star head coach
It’s weird how recently the Golden State Warriors were one of the least relevant teams in the NBA. From 1995 to 2012, they made the playoffs just once. Once. In 18 seasons. That was in 2007, when they made the playoffs and actually won a series for the first time since 1991 when they massively upset the 67 win Dallas Mavericks in the first round in six, before losing to the Utah Jazz in five games in round two. They were one of those teams that as a kid in the ‘90s, living on the east coast, I’d kind of forget they existed, the other being the LA Clippers. In the past ten years we saw them go from obscurity to the team we all loved to hate due to their monotonous success, especially after their acquisition of yet another superstar in Kevin Durant, which everyone assumed would kill anything close to parity in the NBA for the foreseeable future.
Things turned around after they drafted Stephen Curry, AKA the greatest shooter ever, back in 2009, followed by fellow Splash Brother Klay Thompson in 2011, and the controversial utility man, Draymond Green, in 2012. This exciting young Warriors team was back in the playoffs by the mid 2010s, and in 2014, the five time NBA champion and another great shooter, Steve Kerr, became their head coach. Soon they were burying teams in three pointers on a nightly basis. Golden State’s success led to big changes in the way the game is played. The average number of three point attempts per NBA game was 21.5 in 2014, the year before they won their first title. Last season it was up to 32. The Warriors’ habit of sometimes playing 6’7 Draymond Green at center influenced other teams to try small-ball lineups.
2014-15 was the year the Warriors really hit their stride and began the dynasty that we recently saw come to its apparent end. They improved from 51 wins the year before to 67. They started out with a bang, going 21 and 2 in their first 23 games, including a 16 game streak in November and December. 26 year old point guard Stephen Curry led the team with 23.8 points, 7.7 assists and 2 steals on 48.7/44.3/91.4 shooting. 24 year old two guard Klay Thompson contributed 21.7 points and 1.1 steals on 46.3/43.9/87.9 shooting. 24 year old forward Draymond Green chipped in 11.7 points to go with 8.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.6 steals and 1.3 blocks and played strong defense. Andrew Bogut, Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala also played important roles.
The Warriors faced a young Anthony Davis and the 47-35 New Orleans Pelicans in the first round and swept them in four games. There were no huge blowouts though, with the Warriors winning by between 4 and 11 points.
The next series got more interesting. The Warriors met the 55 win Memphis Grizzlies, featuring Marc Gasol and Mike Conley. Golden State won the first game easily, 101-86, and Steph had 22 points, 7 assists and 4 steals. The Grizzlies came back to take the next two games, even winning game two in Oakland, 97-90. The Warriors came roaring back in the next three games though by a combined 50 points, including a 98-78 beat down in game five. Steph filled up the stat sheet, with 18 points, 7 rebounds, 6 steals and 5 assists. Klay led the scoring with 21 points plus 5 rebounds.
They went on to face the 56 win Houston Rockets, led by James Harden, in the Conference Finals. The Warriors took a 3-0 lead, winning the first two by five points total before blowing out the Rockets 115-80 in Houston. Steph put on a show with an efficient 40 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals and a block. Draymond was Draymond with 17 points, 13 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block and had a game high +36 rating. The Rockets won game four 128-115, but it was too little too late as Golden State won game five by fourteen. Harden was incredible in game four though, with a very efficient 45 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks.
The 53 win Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron James, met the Warriors in the Finals. Luck was on Golden State’s side, as Kevin Love missed the series due to injury, and Cleveland’s All-NBA point guard Kyrie Irving went down hurt in the first game, which the Warriors won 108-100. LeBron James played like a one man army though, and the Cavs ground out two close wins, taking a 2-1 series lead. LeBron did just about everything in game three, scoring 40 points to go with 12 rebounds, 8 assists, 4 steals and 2 blocks and playing 46 minutes. The Warriors shut it down after that though, winning the next three games by a total of 42 points, including a 21 point win in Cleveland in game 4, and clinched their first championship since 1975. Andre Iguodala won Finals MVP, in large part for how well he defended LeBron James, and put up 22 points, 8 rebounds and a steal in the game four blowout. Iggy averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.3 steals on 52.1% shooting, including 40% from three, in the series.
As one my favorite youtube personalities, Dom2K, once said, it seems like the Warriors and Cavs won each other’s championships in 2015 and ’16. The fact that LeBron and Matthew Dellavedova were able to push the series to six makes me think a fully healthy Cleveland team had a good shot to win it all that year. By the same token, the 2016 Warriors didn’t have a fully healthy Steph Curry and lost Draymond Green to suspension in game five while up 3-1. They also might’ve just worn themselves out going for that regular season wins record. There’ll be more about what happened next to Golden State in my entry on the 2017 Warriors.
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