The Golden State Warriors are giving us a lot of eye-catching numbers to start the 2024-25 season. Newcomer Buddy Hield has made a franchise record 12 3-pointers in his first two games with the team. Steve Kerr is putting out a 12-man rotation, which is basically unheard of in the NBA, even this early in the season. And Golden State has won its first two games by a combined 77 points.
Indeed, with a 140-104 win over Portland on Wednesday and a 127-86 win at Utah on Friday, the Warriors are the first team in NBA history to open their season with two wins 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. Still, blowouts like this rarely happen regardless of the gap between the two teams in involved, let alone in consecutive outings. The Brooklyn Nets, for instance, have a vested interest in losing as many games as possible and they’ve only been on the short end of their first two games by a combined 19 points.
“We couldn’t have imagined this,” Steve Kerr said. “Winning two road games in the manner that we did, with guys defending the way they did, the energy, the connection, supporting each other. Nobody really playing that many minutes but everybody kind of fueling each other. It was fun to watch.”
Again, two games, especially against two bottom-rung teams, doesn’t mean much in the grand scheme of an 82-game season. And yet, with the Western Conference as tightly bunched as it is, two games may be the difference between a Play-In and playoff spot for the Warriors, who failed to make the playoffs last season despite winning 46 games.
Arguably even more important than the wins at this juncture and in the context of this team is the manner in which they are happening, to which Kerr alluded. With the aforementioned Hield, De’Anthony Melton and Kyle Anderson all new to the rotation, to establish this kind of chemistry this early could be major.
Kerr is playing a spatially squeezed starting lineup in order to prioritize defense, with Trayce Jackson-Davis, Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kuminga — four players opposing defenses will happily ignore beyond the arc — joining Stephen Curry. That 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 potentially comes to that.
This Warriors team is sneaky good. These new pieces really fit. Hield is a dream moving around and shot-hunting in Kerr’s system. Melton is just solid. Anderson connects on both ends. Plus, having 12 legitimate rotation players makes the Warriors a prime candidate for a potential 3-for-1 trade down the road if they turn out to be good, but probably not good enough to truly contend.
Either way, the Warriors couldn’t have asked for a better start to their season.
