Draymond, Durant have turned the Warriors into the NBA's best defensive team
Remember all the fretting about how they'd survive on that end?
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2 min read
The Golden State Warriors dominated the Cleveland Cavaliers on both ends in their 126-91 victory on Monday. Their 41-point second quarter was about as impressive as the fact that they held the Cavs to 35-percent shooting. Their 37 assists were as important as the Cavs only having 11 of them. And by limiting the Cavs to 84.4 points per 100 possessions, the Warriors now have the best defensive rating in the NBA.
On the season, Golden State is allowing opponents to score just 101.2 points per 100 possessions. The Utah Jazz have the same mark, but are presumably percentage points behind the Warriors, as they are ranked second on NBA.com. For the team that took a ton of criticism for their early-season defense after losing their two main rim protectors, Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli, this is rather impressive.
Much of the credit for Golden State's stingy defense should go to Draymond Green and Kevin Durant. Not only are they protecting the rim better than most traditional centers do, they are guarding multiple positions, making multiple-effort plays and routinely battling with bigger, stronger players. Green is the odds-on favorite for Defensive Player of the Year, but this season has also been a showcase for Durant's abilities on that end of the floor.
For the past few years, the Warriors have had size, but it looks like their length, quickness and versatility have been more important all along. Golden State is still capable of switching just about any pick-and-roll, and, dating all the way back to the Mark Jackson days, it has been one of the best teams in the league when it comes to defensive communication and trust.
In the wake of Monday's blowout, there will be an effort to assign all sorts of meaning to one regular-season game. I reject the idea that this one matchup was any more or less significant than the Warriors' one-point loss to the Cavs on Christmas Day. More relevant is the fact that Golden State is first in defense and second (to the Toronto Raptors) on offense, which is the sort of statistical profile you'd expect from a heavy favorite to win the championship.
The San Antonio Spurs are the only other team in the top five in both offense and defense, but the Los Angeles Clippers are almost there. Here's a look at how balanced the league's best teams are:
| Offensive rating (rank) | Defensive rating (rank) | Net rating (rank) | |
| Golden State Warriors | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| San Antonio Spurs | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| Toronto Raptors | 1 | 17 | 3 |
| Houston Rockets | 3 | 19 | 4 |
| Los Angeles Clippers | 5 | 6 | 5 |
| Utah Jazz | 11 | 2 | 6 |
| Cleveland Cavaliers | 6 | 14 | 7 |
| Boston Celtics | 7 | 20 | 8 |
| Milwaukee Bucks | 8 | 15 | 9 |
| Oklahoma City Thunder | 15 | 8 | 10 |
Translation: The Warriors are sitting pretty, and the Cavaliers should be much more worried about their middle-of-the-pack defense than their poor showing at Oracle Arena. They have a lot of work to do to catch up to Golden State in that area.
