The Warriors returned home early Tuesday an appreciably better team than they were when they left the Bay Area a week ago, and they were exceptional even then.
But on their four-game Eastern Conference road trip, which concluded Monday in Indianapolis with a 120-83 exfoliation of the horribly shorthanded Pacers, the Warriors unleashed an elite team reaching another level yet still on the rise.
Exhibit A: Klay Thompson found his shot, which after a torrid preseason went missing once the games counted in the standings.
Exhibit B: Andre Iguodala found his long-distance shot and the bounce in his legs, which were absent for much of the preseason and all of the regular season.
Exhibit C: The Warriors better experienced the full effect of Kevin Durant’s magnificent offensive repertoire.
Exhibit D: The wild dog that lives within Draymond Green advanced to peak form, breathing fire and providing the energy and range of a full pack of beasts.
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Exhibit E: For the heck of it, they also quieted the anxiety about turnovers.
The Warriors, winners of eight in a row, went into hostile territories and beat both good teams and bad. They won close calls as well as blowouts, won with Stephen Curry off his game, won in ways that only championship-caliber teams do, which is to say they found ways to avoid loss even as they felt its breath.
“Anytime you can go 4-0, it’s amazing,” Thompson, who scored a game-high 25 points, told reporters in Indianapolis. “We’ve been great on the road the last three years, and we want to keep that mentality and carry this momentum back home.”
There was on this night no sign of low focus, which often is this team’s biggest enemy. The Warriors realized the Pacers were without three starters – Paul George, Myles Turner and C.J. Miles – and still showed no mercy.
“We knew coming in that this was a trap game scenario,” Curry said. “Finishing up a road trip against an injury-bugged team that you can kind of lose focus a little bit. We put together a really consistent 48 minutes tonight and that was a great way to finish up the road trip. We want to continue get better, but going 4-0 is pretty nice.”
Curry rediscovered his shot, which went on a two-game hiatus during which the Warriors did not skip a beat. He missed his first four shots, and then went 6-of-7 over the remainder of the game.
Curry was playing not only for his teammates but also for Brody Stephens, a young cancer patient that Curry and Warriors coach Steve Kerr visited at an Indianapolis hospital on Sunday.
“That game was dedicated to Brody Stephens,” Kerr said at the beginning of his postgame news conference.
Against a Pacers roster ripe for the wrapping, the Warriors played appropriately dominating defense, limiting Indiana to 32-percent shooting overall, 26.1 percent from beyond the arc. They led by 19 at the half and by 33 after three quarters before coasting to victory.
Given this Monday night gift from the scheduling gods – the already shorthanded Pacers played in Oklahoma City on Sunday night – the Warriors (12-2) put a bow on it.
The result is a joyful homecoming.
“We’re looking forward to facing this Lakers team that beat us,” Thompson said.
Ah, yes. The Lakers, the last team to beat the Warriors, blasting them 117-97 at Staples Center back on Nov. 4. That was eight games and 18 days ago, and the Warriors have used that time to exhibit appreciable improvement.
It’s a different Warriors team now, and their mission to continue refining the talent with the schemes. All indicators are that they will.
