As the Warriors are finishing up another season where their dominance gets questioned after various lackadaisical games, the team continues to be positive about the state of the organization. After Tuesday night’s resounding victory over the Denver Nuggets, many people around the league still find it tough to understand why the team goes through such highs and lows.
Despite the fact that people around the league have seen Golden State come back from “coasting” through the regular season time and again, various Warriors spoke to ESPN as to why are there still doubters.
“If we had a night like we had against Dallas four years ago nobody [outside the team] would care,” Stephen Curry said. “[Now] it becomes a bigger story and we have to answer to it and we felt s—ty and the whole deal. So that pressure and the expectations that we put on ourselves and ones that are coming from the outside. As much as guys want to go home and turn it off and they have balance in their lives, it’s always in the back of your head, so year after year of that is tough.”
Despite their extended periods of rest, the Warriors still have the highest win total of a team during a five year stretch, breaking their own record that was set last year. However, it is clear that the urgency for the team is tough to muster. Shaun Livingston talked about the mental exhaustion that comes with sustained success.
“The hardest thing to do in this league is be consistent,” Livingston said. “That’s what separates [the] bad from the good [from] the great.”
While the Warriors understand that they should have better focus throughout the season, it is tough for them to pinpoint why it is tough to maintain such a high level of success.
“I don’t know why it’s so tough to do,” Warriors forward Draymond Green said when asked why it has been so difficult to maintain year-over-year success. “But whatever that reason is, [it’s] the reason why there ain’t many greats and many people don’t reach greatness.”
Curry and Steve Kerr also discussed the physical toll (in addition to the mental grind) that comes with having a target on their back and receiving opponents’ “best efforts” each night.
“Once you get to that level, it’s that cliché: It’s harder to stay at the mountaintop than it is to get there. You get everybody’s best shot,” Curry said of the difficulty of maintaining the kind of regular-season success the Warriors had in 2015, 2016 and 2017. “You’re picked apart in the media, you’re picked apart from fans. The pressure to be great every night, as much as it fuels you, it wears on you, too. You got to keep everything in perspective.”
“A team wins one championship and it’s a hell of an accomplishment, but nobody talks about their legacy in terms of a dynasty or greatness, whatever the word is,” he said. “If you really want to be put into that category, that the best teams in history have been put into, the greatest teams, you’ve got to do it for years. The NBA season is tough enough for every team. Eighty-two games and all the travel and the wear and tear, to do what we’ve done five straight years.” Kerr told ESPN.
Despite all of the concerns (warranted or not) that are associated with the team during their low stretches of the season, after performances such as the one against the Nuggets, it becomes clear why Kerr and the rest of the Golden State organization is still confident in their team.
