Despite poor shooting, Warriors use 30 team assists to rise over Lakers

Warriors basketball is finally back. Opening night of the NBA electrified as the Golden State Warriors best the Los Angeles Lakers, 121-114 at Staples Center.

What a game.

The Dubs began their quest for a 7th championship Tuesday night in LA, and it is safe to say this marquee matchup between two title contenders did not disappoint.

A few takeaways.

The Warriors did not play a great game by any stretch of the imagination. At least not up to their full potential. Look no further than Stephen Curry’s post-game interview for reference when he said “ I played like trash”, sort of hilariously, as he said that with the chyron below his face displaying the stats to his triple-double performance. Obviously, a triple-double is not trash, much less a win over a western conference contender in the Los Angeles Lakers, however, Steph was of course simply speaking in comparison to his potential.

If this is Curry’s definition of trash, the entire NBA better be on watch. A hungry Warriors team is the last thing any rival opponent wants to see.

Shifting gears, the Warriors’ ball movement against the Lakers was unbelievable. The memories of Kelly Oubre going 0-30 from three-point land were all but forgotten(thankfully). The main difference between this team and last year’s team is that the Warriors now have players on their roster who can hit the wide-open three, albeit Golden State didn’t shoot the ball at a high clip on Tuesday night at 35% from the deep,not necessarily great.

The stat the team can hang their hats on, however, is the 30 team assists they finished with. The sharing of the ball was immaculate. The passing was on point, had they knocked down a few more of those wide-open threes, you would have seen the Warriors likely beat the lakers by 20+.

Jordan Poole spoke after the game. “Going into the second half we know we didn’t play how we are capable of playing,” Poole said. “We were only down six I think it was, we just knew that after we got a little bit of momentum, and start making the right plays, everything was going to fall into place”.

“The right plays” is directly correlated to sharing the ball. In the second half, the Dubs did just that. Ultimately, it was what propelled them to victory.

There is a lot to be happy about right now for Dubnation. Even after one game, this team feels special. While this may be an overreaction and a product of the exuberance I feel for this season, I think that this team’s depth and unselfishness may be what gets them over the hump when it comes to post-season aspirations. After last season, a big win over the Lakers on opening night is a breath of fresh air that many can revel in and serve as a base to establish what they hope to see more of, which would be Ws.

Regardless, there are still have 81 regular-season games to be played, and onward we will proceed. But man, it sure is good to have the Dubs back to their dominant brand of basketball.

(Photo credit: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)