At first glance, the Warriors are telling a straightforward story this season: the club that rewired the NBA is back. But the truth goes deeper
It’s no less pretty the thousandth time you see it. On an early-February evening in San Francisco, Stephen Curry threads into the heart of the Sacramento defense, spins in place, then whips a one-handed pass the length of the baseline through a tangle of turned heads. By the time it reaches Klay Thompson, the crowd builds to a murmur. A rhythm dribble, a three from the corner, a little blood-pumping bounce on his surgically restored left leg. The shot drops and the noise roars forth: same as it ever was.
At first glance, the Golden State Warriors are telling a straightforward story this season: the club that rewired the NBA is back. After Curry and co ripped off three championships in four years from 2015 to 2018, their good fortune soured as quickly. In the 2019 finals, Kevin Durant ruptured his achilles tendon and Thompson tore his ACL; Durant left the club in free agency that summer. In the fourth game of the next season, Curry landed hard on his hand – not the record-setting right, small miracles – and missed nearly the entire year with broken bones and nerve damage. After spending a year rebuilding his knee, Thompson tore his own Achilles in November 2020: another full season lost. Now the team is mostly whole (Draymond Green, Golden State’s canniest passer and firiest defender, has started practicing again as he heals from a back injury, and Thompson has missed the last couple games with illness) and perched near its accustomed spot, second in the Western Conference with a 43-19 record.