After successful preseason, Golden State Warriors looking to regular season with a point to prove – NBA Feature
Apart from David Lee and Klay Thompson, there are other players in the Golden State Warriors roster who played their parts in securing victories for the team over the offseason. Stephen Curry averaged 12.2 points and 5.2 assists in the opening five games, scoring 25 points in the 98-104 loss for the Warriors against the Denver Nuggets on 15th October. Brandon Rush also averaged 10.2 points and 2.7 rebounds for Golden State, shooting above 50 percent in the opening six preseason games.
The Warriors roster has stepped up to the challenge and answered the call by the team to improve their play and put up a better performance as compared to last season. In three of the opening six games of the offseason, the Warriors shot better than 50 percent from the field and in no game did they shoot worse than 40 percent from the field. All in all, their performance in the preseason has exceeded expectations and succeeded in grabbing the attention of fans as well as other teams in the NBA.
Having said that, the preseason games are only meant for practice and the real challenge will start when the Warriors start their 2012-13 season campaign, where teams will play against them with much more seriousness and pitch their best players in the game. And for the Warriors, the most important thing is to take away the positives from the preseason games and continue to work on them during the regular season.
The Warriors have good depth in their team, which is what worked for them in the preseason. They should be aiming to make full use of this depth during the regular season as well, and providing all the players who shined in the preseason the opportunity to play in games and contribute to the success of the team.
Andrew Bogut is one of the talents that the Warriors acquired from the Milwaukee Bucks during the offseason, and will play for them during the regular season after missing much of the preseason due to injury. Bogut is a veteran centre, who has played seven seasons for the Milwaukee Bucks. He managed to play only 12 games last season before being sidelined with injury, but averaged 12.8 points and 11.1 rebounds for the Bucks in the 2010-11 season, while shooting 49.5 percent from the field. As he joins the Warriors this upcoming season, he will make their front court even stronger, and will add to the offensive options of the team.
With a group of young and buzzing talent that are looking to make a mark in the league, and a new formidable center player coming into the team, the Warriors have started just the way they wanted to. However, it is the regular season that matters, what gets the team to the playoffs. Hence, they need to play with the same confidence, and to their strengths, and they might be one of the eight teams heading to the playoffs come April next year.
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