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The Warriors have now won seven straight games and pushed their record to 5-0 at Oracle Arena after a 116-99 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Kevin Durant had 33 points in the game to lead all the scorers, while Stephen Curry scored 28, having failed to make five three-point shots for only the second time this season.
Here is what we learned from the victory:
Draymond Green's defense is at another level
Draymond Green still occupies a goal, but the impact of his impact on Friday night's game was not found in his impressive triple-double double statistics line on Friday night.
But you can see it in Minnesota Timberwolves figures.
You can see it in the 12 points that the Timberwolves set up in the fourth quarter on Friday. And you can see it in the night of Karl Anthony Towns too. He had 13 points on 38 percent shooting.
In other words: Green was everywhere against the Timberwolves – for a second consecutive game, he played in defense with an intensity comparable to that of the playoffs and achieved the impact that allowed the Warriors to win three titles in four years.
Green has participated this season in the conquest of the defensive player of the year trophy. He was upset at not having made the first NBA team, all defensive, last year (although I think it was justified).
He is here to prove a point.
He played 10 games, but he could perhaps rest.
Even in the midst of this delusional offensive, there are still real elite defensive players. But no one can do what Draymond Green can do.
Kawhi Leonard can defend anyone on the wing, but he can not lock Towns as Green did on Friday.
And while Rudy Gobert is an elite rim protector, he does not put Andrew Wiggins in a forceps or force a playmaker into a premature pass because he just can not get around it on the perimeter.
Nobody would call Green 's body of elite, but make no mistake, in the modern NBA, it' s about a prototype. He is neither too tall, nor too small, with long arms and active feet. A few years ago, coaches and scouts turned to Green and had no idea what he was: he had become the future.
And that did not even take into account his prodigious IQ basketball – perhaps unprecedented.
Green does what I've never seen another defender – you can not be both Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman …
And at the moment of victory, he has a force as powerful as Stephen Curry or Kevin Durant. It only reinforces its impact on the defensive, less than obvious.
And on Friday, he offered everyone a demonstration of his impact.
It's really something of the next level.
Alfonzo McKinnie is not a fad
Since the pre-season, I call the attacker of the reserve Warriors, Alfonzo McKinnie, "the homeless Andre Iguodala".
McKinnie plays with a steady and professional calm, and knows how to do so many little things with skill that it's hard not to see an Iguodala in her game.
But the idea is that he's not poor André, he's just a little lower than that: the most valuable player in the NBA in 2015 wins 12 times more than McKinnie.
I might need to re-evaluate this nickname, which is certainly terrible and probably unintentionally pejorative.
Because not only was McKinnie fantastic on Friday night, he also came out and took the minutes of Iguodala in the fourth quarter of what was a pretty close match (at least for one game).
This guy does not go away. McKinnie is not a story of wellbeing early in the season that will be forgotten in a few weeks. This is not a fad.
McKinnie is arguably now the most important player on the Warrior bench – a real option for 3-D wings, which is also a prolific rebound.
It is this 3-point shot that is the most fascinating. McKinnie's professionalism on the defensive side was never questioned – the Warriors coaches could trust him to make good turnovers in the pre-season pass. After all, he plays for the Warriors.
And not only does he shoot down these shots, he does not hesitate for a second to get up and shoot.
McKinnie has made 12 three-point shots in the past five games. Not only did all the shots look solid, but eight of them came in.
McKinnie has a net score of 20.8 in 10 games. This is the fourth highest score of all players in the NBA rotation. It has already exceeded its expected value.
By the way, No. 1 on this net ranking? The wing of Memphis, Omri Casspi.
What time to live.
Klay Thompson is the ultimate type of glue?
The first 10 games of the Warriors season should be a time of relaxation. The Warrior coach, Steve Kerr, was going to become weird and experiment with different formations, especially with the bench, in order to find the right combinations after a tumultuous period (by the standards of the warriors) in the low season .
Maybe this season started like this, but as game 11 approaches, it seems like the rotations are more or less defined.
When Shaun Livingston returns to the group, the Warriors will have five players on the bench – him, Iguodala, Kevon Looney, Jonas Jerebko and McKinnie – who could be considered reliable if necessary.
There is only one joker, the big Jordan Bell, whom Kerr seems to want to use in situations where the team needs a lot of energy.
The roles are clear – the queues are relatively well defined. We are just coming from November.
What a crazy luxury.
But many of these roles are based on the fact that "second units" get consistent scores.
And most often, it's Klay Thompson's responsibility.
Kerr wants Thompson to be the offensive presenter of the second unit. In the fourth quarter on Friday, that's exactly what it was: scoring eight points in the first two minutes to start moving away from the Wolves.
The first three quarters of the Warriors did not really click, but they all gathered for the fourth Friday. Golden State can reverse this script, Thompson being the ultimate bridge, they will not need to play a lot of shifts this season.
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