Warriors return after dominant Eastern road trip

The Warriors completed their Eastern conference road trip with four wins in six days — basically a regularity for this franchise since Steve Kerr took the helm.

The last three seasons, the Warriors have gone a combined 56-8 against the East, an astounding .875 winning percentage.

Not only that, they have lost only six road games to the East in those same three seasons.

This trip was circled not only on the Warriors’ calendar, but on that of most NBA pundits, since it featured the Boston Celtics and Milwaukee Bucks, both of whom hit the Dubs for losses last season.

Not to mention the Toronto Raptors, who played the 73-win team very close in both meetings, losing by a combined eight — and the always dangerous Indiana Pacers.

Thanks to fortuitous timing, the Warriors (12-2) dodged the injured Jae Crowder, Al Horford, Paul George and resting Myles Turner on this trip, which predictably led to two blowout wins. And though their 124-121 win against the Bucks was much closer than many thought it should be, the Warriors now return to Oracle riding an eight-game winning streak.

But Golden State returns west with something more important than just a winning streak — the return to form of their offense as a whole, but specifically, Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala.

Thompson had struggled to open the year, but on the four-game road trip averaged 24.2 points while shooting 49 percent from the field and 41 percent from three.

Iguodala also found his stroke as he had made just four 3-pointers before the road trip, but exploded for seven in the last four games.

With both hitting their strides, the Warriors have finally started showing how terrifying they can be offensively.

Defensively, though, is another story, as they have gave up 120 plus points three of the last five games.

It’s still a work in progress on that side of the ball as Kerr experiments with his lineups, especially during blowouts, as a lot of those points come in supposed garbage time. For now, it remains a moot point, as they are still doing enough to win games and haven’t had the need to show their hand completely.

As this undefeated trip out East showed, that’s enough to beat most teams.

Last modified November 24, 2016 3:17 am

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