Warriors head coach Steve Kerr compared his team to the 2001-02 Sacramento Kings for their high level of play on both ends of the court. Golden State plays at the NBA’s quickest pace and so far has the League’s best record at 16-2. The ’01-02 Kings finished with 61 regular-season wins before infamously falling to the Lakers in the seventh game of the Western Conference finals:
When asked to consider the last team he remembers playing at such a high level on both ends of the floor, Kerr cited the 2001-02 Sacramento Kings team that had its own basketball ballet – Chris Webber, Mike Bibby, Vlade Divac and the rest of them going 61-21 before falling to the Lakers in the Western Conference Finals. They were third in offense that season, with the Divac role as a high-post point guard of sorts in half-court sets very similar to the one being played by Warriors big man Andrew Bogut at the moment.
“I know it is rare,” Kerr said of this kind of two-way proficiency. “(But) the (Warriors) roster is great defensively, because you’ve got Bogs (Bogut) protecting the rim and then you’ve got a bunch of versatile wing defenders, so we switch a lot. And switching is difficult to deal with, because it disrupts the point of each play where you’re trying to get an advantage with a screen, and when you switch teams tend to stop moving the ball and the shot clock starts to wind down. And the fact that we’ve got Harrison (Barnes) and Andre (Iguodala) and Klay (Thompson) and Draymond (Green) – numerous guys who can guard multiple positions, it makes it a lot easier.”
