SAN FRANCISCO – Jumping to conclusions from a 15-game sample size for the Warriors last season would have had people making NBA championship parade plans down Market Street again.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr doesn’t even start putting eggs in a basket until they’ve played 20 games and he can start honestly assessing his team. So, what really can be taken from the Warriors’ strong start through the first five games of the 2025-26 NBA season? The sample size is small, extremely small. Not small enough for some big statements to already have been made.
For the third consecutive season, the Warriors are 4-1 through their first five games. But in their first five games last season, they only played one team, the Los Angeles Clippers, that wound up making the NBA playoffs. The Warriors this season in their first five games faced four teams that were in last season’s playoffs and beat all four.
Challenges have been placed in front of the Warriors, and they’ve accepted each invitation.
Luka Dončić dropped 43 points on them in the season opener, but the Warriors were the much better team than the Los Angeles Lakers between the contributions of Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield.
Beating the Denver Nuggets in overtime was both gritty and the latest example of the game’s greatest showman owning an arena, and his aura getting brighter the bigger the moment gets. Losing to the Portland Trail Blazers less than 24 hours later after having to board a flight was the definition of a schedule loss, and their bounce-back by winning both sides of their next back-to-back showed all the other ways the Warriors can succeed.
Monday’s win against the Memphis Grizzlies was one for the young trio of Brandin Podziemski, Kuminga and Moses Moody to put in their memory bank and look back at throughout an 82-game season. It only was the sixth time in Curry’s 17 NBA seasons that he has played in a game where the Warriors had four players score at least 20 points and he wasn’t one of them. And it was the first where Podziemski, Kuminga and Moody all scored 20 or more points.
Fatigue could have caught up to them Tuesday against the Clippers, and signs showed that was about to be the case when LA went on a 24-6 run over the final eight minutes of the second quarter to lead by three at halftime. But the Warriors put the clamps on the Clippers and continued their third-quarter dominance. The Warriors outscored the Clippers 32-14 in the third quarter and 52-30 in the second half with an aggressive defense that had eight steals in the final two quarters. James Harden scored 20 points in the first half and none in the second while failing to even attempt a free throw.
How great was the Warriors’ defense against the Clippers? The Clippers’ 79 points were the fewest the Warriors allowed in a game since Dec. 20, 2016. The Clippers failed to score 80 points for the first time in four years, and they only had 10 assists, their lowest total in 16 years.
“The No. 1 thing we’ve been trying to hammer home is that our offense can help our defense,” Kerr said Tuesday night. “And I thought that happened tonight. It’s not just turnovers, but it’s playing a connected style of basketball.”
At this point, the pre-Butler Warriors are dust in the wind. The games happened and the record was what it was, but this is who the Warriors are now. Since Butler’s arrival, between the regular season, NBA play-in tournament and playoffs, the Warriors are 32-15 in games he plays, good for a 68.1 winning percentage.
There aren’t many, if any, better duos than Curry and Butler. They’re salt and pepper in age and cohesion, and thunder and lighting on the court. There still isn’t a defender that can do all the things Green can. Victor Wembanyama is in an extraterrestrial category of his own.
But the real encouragement is the development, growth and maturity of a wild card who always could take the Warriors to the next level.
The anxiousness of the Warriors’ offseason surrounding Kuminga’s present and future is long forgotten less than a month since he signed his new two-year contract. Kuminga has transformed his mindset as a rebounder, playmaker and point-of-attack defender to insert himself into the starting lineup for good, with an understanding of how to play alongside Butler and Green in the frontcourt.
Kuminga has swapped the mid-range for the 91st percentile of the restricted area, and his free-throw rate is in the 83rd percentile, per Cleaning The Glass. The three-man lineup of Butler, Kuminga and Green has played 74 minutes together this season and is a plus-37 with a 125.2 offensive rating, 101.9 defensive rating and 23.3 net rating.
As the NBA’s second-oldest team behind the Clippers, the Warriors’ youth no longer is a pack of puppies finding their way. Kuminga and Moody are playing as close to their draft slots as ever. Podziemski and Quinten Post are using the lessons they learned from last season’s playoff experience, and neither came into the league as a teenager. Will Richard is more reminiscent of a multi-year vet than a rookie, and the roster is so deep that Gui Santos can’t even crack the rotation as the Warriors wait for the return of De’Anthony Melton and the ability to re-sign Seth Curry.
“It’s a good thing for us, and a scary thing for everybody else,” Butler said.
The Warriors’ first five games were played over eight days, and they came out with four wins. They already have beaten both LA teams after going a combined 1-7 against them last season, earning their first win against the Clippers in 23 months. They beat a consensus championship contender that has the best player in the world, and the Warriors have won their first three home games for the first time since the 2018-19 season. The synchronicity between stars and role players, age and experience, has the makings of more than a mirage from five games as one of the most dangerous teams top to bottom in basketball.
Now the Warriors’ real identity will be put to the test with 10 of their next 12 games on the road. Thus far, they’ve had an answer for nearly every question.
Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast