Warriors show signature brilliance and apathy in comeback win vs. Sixers

The Golden State Warriors are bored out of their minds.

Every opponent gives Golden State its best shot, only to make the Warriors yawn. They can hardly be bothered to try on most nights, and they only operate at full capacity for short stretches. For the most part, that's all they need.

Saturday's comeback over the Philadelphia 76ers was a classic Warriors win. The plucky Sixers, led by the upstart trio of Ben Simmons, Joel Embiid, and Robert Covington, jumped all over the Warriors to lead by 22 at the half, and that wasn't enough.

Philly threw its best punch, which is enough to knock out most teams. Simmons got into the lane at will and made a fool out of Andre Iguodala and David West. Embiid was a transcendent presence on both ends of the floor and traded trash talk after schooling a helpless Draymond Green. Covington locked down Kevin Durant and splashed threes each time he was given half a chance to fire.

The Sixers dropped a 47-point quarter on the Warriors, and the Philly faithful chanted and cheered as if it was a Finals game. Golden State looked outmatched, outmuscled, and frankly outclassed.

The challenge of coming back from being down 22 must have piqued the Warriors' interest, because an entirely different team emerged from the tunnel after halftime. It was no longer a lazy squad surrendering layup after layup; this was the reigning champions, and quite possibly the best team of all time.

Golden State flipped the switch and produced a 47-15 third quarter, seemingly at will. Philadelphia's insurmountable lead became an inescapable deficit in just 12 minutes.

When the Warriors launch one of their patented runs, it always starts with their defense. They tightened the screws Saturday night, holding the Sixers to 7-of-22 shooting and turning every miss into a transition basket.

Those driving lanes for Simmons suddenly dried up. Philadelphia's shooters found no daylight whatsoever. Embiid couldn't even get the ball, let alone set up in his spots. The stunned 76ers discovered the Warriors had just been playing rope-a-dope to set up their haymakers.

Durant came alive for 10 points, mostly on pull-up jumpers that are physically impossible to contest. Green cut through the seams of Philly's defense for easy baskets. Kevon Looney ran amok, grabbing offensive rebounds while Philly's defense was fried. And nobody could stop Curry, who had 20 points and was a plus-32 while playing the whole quarter.

The Sixers never recovered, and it went down as yet another comfortable win for a Warriors team that's won eight of its last nine games by an average margin of 15.9 points.

Getting his team to compete is the main challenge for coach Steve Kerr. The Warriors are so outrageously talented that they only have to play hard for a quarter to get the win, and even asking them to do that much can be a tall order.

In the first quarter against the Sixers, Kerr called a second timeout within seconds of his first timeout because his players didn't run the play he wanted. They had no reason to care.

What flipped the game on its head wasn't a change of tactics so much as it was a change of attitude. Kerr made minor tweaks like switching up defensive assignments and shuffling through his three-headed center rotation, but the biggest difference was simply that the Warriors got up to play.

"It took the embarrassment of being blown off the floor in the first half to get us going," Kerr admitted, according to Anthony Slater of The Athletic.

That's a variation on the mantra Kerr has repeated all season. In September, he said battling complacency would be the Warriors' biggest challenge, and he's dead on.

Kerr's team is one miraculous 3-1 series comeback away from a three-peat. They're 219-43 since 2014. His roster includes two MVPs, a Defensive Player of the Year winner, and arguably the best shooter in the league (it's either Klay Thompson or Curry - the point stands either way), and the supporting cast gets deeper every summer.

If they have no equals, why do the Warriors need to bring their best effort? We'll only see it for a quarter at a time - at least, until the playoffs.

(Photos courtesy: Action Images)