Golden State have taken less than two weeks to turn what looked like problems into smiles. From an 0-3 start that set off more than one alarm, the Californians have gone to 6-3 tonight after beating Miami 120-100. The Heat became the latest victims of what is, against all expectations, the hottest team in the NBA. It is a side that has turned out to have a range of resources and tools that was hard to anticipate, and in the early hours it proved impossible to stop for a Heat team who, unlike them, are starting to be in real trouble.
Spoelstra’s side hardly looked able to compete at any point. Apart from a good start that put them 10 up right from the off, the Florida team looked inferior to the Warriors throughout, and increasingly so as the minutes went by. While their firepower began to run dry, the hosts kept running and kept hurting them. And, more importantly, they did it in the most collective way possible.
Everyone contributes…
It is hard to understand the great run Golden State are on without recognising the depth their squad is showing. Kerr can count every night on several rotation players who, regardless of what the stars do, add something every time they step onto the court; some, like George Niang, with their three-pointers, others, like Charles Bassey, with their presence in the paint, others, like Al Horford, with their experience and know-how.
And all of them with their speed and intensity.
The Warriors are not exactly one of the fastest teams in the league, but they know how to take advantage, like few others, of the moments when they can speed up both the game and their opponent. Full of players capable of flying around on defence, at times they become suffocating, and their constant movement in attack gives off a whirlwind feeling that sweeps aside anyone who cannot keep up with their pace. And today the Heat were unable to.
In fact, Kerr’s confidence in the group is such that the coach allowed himself to close out the final quarter with a lineup full of substitutes, trusting they could hold on to the lead that had been built, and he saw his faith rewarded. But it is true that, to build that lead, the appearance of the man who gives this team its meaning was crucial.
… but Curry rules
It is undeniable that the difference-maker is a Stephen Curry who has started the season at an exceptional level. Not so in this game, in which he took several minutes to begin to feel comfortable, but once he did he set about blowing the contest apart and stopping it from looking close again. The rest had kept the Warriors in it, but it was he who lifted them above their opponent.
STEPH DROPS 22 PTS IN THE 2H. WARRIORS WIN 6th STRAIGHT. 🏀 29 PTS 🏀 6 3PM With his 6 threes, Steph Curry becomes the first player in NBA history with four straight games of 5+ 3PM at age 38 or older 🤯 https://t.co/MxDzI66Ehe
— NBA (@NBA) November 6, 2026
Steph finished the game with 29 points, 22 of which came in a second half in which the team from San Francisco improved every time the action went through him. His three-pointers (5/7 after the break), his off-ball movement and his superb reading of the game have been the axis of one of the hardest attacks in the world to stop for more than a decade, but at the start of this season they seem to fit into the team as they have not done for years. Partly because of how the rest are functioning. And partly because of how he is.
With this game, Curry has now racked up four consecutive games with at least five three-pointers made and is shooting 45.7% from the perimeter so far this season, a figure that, if maintained, would be the best of his career. And although in other aspects he may not be as close to his best version, the feeling is still of watching a Steph in his prime. Which, now that everything around him seems to be working again, is starting to become terrifying.
