Barber: With these Warriors, assume everything

OAKLAND - The Warriors celebrated “We Believe” on Tuesday night, trotting out members of the 2007 team that pulled off one of the great upsets in sports history, the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference knocking off the top-seeded Dallas Mavericks.

The Oracle Arena fans were appreciative, in a nostalgic way. Then they went back to watching their 2017 predictions play out on the court as the Warriors thumped the Utah Jazz 106-94 in Game 1 of their West semifinal series.

If the Warriors of Baron Davis and Stephen Jackson were epitomized by “We Believe” signs and T-shirts, the Warriors of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant are defined by “We Assume.”

Jackson, the midseason 2007 acquisition who sparked that team, knows what I’m talking about.

“We just rode the wave. We rode the We Believe wave,” he said before Tuesday’s game. “They don’t believe now. They past that. They way past believing.”

The current product is leaps and bounds better than the one that emerged a decade earlier. But after three consecutive years of 67 wins or more, it has all become so commonplace. We assumed the Warriors would be the best team in the NBA after acquiring Durant last offseason. We assume they will fly through the Western Conference like a sprinter with a tailwind. We assume they will be crowned NBA champions in mid-June. We assumed it will be sunny the day of the parade.

You know what happens when you ASSUME, right? You make an ASS out of U and, well, probably nobody. Because in this case your assumptions are entirely rational.

If the We Assume Warriors get past Utah, they will do what the We Believe Warriors could not. But they can’t ever duplicate what that older crew created here. Oracle is still a tough place for visiting basketball teams, but it isn’t the asylum it was in 2007, especially for Game 3 of Golden State’s opening-round series against Dallas that year.

“Every time I run into somebody and talk about that We Believe team, they always say Game 3 was the loudest they heard this arena,” said Jason Richardson, another member of the ’07 squad. “… That Game 3?crowd, it was just 13 years of frustration going on. They finally got a chance to let it out.”

As he said it, Jackson and former teammate Monta Ellis nodded in agreement.

That frustration seems quaint now. The demographics of Oracle Arena have changed, skewing wealthy and, shall we stay, less steeped in the Warriors’ tragic history.

“It was a crazy vibe going on here. It was kind of like that when I first got here,” Andre Iguodala said after a Tuesday morning shootaround. “And those fans really embraced -?you know, before the ticket prices skyrocketed.”

Iguodala broke into a wry smile. “I’m not saying anything bad about anybody,” he added.

It happens. Forty-Niners fans were beyond themselves when Dwight Clark made The Catch at Candlestick and sent his team to its first Super Bowl. By January of 1990, when Joe Montana was leading the Niners to their fourth title, the Faithful felt entitled to those wins. The same can be said of the 2014 Giants. Madison Bumgarner’s heroics were deeply appreciated by SF fans, but none of them danced quite as dreamily to Tony Bennett after postseason wins that year.

Now that fate has befallen the Warriors.

When they play Game 2 against the Jazz on Thursday, we can return to the realm of unfair expectations. We can nitpick interim coach Mike Brown’s substitutions and wonder aloud why Klay Thompson missed some open 3s.

For one day, though, let’s take a Curry-style step-back and celebrate what we’re seeing here. It is routinely incredible.

At times Tuesday night, the Warriors did it with stifling defense.

The Jazz called a timeout 3:30 into the game, and they were down 7-0. They didn’t score their first points until the 7:48 mark. Yeh, they missed some makeable shots. They were also harassed inside by Draymond Green, the best defender in the NBA.

Other times, it was that fluid Golden State offense that claimed the spotlight. Like when Durant caught a high pass one-handed and flicked it right over to Curry for a 3-pointer to put the Warriors up 14-6. Or when Thompson calmly beat the shot clock with a trey (32-23). Or when Curry got Utah’s Rudy Gobert spinning like a dervish and ran past the esteemed 7-1 center for a layup (54-39).

“I feel like I got one of the better seats in the house, and I’m not even paying for it,” Brown said of that Curry razzle-dazzle.

The most exhilarating moments here are when everything clicks at once, both ends of the court linked like a circulating bicycle chain.

Late in the first quarter, Green bounced a nice one-hopper to Curry for a high bank off the glass, and moments later the Warriors took it away on the defensive end, initiating a fast break that went Andre Iguodala to Shaun Livingston back to Iguodala for the slam.

The medal winner was just before halftime. Utah’s Dante Exum stole a pass near midcourt and waited for teammate Gordon Hayward for a 2-on-1 opportunity.

But Green forced a pass, then stripped Hayward of the ball as he tried to go to the rim. Seconds later, as Hayward looked skyward in resignation, Durant jammed the ball for another basket.

“That play was a big play,” Durant said. “Draymond hustled back and got a hand on the basketball, just made an end-to-end play. Definitely got the crowd into the game.”

All of these highlights occurred in the first half. The game wasn’t exactly over by then. The Jazz started the second half with an 8-3 run to cut their deficit to 61-54. Later in the third quarter, they again got to within a single digit.

But there was never any real suspense in Oracle after halftime. That’s how it goes for the We Assume Warriors. They roll, the opponent buckles, fans have a great time and go home with a souvenir T-shirt.

The price of sustained success is that winning becomes a business model rather than a feat of alchemy. Is it strange for guys like Stephen Jackson and Jason Richardson to witness? We can only assume.

You can reach staff writer Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. Follow him on Twitter @Skinny_Post.