Barber: Warriors meet the beast from the East

OAKLAND

Making proclamations about the NBA in December is a little like looking at a baby in a crib and saying, “I think she’s going to be a data analyst.” There are so many ways for you to be wrong by the time the dust settles.

But hey, here goes: The Warriors’ greatest threat this season will come from the East. And it might well be the Toronto Raptors, the team that dispatched the defending world champions 113-93 at Oracle Arena on Wednesday night.

The NBA Eastern Conference has been the Western Conference’s dorky little brother for years. The only thing disrupting that trend during the Steve Kerr era in Oakland has been LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers. They were the one true contender outside of the West, and they frequently coasted to an NBA Finals date with the Warriors. Top to bottom, the East has been a wasteland.

This year, things have gotten weird - especially in the Western Conference. It’s the conference of the coin flip. The Warriors went into Wednesday’s game as the No. 1 seed in the West. The Houston Rockets were the No. 14 seed. Yet only six games separated them in the standings. Literally everyone but the Suns is in the postseason hunt.

But which team in the West really impresses you, or could expect to frighten the Warriors? Oklahoma City, with ball-dominant star Russell Westbrook? The reinvented and largely anonymous Clippers? The Lakers, who are just learning to play with LeBron? Houston, which is clearly paying the price for letting two of its better defensive players, Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah a Moute, slip away?

The second-place team in the West, right behind the Warriors, is the Denver Nuggets. Is this the potential foe in the conference finals? If so, would Warriors fans be nervous about a starting lineup composed of Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Paul Millsap, Gary Harris and Torrey Craig? The flight over the Rockies and into the Denver airport would be scarier.

Now look at the East. The Celtics probably have the best starting five outside of Oakland, with Kyrie Irving, Jayson Tatum, Al Horford, Jaylen Brown and Gordon Hayward. The Bucks (currently 18-9) have played the Warriors tough, and young big man Giannis Antetokounmnpo is an MVP candidate. The 76ers (19-10) have a wealth of young talent and are just beginning to incorporate the multi-talented Jimmy Butler. Given a choice, I would rather face the Nuggets than any of those teams.

And then there are the Raptors. They have the best record in the NBA at 22-7, and it’s no mirage. The Raptors have been reinvigorated by their new superstar, Kawhi Leonard - and somehow they are 7-1 when he doesn’t play. Those seven wins include back-to-back games, on the road, against the Clippers on Tuesday and your Golden State Warriors on Wednesday.

No way the Raptors should have been able to sweep those two games. But nobody told them.

“They got a little bit of everything,” Stephen Curry said. “Athletic wings, bigs that can shoot threes and put the ball on the floor. We know (point guard) Kyle Lowry’s a great player. Obviously, when Kawhi plays we know what he’s about. But they’re just pretty well rounded. They’ve shown different styles to win games. Tonight they were the better team.”

When Toronto beat the Warriors in Canada two weeks ago, no one here was shaken. Neither Stephen Curry nor Draymond Green played in that one, and it was a fantastic show. The Warriors came roaring back to tie it in the fourth quarter before losing in overtime.

Wednesday’s result was different. The Warriors had all their All-Stars for just the second time since Nov. 17, and the Raptors were minus their best player in Leonard. Yet the visitors controlled them from start to finish. They out-shot, out-rebounded and out-defended the champions. It was legitimately impressive.

“We didn’t really bring the level of intensity that we needed until the start of the third quarter,” Kerr said. “That was the first sign of life with our defense. But at that point, we were swimming upstream. We were just trying to get back in the game. … You can’t wait until halftime against the team with the best record in the league to start defending.”

Did the Warriors get caught relaxing once they heard that Leonard wouldn’t be playing - a decision that the Raptors made shortly before tip-off?

“No, I don’t think that was the case,” Kerr said. “I just think we didn’t quite have it. Just one of those nights. You would hope we would be more engaged and more energetic playing against this team.

“But we didn’t bring it. And I’ve got to do a better job preparing them to play and getting them ready to get after it.”

So file this one away for a few months. Golden State and Toronto will not meet again in the regular season. If there is a rematch, it will come in the NBA Finals. And you know what? That would be a pretty entertaining matchup. Better than anything the Warriors are likely to get in their march through the West.

OK, it’s fair to remind ourselves at this point that the Raptors are notorious postseason gaggers. Last year they entered the East playoffs as the No. 1 seed; the year before that, they were the No. 3. Both times, they failed to make it out of the semifinals.

I would suggest that this is a different Toronto team. Kawhi Leonard doesn’t know a damn thing about those previous failures. Nor does veteran pickup Danny Green, who won an NBA title with San Antonio.

“They got veterans over there,” Durant said. “I don’t understand about them being a young team. They got champions - Danny Green, Kawhi Leonard. They got guys who played in big playoff games like Serge Ibaka and Kyle Lowry, Jonas Valanciunas. … I won’t say them beating us two times will give them extra confidence. They’ve been balling before that, and they’re gonna be balling after they beat us.”

Durant signed off with a sentence that sounded like a warning, for the Warriors and the rest of the NBA. “I mean, they’re not an up-and-coming team,” he said of the Raptors, “they’re here.”

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