OAKLAND — The Warriors’ didn’t let on how challenging their 2017-18 season was.
Yes, there were injuries — big ones as well as small, nagging ones — and improved competition around the league, but the champs’ biggest challenge was phycological.
The Warriors had to fight boredom and complacency all season, and frankly, they weren’t all that good at it. There’s sandbagging and lollygagging, then there’s what the Warriors did last season. And while the end result was a four-game NBA Finals sweep, the Warriors’ path to the trophy was neither direct or particularly clean.
Remember: last season’s Warriors didn’t reckon with their own mortality until they found themselves down double-digits on the road at halftime of Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals in May.