The Warriors accomplished a basketball first on Monday evening, winning the inaugural NBA Summer League Championship. The 91-77 win over the Suns capped a perfect 7-0 summer slate for the Warriors, who extended their Summer League winning streak, which dates back to 2010, to 14 games.
As cliché as it is to say the Warriors wanted it more than their opponents this summer, it might just be true. Time after time in Las Vegas, the Warriors would dig in and take control of the game when it mattered most. Coached by Warriors Assistant Darren Erman, the team posted back-to-back comebacks from double-digit deficits, against the Mavericks on Thursday and the Lakers on Saturday, and the Dubs out-scored their opponents in the fourth quarter by a cumulative score of 162-126. In fact, the only time the Warriors were out-scored in the fourth quarter was against the Kings, 22-20, on July 15, a game that the Dubs led by as many as 20.
It wasn’t always pretty; actually, it was rarely pretty. The Warriors shot 37.9 percent from the field in the Summer League and just 28.3 percent from long distance. Instead, the Warriors got it done with defense. They forced their opponents into an average of 18.9 turnovers per game and held them to 36.8 percent shooting and 69.8 points per game.
Check out highlights of each game and click on the links below for a full recap of each of the seven Warriors victories in Summer League.
