Pacers represent Warriors’ final home-court frontier originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
After lollygagging through 16 lead changes in 18 minutes Wednesday night, the Warriors committed to defense and gave the profoundly diminished Grizzlies the kind of thrashing that has become common during Memphis’ lost season.
Golden State’s 21-point victory put its home record at a modest 18-18.
There has been considerable analysis, according to coach Steve Kerr, but no discovery of solutions.
“We haven’t been able to establish that dominance at home,” Kerr said this week. “That’s what’s keeping us from climbing up in the standings.”
Draymond Green doesn’t have a clear answer for the Warriors’ struggles at Chase Center during the 2023-24 NBA season.
“If I had an answer for you, what’s happening, I would 1,000 percent give the answer to my teammates,” Green said.
And now comes the Boogeymen, who have been completely unfazed by Golden State’s home court. The Indiana Pacers, who are in the habit of coming into Chase Center once a year, stomping the Warriors into a fine powder and strolling out like bully kings.
The Pacers are the only NBA team that is unbeaten at Chase. They were the first to expose the demise of Golden State’s once imposing homecourt advantage.
It has been gone since the venue change, from Oakland to San Francisco.
The Pacers are 4-0 at Chase. They have won there with teams good and bad, healthy and holey. Most improbable was their 121-117 overtime win two years ago with three injured starters in street clothes. The Warriors were finished that night by rookie Chris Duarte and a 5-foot-11 G-League veteran named Keifer Sykes.
The last time the Warriors beat the Pacers at home was more than five years ago – at Oracle Arena.
Golden State’s starting lineup on March 21, 2019: Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant, DeMarcus Cousins and Green. All 13 Warriors – remember Jonas Jerebko? Alfonzo McKinnie? – got minutes in a 112-89 rout.
The Pacers were beaten before they got off the bus, and the same could be said of most teams venturing into Oracle. One opposing head coach told me in 2015 – before Durant’s arrival supercharged the roster – that it was the toughest arena in the league to get a win, partly because of Golden State’s talent but partly because of the building.
Those Warriors went 39-2 at Oracle in each of Steve Kerr’s first two seasons as head coach. That building posed a dual intimidation factor that has…