The Golden State Warriors have had some ups and downs this season.
The reigning NBA champions have experienced plenty of dualities, with their starting five dominating and the second unit digging them into a hole more often than not.
However, that hasn’t been the only duality Steve Kerr‘s team has had to go through during the campaign.
As ESPN insider Kevin Pelton pointed out, the Warriors have been a wrecking ball at home and one of the worst teams on the road, going 16-2 at Chase Center and 3-16 away from the Bay area:
The Warriors' home/road split is WILD 😳@kpelton tries to make sense of it on @ESPNPlus ➡️ https://t.co/4t08Dh5Ik8 pic.twitter.com/cGPP9bNmIK
— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) January 2, 2023
“We’ve never seen anything in the modern NBA quite like what Golden State is doing this year,” wrote Pelton. “The last time a team simultaneously had the league’s best home record and worst road mark more than 15 games into the season was in 1976-77, when the SuperSonics won their first 13 games in Seattle while opening 2-12 elsewhere.”
Pelton points out opponent three-point shooting as the biggest reason behind these splits, as rivals shoot just 29% from beyond the arc at Chase Center, as opposed to a whopping 42% when hosting the Dubs.
Of course, it’s unlikely that either of these stats is sustainable throughout a full campaign.
Also, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, Andrew Wiggins, and Draymond Green have missed several games on the road due to injuries or load management, so that can also explain this situation.
Whatever the case, the Warriors aren’t as good as they’ve been at home, nor as bad as they’re on the road, so it’s just a matter of time before they go through some regression to the mean.
NEXT: Joe Burrow Has Been Unbelievable In The Red Zone This Season