There’s a certain elegance to how the Golden State Warriors approach the tail end of Stephen Curry’s career. To be fair, the team has tried pretty much everything, from reaching for the most athletic talent to focusing on glue guys that can dribble, pass, and shoot, but seldom dominate. Whether through luck or diligence, Golden State has found themselves a gem in Yaxel Lendeborg, who has lifted one of Curry’s final seasons into one of the most intriguing of his career.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Miami Heat are struggling to find the balance within their new team. Giannis Antetokounmpo and Bam Adebayo are discovering that their new All-Star teammate wants to occupy much of the same space and play much the same offensive role as they do. The outside shooting hasn’t shown up, and the newly constructed roster just hasn’t gelled yet.1 They’ll be coming into this game on the tail end of a back-to-back after facing the Clippers in LA on Wednesday.
Last night offered a pretty good glimpse of what that ceiling might look like in Miami. Giannis and Bam both had strong performances against the Clippers, and Miami managed to grind out a win. That’s not nothing. The question isn’t whether those two can produce individually; obviously they can. It’s whether Miami can build a functional offense around two players who do so much of their best work in similar areas of the floor. One close win doesn’t answer that question, but it’s a reminder that there’s an awful lot of firepower here if they can get the pieces working together.
On the injury front, Gui Santos is still out with that knee issue. We will keep an eye on this, as the problem is beginning to linger long enough to warrant concern.
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (5-3) vs. Miami Heat (3-6)
WHEN: Thursday, November 5th, 2026; 7pm PDT
WATCH: NBATV; Peacock/NBCSBA
Curry and Yaxel: New guy = good
If you haven’t yet, please click over to Daniel Hardee’s recap of the last game. This is worth celebrating. After a dour 0-3 start, Golden State finds themselves on a 5-0 rip, and it’s not clear anymore where exactly this team’s ceiling is. This is worth celebrating. A pause to let the glory of Yaxel Lendeborg sink into the collective consciousness… Yes. Good.
During the post game press conference, a reporter referenced the fact that this season’s five-win streak is more than the team managed in all of the previous season, and then asked: “in what ways does this group feel different from last year?”
That’s a big question so early in the season. The tight win over the Phoenix Suns was nice, but could have gone either way, but regardless, what’s the vibe? At 38 years old and with a championship ring for every finger on his shooting hand, Curry knows what he’s talking about - even as he thinks about the outside possibility of that fifth ring for the thumb.
So what does the Warriors megastar say when asked what feels different?
Curry took a deep sip of water, shuffled deeper into his chair and said:
“ummmm, Yax.
And BP (Brandin Podziemski) taking another step forward…
We’ve had some individual production that’s been pretty cool standout guys presence felt night after night - but then collectively we are a little bit more prepared in terms of the things we have to do... but we do have some talent that’s been fun to watch.”
[Duby warning: segue incoming. Skip ahead for team-specific coverage]
It’s important that the true fans of this era of Warriors basketball never forget how fundamentally the NBA restructured their salary cap and free agency systems in order to force the dismantling of the Warriors.
The Warriors didn’t just change the way basketball was played during their dynasty. They also helped change the way the NBA does business. The 2016 salary-cap spike gave Golden State the room to add Durant without breaking up their championship core, creating a super-duper-team that put the league’s competitive-balance problem on full display. Those were some of the best rosters ever assembled in league history. Heck, “best ever” isn’t that hard of an argument.
But then the NBA spent the off-season that followed tightening the screws on big spenders, with the real hammer coming down with the 2023 Collective Bargaining Agreement and the introduction of the second apron - which had never existed before.
Now, teams that cross that threshold don’t just get hit with a bigger tax bill. They start losing the tools that make it possible to build and maintain an expensive roster: the taxpayer mid-level exception goes away, salary aggregation in trades gets restricted, and taking on additional money becomes much more difficult. Joe Lacob can still spend whatever he’s willing to spend, but the league has made sure that money doesn’t buy him quite as many ways to improve the team. Golden State’s ability to spend its way into - and then sustain - a dynasty was a pretty obvious part of the NBA’s revised backdrop. The league has spent the better part of a decade making sure nobody gets to exploit it quite so easily; or at least can’t sustain the dominance.
The Warriors’ commitment to Curry has created a different kind of team-building opportunity, and the early returns are making that approach look pretty good. The Warriors spent years trying to preserve the advantage that the league’s own rules had helped create. Now, with that advantage long gone, they’re finding a different way to keep Curry’s window open: identifying talent that can make an immediate impact without requiring another superstar-sized investment.
Meanwhile, Miami is illustrating some of the risks of assembling a roster around individual talent rather than complementary pieces.
[ok, back to the present]
Golden State and Curry have become a sort of antithesis to the more ephemeral team-building approach that LeBron James has embodied. The Warriors and their star have stuck together. Sure, there have been sacrifices around the edges, but they’ve got a clear list of priorities (with Curry far and away the #1) and flexibly execute their ongoing plans.
So it’s not necessarily ironic that Warriors-for-life Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins find themselves playing out the tail end of their careers with Giannis in sunny and fabulous Miami, but it does exemplify two sides of the approach. The risks and rewards are clearly evident on both sides here.
For Miami, they’ve cobbled together an extremely impressive frontcourt that should absolutely dominate any other bigs in the league. With young talent like Wemby and a more expansive crossover of size and athleticism developing across the league, it seems like a brilliant move on paper.
But the implementation has been a work in progress. Some of the concerns that helped Golden State decide to move on from Wiggins and Thompson are still worth watching in Miami. A step slow, with a loss of efficiency, these are players that might be able to fill in as a main player, but are equally likely to not deliver when they’re needed.
For Golden State, the flip side of the coin has some of the team’s wildest gambles paying dividends. Picks that were presumably better diverted to improve a trade of some sunk asset have instead been converted (by none other than Mike kick-me-in-the-face Dunleavy Jr.). Charles Bassey is looking like a two-way contract mega hit. Yax is so good that he’s already widely known by a single name like Prince, Madonna… or Steph. All due respect to Podz, but Yax has a certain panache that’s impossible to deny.
Whether this all works or not doesn’t matter yet. Right now these Warriors are interesting. And part of why they’re interesting is how they’ve approached maintaining relevance.
Make no mistake, the Heat are seeing all of this, too. And they’ll be out for blood tonight. On paper, the records of these teams don’t necessarily fit with preconceptions - and that’s a big part of what makes this matchup so interesting. Personalities aside, there’s a reason this game might get a little extra personal.
So here we are, with Curry still doing Curry things, and the Warriors finding that some of their most valuable contributions are coming from places they might not have expected. Maybe that’s the real trick to keeping this thing going: when you can’t buy your way to another superteam, you’d better get pretty good at finding your own Yaxel Lendeborgs.
Prediction
The interesting contrast isn't that Golden State has figured everything out and Miami hasn't, neither team has. But I like the different flavor of answers. Golden State is finding unexpected answers, Miami is trying to make some very obvious answers work. I love this league!
Curry and Yax will cook the Heat. Wiggins scores exactly 18 points, but the Golden State wing attack is just too much for Miami after their emotional OT win in LA.
Adding matchup specific info for whoever that was that commented on my last preview. I know you don’t subscribe, but I see you!