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Never has an 85-78 win been more exciting. Sure, most NBA fans want their teams to win an up-and-down, run-n-gun affair. The Warriors have had their share of those. If the Warriors win, they had better score 100+ points. But on Friday night, there they were, rebounding, defending, hustling, causing turnovers. It was beautiful.

The Jazz, like most of the good teams in the Western Division have owned Golden State for the better part of 20 years. For Golden State to get to the next level, they need to be able to beat teams like the Jazz at home. And to do that, they need to be able to defend and rebound. Friday night they did both.

Down 6-0 less than 2 minutes into the game, the Warriors biggest off-season acquisition played the most important minute of basketball the East Bay has seen in a long time. No, that may be overstating just a bit, but this game had the potential to get ugly really quickly. Dorell Wright misses a 3-point attempt and the Warriors were 0-6 from the field.

That’s when David Lee went to work. G’State got one of it’s 21 offensive boards, and Lee dunked to make it 6-2. Andre Kirilenko missed on the other end, and Lee rebounded again. Back the other way, Wright missed again, but Lee as there again to clean up the boards. He dished to Monta Ellis who banked it in, to make it 6-4.

After a Deron Williams layup, Lee came back and nailed to free throws and 2 minutes later his turnaround jumper tied the game at eight all. Now, lets be honest, rarely, if ever are we talking about free throws being crucial 4 minutes into the game. But the Warriors instead of trying to shoot their way back into it, toughened up, rebounded, on both ends of the floor, and made it clear to Utah that if they were going to win, they were going to have to fight and claw their way to it.

That’s how teams win when it matters. They stop the others from doing what they are trying to do. They get people out of position. You put a body on someone. Sometimes, that’s easier said than done.

But for once, the Warriors have some big bodies who are willing to do just that. Fight, crawl, scratch, whatever it takes. Lee finished with 14 points and 15 rebounds. Andris Biedrins had 8 points and 20 boards. The two of them combined for 14 offensive rebounds, none more important than Lee’s tip in with 21 seconds left to play that gave G’State an insurmountable 5 point lead.

The Warriors still have the ability to score with anyone in the league. The question is, and always has been, can they stop the opposing team from scoring, especially when the game was on the line. One game doesn’t make a season, but for one night, it sure looked bad. And looking bad never felt so good.