The Logo was at the Warriors’ game Wednesday night, and boy, did they need him.

The Warriors were playing the middling Indiana Pacers, the kind of team the Warriors should pound into hamburger, especially at home, but there’s always the danger of a letdown, or of the other team rising to the occasion, and that can bite you in the rear.

“This is the kind of game you worry about,” Jerry West said 90 minutes before tip-off, standing courtside, looking casually resplendent in a suit of Warriors blue.

The game did have elements of danger for the high-rolling Warriors, true, but West never met a game that didn’t scare him. If the Warriors were playing a pickup team from the Oakland Y, West would fret and stew.

Though West as a player made the game look absurdly easy, to the point that the NBA used his silhouette as its enduring symbol, he has always been one of sport’s great hand-wringers. Maybe because he has spent so much of his life worrying, he’s got it down to an art, and he makes worrying look easy. Most casual bundle of nerves you’ll ever see.

This is West’s fourth season as special adviser to owner Joe Lacob and the Warriors, and he has always been around and available, but in a way this is a comeback season for West.

Last season became a bit awkward, as then-coach Mark Jackson requested that West not attend practices. That was partly because Jackson cultivated a strong us-against-the-world mentality in his team, and the “us” included only men in uniform.

Jackson came to view West as dangerous. One of West’s duties is to give Lacob his take on the team, and Jackson saw that as second-guessing. It was West talking ball, being honest, doing his job.

That’s all in the past. West and Steve Kerr get along just fine. They talk regularly.

West loves to talk hoops. He is paid to talk hoops with Lacob, but West will talk to the ballboy or the janitor with the same enthusiasm. At age 76, his passion for basketball hasn’t dimmed, especially when he’s watching a team like the Warriors.

“We are very fun to watch, and we are competitive,” West said.

He talked about the unselfish play, the passing, the defense: “That’s the way basketball should be played.”

West almost never likes a player, because if he likes a player, he loves the player.

“I love Draymond Green,” West said.

I mentioned that the Warriors aren’t as athletic as some teams.

“They’re better athletes than you think,” West said. “We’re quick. On defense, that’s where it shows up, they’re quick to recover and to help out.”

West loves Curry, of course, is amazed at how Curry dominates while playing below the rim. After Curry dunked against Toronto two games earlier, West ran into Curry and told him to expect a call from the league office, inviting him to participate in the All-Star slam-dunk contest.

(Curry dunked again Wednesday, but it was so borderline that it will have to be submitted to the Dunk Committee for consideration.)

West, 6-foot-3, was an excellent leaper, had maybe even more spring than Klay Thompson, and he played on running teams, but he never did much dunking.

“Not in college,” West said. “Early on (in the NBA) I did some, but it was considered showing off. It was kind of reserved for the big guys.”

Hard to believe that a man who played basketball so long ago that dunking was considered impolite could still be relevant, but West is on his game. He watches the NBA for hours every night. And now that he’s no longer frozen out by the coach, West has more contact with the players. During warm-ups he chatted with Shaun Livingston for 10 minutes. West likes this team.

“Man, Marreese Speights,” he said, shaking his head. “He’s such a nice guy, but I would not want to mess with him. And he’s got great footwork, and great hands. Soft hands. When he catches a pass, his hands are so soft you don’t hear anything.”

It turned out that West’s pregame fretting was justified. The Warriors hit a lull and the Pacers took an 11-point lead halfway through the second quarter. The Warriors scrambled back to make it 50-50 at halftime, and had an easy time in the second half after Pacers center Roy Hibbert sprained an ankle. It didn’t hurt that Thompson went off, scoring 40 points.

It was the kind of challenge Kerr had said before the game is good for his team.

“When you have a good record, teams are ready for you and you get the target on your back,” Kerr said. “That’s good. That should sharpen us and make us better, since we are getting their best shots.”

That’s good for Kerr and for the Warriors. For West, it looks like it’s going to be a season of very casual-looking, elite-level angst.

Scott Ostler is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. E-mail: sostler@sfchronicle.com Twitter @scottostler