The Warriors are finally on the right track that they have been promising for a long time.
And they arrived at the perfect time.
Winners of six straight games, the Warriors effectively clinched 10th place in the Western Conference on Thursday night with a victory over the Rockets, giving them a four-game lead and a tiebreaker over their old rivals with six games remaining.
Secure place.
And while this series will have Warriors fans thinking big (relatively speaking) – looking at the Lakers (1.5 games ahead Thursday night) and the Kings (2 games ahead in the standings) – and thinking that the Dubs can advance, perhaps even avoiding the single-elimination matchup between No. 9 and No. 10 altogether, the Warriors need to aim for something bigger.
“We don’t think about any of that. We’re just trying to win,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Thursday. “We’re on a good roll right now and we’re playing good basketball, and we’re going to continue to do that over the next six games and see where we land.”
This team is in the playoffs. They need enough gas for the play-in tournament and whatever might follow those games.
That might mean being too pragmatic over the next week and finding places for Steph Curry to rest.
Let’s be clear: the Warriors should extend this winning streak for as long as possible. They’re making hay right now, and they can’t take that for granted. The team’s next game is Friday night in Dallas, followed by a matchup against the Jazz, who will likely be on an 11-game losing streak when they arrive at Chase Center on Sunday. All of this sets up a huge game against the Lakers next Tuesday.
If the good times continue, the Warriors have a chance to have a built-in rest period for Curry and the veterans.
So let me think about it.
If the Dubs lost any of these three games, the No. 9 seed would prove unlikely. The No. 8 seed would be out of the question.
And that’s when you give Curry a night or two off.
The Warriors superstar clearly needs a break. The rest of the Warriors roster has been doing their best lately, but Curry has had to carry this team for months. He’s 36 years old, he has more miles than my 2007 Honda CR-V and he’s showing this season that he’s human.
Every break he’s received this season — whether due to injury, schedule disruption following the death of assistant coach Dejan Milojević or the All-Star break — has preceded an outburst from Curry.
A fresh curry is Warriors star at its best. This is what they need in the playoffs if they want to advance further than last season.
On Thursday night, Curry dug deep and turned in a brilliant performance to end the Rockets’ season — old rivalries die hard — but he’s shooting 36 percent from beyond the arc (like a mortal) and just 40 percent from the floor in 19 games he played after the All-Star break. His 22 points per game from that point are downright pedestrian — more from Cam Thomas and Kyle Kuzma than Dončić or LeBron.
There’s a reason why Steve Kerr monitors the goaltender’s minutes.
The genius of Curry is that even in his lazy plays, you can’t say he’s being stubborn. But with the whistle blowing more leniently — the clocks tick forward and the refs begin to “let them play” — Curry is beaten, and it’s obvious his legs aren’t completely under him when he breaks free.
If he maintains this form in the play-ins, the Warriors will likely have two high-pressure games in two different cities over three days. Pushing Curry to the end of the regular season, giving him two days off and hoping he has enough gas in the tank to deliver two of his best games of the season would be a dangerous play, if not a downright play dangerous. stupid.
Yes, everything could work out at the end of the regular season – the Warriors could go into the final game or two with nothing to play for, allowing them to rest Curry.
But wouldn’t it be better to be proactive, in case something important happens during the last weekend of the season?
If the Warriors beat Dallas and don’t want to leave Curry on Sunday against the Jazz, then he should definitely be on the sideline for one of the Warriors’ back-to-back games late next week.
With the way they are playing defense these days, the Warriors probably have a chance to play in a true playoff series.
The difference between playing this series and winning it will be if Curry plays at his best.
This is not the case currently.
So whatever the Dubs can do to bring this better version to the playoffs, they need to make it happen.
California Daily Newspapers
