The Golden State Warriors have three very winnable games, and they’ll need to own this upcoming stretch if they want to get ahead in the playoff race.
There was a stretch of play earlier this season in which the Warriors won six of eight games. Inside of that stretch, the team has back-to-back games with both the Portland Trail Blazers and Los Angeles Clippers, splitting both sets.
Those were impressive wins, and after a few bad losses to the Knicks and Jazz, the Warriors need to get back to their winning ways or fear dropping out of playoff contention.
The Western Conference is better than the Eastern Conference. A record marginally above .500 may not do the trick.
The 8-8 Warriors are in a three-way tie for the 8th seed in the West. With the Timberwolves in back-to-back home games, a trip to Phoenix, and then a home game against Detroit, the Warriors need to jump out to an 11-9 start.
It’d be ideal for them to win all four as the Suns haven’t look that great for part of the season as the Dubs should be able to match up and exploit most of their strengths. After taking on Detroit, they’ll have a home game against Boston then head to Dallas for a back-to-back there.
They’ll then have a back-to-back with the Spurs, so getting hot and staying hot in very winnable games may define the early portion of the season for Golden State. Stephen Curry has been phenomenal this season, and it’ll mainly be on players like Kelly Oubre Jr. to get the job done.
The Warriors have seen flashes of dominance from players like Oubre Jr., Andrew Wiggins, and James Wiseman, but they’ve really failed to get consistent performances on a nightly basis from the trio.
That’s why they can beat the Clippers and Lakers and also drop an ugly game to the Knicks.
Well, for the sake of their season, this coming stretch of games, in which they’ll be taking on teams they can and need to beat, will be critically important for their place in the standing later in the season.
The Warriors will likely drop down out of the top ten seeds in the West if they don’t win at least two of their next four, and with this team so dependent on Curry, getting ahead would be ideal, especially given his history of lower-body injuries.