The Golden State Warriors’ turbulent 2022-23 season finally came to a screeching halt on Friday night, soundly beaten by the Los Angeles Lakers in a Game 6 the defending champions never truly looked like winning.
After a dominant 27-10 opening for the Lakers, a Stephen Curry-led Warrior revival saw them claw back into the game and have their chances across the remainder of the first-half. Yet after a manageable ten-point margin, the second-half was a rather tame end to the Golden State season.
The Golden State Warriors have been left to lament a series and season full of missed opportunities, one that instead finished in major disappointment.
Speaking after his team’s elimination in Game 6, head coach Steve Kerr pointed at missed opportunities in Games 1 and 4 against the Lakers. The series opener was a dash to the line having been tied with 90 seconds remaining, while the Warriors held a 12-point during the third-quarter of Game 4.
Had Golden State have closed out even one of those games, then we’re likely preparing for a Game 7 on Sunday at the very least. It might go under the radar given the Lakers ended with a blowout 30-point win, but we shouldn’t forget that the Warriors also had an 11-point lead in the second-quarter of Game 3.
This was a close series, albeit one the Lakers deserved to win. In some ways it sums up the entire season — the fact that one of the sixth or seventh seeds were going to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
Kerr said post-match that this iteration of the Warriors wasn’t a championship team. He’s right — this was a flawed roster from the start of training camp, one that had major ongoing issues both intrinsically caused and through plain bad luck. However, not every championship team is equal.
There was a reason, despite all the issues and a pedestrian regular season record, that there was still realistic hope of a deep playoff run right until the very end. From an internal perspective, Curry still sits right at the top of the league’s pantheon, a top five (at minimum) player despite being 35. Draymond Green still played like one of, if not the best defender in the league when locked in, Klay Thompson was capable of hot shooting nights, Andrew Wiggins remained his usual productive self when on the floor, Kevon Looney took his game to another level, and Jordan Poole averaged over 20 points during the regular season.
The external was where the optimism really came from though. Regardless of who wins the championship from here, they won’t be regarded as an all-time great team. This has been an open, unpredictable season full of drama, emphasized in the fact a seven and an eight-seed are in the Conference Finals. You don’t have to be an historically great team to win it all, you just have to be better than everyone else when it matters most.
So while Kerr’s right that this wasn’t a championship team, there’s still a sense that it could have been had some things broke in a different, more positive direction. Regardless, with Curry still playing at an all-time, other-wordly level, one can’t help but think that the franchise just wasted a prime season from their greatest ever player.