Golden State Warriors have opportunity to make major league-wide statement

After back-to-back wins over the weekend, the Golden State Warriors may have a spark to try and reignite their disappointing season to date. The pair of victories were hardly convincing with two second-half meltdowns, but they were nonetheless littered with a number of positives.

Most pleasing was the continued hot stretch for Klay Thompson who's now averaged over 27 points on 54.8% three-point shooting in the last three games. The 33-year-old's bounceback coincided with a response from Andrew Wiggins on Sunday, with the 2022 All-Star recording 25 points and seven rebounds on 9-12 shooting off the bench.

But for the positives of Thompson and Wiggins, along with the continued impression of rookies Brandin Podziemski and Trayce Jackson-Davis, four-point victories over the Brooklyn Nets and Portland Trail Blazers was hardly noteworthy for fans and analysts scouring the league. If anything, Golden State simply did what they needed to do against two teams likely to be in the lottery.

The Golden State Warriors have an opportunity to make a major statement to the rest of the league when they face the Boston Celtics on Tuesday night

While wins over the Nets and Trail Blazers was never going to make a major statement, the Warriors will have the chance to do just that when they host the league-leading Boston Celtics at Chase Center on Tuesday.

Opposing fans and analysts have been quick to proclaim the death of the Golden State dynasty this season, and perhaps rightly so given how the team has performed. Yet those within the franchise remain staunch in the belief of what their capable of, dismissing the idea that their dominant run of four championships over the last decade will end with a whimper.

Beating lottery teams is important but won't make the league stand up and take notice. Beating the Celtics certainly will, such has been their dominance so far this season. Boston have taken all before them, notching up a 20-5 record that has them at the top of the league.

This isn't the same team the Warriors defeated in the 2022 NBA Finals, nor the team they faced last season where the sides split victories. The Celtics retooled their roster during the offseason, adding Jrue Holiday and Kristaps Porzingis while saying goodbye to the likes of Marcus Smart, Malcolm Brogdon and Robert Williams III.

With Holiday, Derrick White, Jaylen Brown, Jayson Tatum, Porzingis and Al Horford, Boston has a top six that's the envy of everyone else right now. They're equally effective on both ends of the floor, sitting sixth in offensive rating and third on the defensive side.

The Warriors have faced challenges in almost every game this season, but none will be bigger than what the Celtics are likely to offer in this showdown matchup. Their task may be made harder with Chris Paul questionable for the game through illness, while Porzingis is also questionable on the Boston side.

A win over Boston won't be any sort of guarantee on what Golden State do this season, yet at the very least it could prove to others, and most importantly themselves, that they're still more than capable of mixing it with the very best.