The Golden State Warriors are coming off two straight ugly losses that have dropped them to 4-3 on the year. It might be early in the season, but these are the sort of losses that are going to come back to bite the franchise big time later this season.
The Warriors lost back-to-back games against the Milwaukee Bucks and Indiana Pacers -- two teams that were undermanned and should have been fairly easy to take care of if the Warriors had played up to their potential.
Instead, the Warriors played sloppy and let both teams hang around for far too long and against Indiana they blew a lead which is an issue that has haunted the Warriors for far too long.
Ugly Warriors losses are going to bite Warriors later on
In some years, it would be easier to shrug off these two early losses. But with how tight the Western Conference figures to be in the NBA this year, losing games to two Eastern Conference teams that should have been somewhat easy wins, is just not going to cut it.
Head coach Steve Kerr acknowledged how much losing games like this hurts when considering the strength of the Western Conference:
"We know the West is loaded and it feels like we just gave away two games. That if we are locked in and focused and playing the way we know we can play we should have won them. So we got to pick up those games somewhere along the way, but at the end of the season, the last three years, it’s the same thing. It’s like one or two games. So we have to find a way to be sharper and be better," Kerr said.
Kerr is exactly right in stating how competitive the West has been in each of the last few seasons. Golden State were able to make it to the playoffs last season, but even more win would have seen them avoid the Play-In Tournament and potentially enter the postseason in a far better spot.
It is still early and if the Warriors are strong over the remainder of the season, then maybe these sloppy losses will end up seeming fairly insignificant and can be blamed on traveling to the Midwest or fatigue from a tough early schedule.
But if these losses portend similar outcomes in the future, the Warriors could find themselves in big trouble as they try to navigate a Western Conference that seems likely to come down to the final days of the regular season yet again.