Despite an underwhelming offseason and long-term injuries to Jimmy Butler and Moses Moody, the Golden State Warriors will still enter next season with not only the hope of a return to the playoffs, but actually making some noise with a veteran team if they get there.
Unfortunately Thursday’s release of the NBA schedule puts the Warriors in a tough spot prior to the playoffs, dealing them an early blow to their hopes of being in prime condition should they actually manage to make it that far.
Warriors’ playoff hopes dealt early blow with brutal late-season schedule
Golden State will be on the road for seven of their final nine regular season games, including a back-to-back in Oklahoma City and a pair of other road games against formidable opponents in the Philadelphia 76ers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Given Butler’s injury, the overall state of the roster and after missing the playoffs last season, there’s a strong likelihood that the Warriors will be battling for a spot in the Play-In Tournament, or optimistically a spot in the top six of the Western Conference standings over the final 10 games.
Perhaps this brutal schedule works out in their favor, allowing them to be battle-hardened and needing to play playoff-level basketball before the postseason rolls around. Perhaps they also benefit from a team like the Thunder likely having a top two or three-seed sewn up by the final games, leading to some potential resting which could give Golden State far greater chance at victory.
But the downside is that the Warriors aren’t likely to get the same luxury of being able to rest key veterans or taking things easy down the stretch. They’re likely going to be in the position where they have to play 110% and log their key players for heavy minutes to try and solidify or make their way up the standings.
Warriors might already be cooked by time playoffs come around
Even if Golden State manage to make it through to the playoffs, the wear-and-tear from a long season and a brutal final stretch might mean they’ve got very little to give in terms of trying to cause an upset or two during the postseason.
We’ve seen that across the last two years. Golden State produced a thrilling comeback victory in April’s first Play-In game on the road against the L.A. Clippers, but the physical and emotional toll of that saw them easily crushed in the second Play-In game against the Phoenix Suns.
The previous year the Warriors had to produce a 23-8 finish to the regular season just to finish as the seventh-seed and eventually secure a playoff spot. They won through to the second-round with a seven-game first-round series victory over the two-seed Houston Rockets, but the physical workload saw Stephen Curry breakdown with a hamstring injury during Game 1 of the second-round, eliminating any hope they had of advancing to the Western Conference Finals.Â
This is the problem with an aging veteran team that’s stuck around the middle of the standings, and that will only be exasperated by a tough finish that could end their hopes even if a return to the playoffs is forthcoming.Â
Add us as a preferred source on Google