Warriors see their warts, but still believe in their lofty NBA potential originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Two months into a season that has delivered more losses than wins, the Warriors still believe that between Monday night and April 12 they will secure an automatic berth in the Western Conference playoffs.
Advertisement
When the Orlando Magic come to Chase Center on Monday, the Warriors will be sitting in eighth place, 4.5 games away from the guaranteed playoff berth that comes with finishing sixth and six games away from the home-court advantage that comes with finishing among the top four.
Are the Warriors dreaming? Maybe.
They realize 53 games remain for them to make the steep climb toward their goal, they scan the standings and, still, they believe.
“I look (at the standings) every day; I looked this morning,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We all know where we are.”
“Our goal coming into the season was to be a top-four seed, and I still think it’s well within our reach. It can be daunting if you look and you go, ‘Man, we’re five, six games back.’ But we know how fast things can flip if we can take care of our business and find some momentum. Because everybody else is going to go through tough stretches too.”
Advertisement
Taking care of business has been difficult and momentum has been elusive. And the Warriors would like to believe their “toughest stretches” are behind them after burying a three-game losing streak Saturday with a win over the Phoenix Suns.
Even in victory, however, they saw there are many miles to go to achieve their quest.
“We watched the last three minutes of the game,” Trayce Jackson-Davis said, referring to a late 14-8 run by Phoenix that nearly erased Golden State’s seven-point lead.
“I wanted the guys to see it,” Kerr said. “There were a couple of just mindless plays where we score and we’re all standing there, instead of having urgency to get back. And the (Suns) race the ball up the floor, we’re trailing the play. There’s no way that can happen. We just have to be sharper and more on edge.”
Advertisement
Golden State is 6-6 against the seven teams above them, beating the Lakers, the Nuggets, the Spurs twice the Suns twice. Yet the Warriors are 0-3 against the 10th-place Trail Blazers and 0-1 against the last-place Kings.
Who are the Warriors?
They are a team still seeking rhythm for an offense that too often collapses under the weight of its turnovers and searching for consistency on defense – with both issues on display over the last four games. They stumbled and fell against Minnesota, at Portland and at Phoenix but stayed upright against the Suns at home.
“We already know what the problem is (or) was,” Jimmy Butler III said, taking scant contentment from beating the Suns. “It’s just on us to go out there and do what we say that we’re going to do to win these games. We’re capable of it. We all know that.”
Advertisement
Butler’s expression of belief suggests the best is yet to come. That they have the capability to move beyond the nights of blowing double-digit leads in the fourth quarter to teams that, on paper, are inferior. Seven of Golden State’s 15 losses have come against sub.-500 teams.
The road to recovery begins with an offense that takes care of the ball and makes open shots, particularly from deep. The Warriors are shooting 32.6 percent on “open” shots (closest defender between four and six feet away), ranking 19th in the league.
This is a team, folks, that has the greatest deep shooter of all time on the roster. Stephen Curry’s gravitational effect opposing defenses often create open looks for teammates. In a league where the 3-point shooting average is 35.8 percent, the Warriors have seven players that qualify as below average, including stretch-5 Quinten Post, at 33.8 percent and 3-point specialist Buddy Hield at 32 percent.
Unless Golden State’s offense drains open triples at a higher rate and its defense learns lessons administered during video study on Sunday, an automatic berth will be out of reach.
Advertisement
Curry believes but tempers his faith with the evidence already gathered. At 14-15, the Warriors are not close to being among the top six in the West, much less the top four.
“We don’t want to look too far ahead,” he said. “Just focus on Orlando and what we need to do to beat that team. I like that idea of just taking it one game at a time, because we don’t have any other choice with the way we’ve been playing.”
