“It’s like ‘The Sopranos.’ It’s finish. Find a new show.
— Kemo, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We should bury the Golden State Warriors, right?
They’re barely in the playoffs as we speak, holding on to the 10th and final spot in the West thanks to their incisors and nails. They are old and fragile, an afterthought during a conference with a dreadnought playing for the Denver Nuggetsa likely MVP finalist shining every night with the Oklahoma City Thunder (if said dreadnought doesn’t win the award himself) and a flagship plant playing with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The West is full of Lukas, Zions and assorted Kawhis, all healthy and healthy as the regular season draws to a close. The Phoenix Suns are in hiding. The Houston Rockets’ early habits are starting to catch up with their talent.
In the meantime, Draymond Green is now sidelined less than four minutes after the start of the matches.
All dynasties, from the Ming to Westwood, finally ends. Age, leveled expectations, jealousies and hunger conspire against anyone who consistently stays on top in their chosen profession. And here we find the Dubs, with Stephen Curry’s minutes going into the red, Klay Thompson bouncing between Old Klay and… Klay’s Old, Jonathan Kuminga struggling with tendinitis, Chris Paul just back from another injury , and Andrew Wiggins is just starting to look like the Wiggins who was the difference for Golden State during its last run to its last title in 2022. Kevon Looney is now coming off the bench in favor of rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis. There’s no good reason to think they have much magic left, at least not this season.
These are toasts.
Except… 21-15.
That’s Golden State’s road record this season, topped off Friday by a flawless win over the Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte is no good, obviously. But the Hornets were posting good defensive numbers right around the All-Star break. On Friday, however, the Dubs sliced them up like a roast Easter lamb. I lost track of all the back cuts, dunker point layups and lob dunks – except for the A sick left-hander, Jackson-Davis, thrown from CP3.
They won in Oklahoma City, in New Orleans, in Sacramento. They won in Philadelphia, New York and Orlando. (They also lost in Denver, Minnesota and Dallas. I know.)
“Our performance on the road kept us alive,” Curry said after Friday’s 115-97 victory.
And the Warriors have always, always won on the road in the playoffs — 28 straight series, essentially the entirety of the Curry-Thompson-Green era, in which Golden State won at least one game on the road, before to fail last year. in their second round loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Winning on the road is decided in the playoffs. So if there’s anything the Warriors can still hang fleeting hopes of making the playoffs on this year, it’s their disposition away from Chase Center, where they have just an 18- 19 this season.
“It’s weird,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Friday.
“A year ago, it was quite the opposite. We were 33-8 at home and 0-41 on the road or. So, who knows? It’s hard to explain these things. The main thing is that we are playing well at the moment. We are in a pretty good dynamic. Wiggs, this is the best Wiggs has had all year. Tracee comes into his own. Gary Payton (II) looks fantastic. We are making good progress. And obviously we are battling with a lot of teams. The West is simply busy this year. A year ago we probably had a similar record – I think we finished (44-38) – and we were sixth. This year we could finish with a better record and be 10th seed.
And this is no longer a small sample. The Warriors played .667 basketball through 30 games (20-10). Since February 1, the Dubs have been in the top 10 in many significant categories. During this stretch, Golden State is sixth in the league in defensive rating (110.9) and eighth in net rating (5.4). The Warriors are tied with the Miami Heat for third in opponent field goal percentage allowed (.456), behind Minnesota and the New Orleans Pelicans. They are tied with Houston for sixth in effective field goal percentage allowed to the opponent (.529). They are tied for eighth in 3-point percentage allowed to opponents (.350). And they’re just outside the top 10 in opponent free throw attempt rate (0.219).
The Warriors will have to win a lot on the road in the playoffs – if they make it. Even if they make the Play-In tournament, they will need to win at least once away from home to advance. And they won’t have any home-field advantage in the later series.
“Being comfortable in hostile environments, being comfortable allowing your defense to travel and being able to rely on that, no matter what, is the opposite of last year,” said Curry said. “I was joking that maybe we had to stay in hotels in San Francisco the night before home games and act like it was a road game, take the bus.”
The Warriors, emotionally, surrounded Green after he was sent off to Orlando. Curry’s anguish in that moment was clear, but then they defended their man. It helped that Green didn’t make excuses.
“This just can’t happen.” Green said on his podcast Thursday. “I said what I said. I deserved to be kicked out at that time.
And it helped that the Warriors were able to beat the up-and-coming Magic, one night after an impressive win over the Heat in Miami.
Not that the Warriors liked Green self-destructing again in a big moment. But given some of his worst decisions at the moment over the years, getting dumped on Wednesday without laying hands on anyone is sort of… progress. It’s a delicate balance that Golden State asks of Green, as it has for 13 years: play to the limit, but don’t go over. They can’t then abandon him when he still occasionally crosses it – verbally.
But Green remains a defensive sensei. His latest colleague on that end is Jackson-Davis, whose presence allowed the Warriors to return Green to his natural forward spot instead of having to play center in very small-ball lineups to get a more consistent burn for the emerging Kuminga. (Kuminga missed Friday’s game, his second in a row, with knee soreness.) Looney’s minutes in the rotation have decreased as TJ-D’s have increased. Jackson-Davis isn’t a defensive guard, but against Charlotte he had 18 points and eight rebounds in just under 31 minutes, going 9 of 13 from the floor.
No one paying attention would favor Golden State in any playoff series – if they can hold off Houston. Not against LeBron and Anthony Davis in a potential Play-In; or against Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and the Suns; or against the Wolves if the Warriors exit the Play-In round as the ninth or tenth seed; or against the Thunder if Golden State rallies to get 7 or 8 and wins the Play-In from there.
But I can’t leave them. I probably should. But not yet.
“That’s what coach keeps praising us for and preaching,” Jackson-Davis said. “All we have to do is go in.”
(Top photo by Stephen Curry: Jared C. Tilton/Getty Images)