Warriors have plenty at stake in final 5 games
The Warriors woke up Wednesday with an opportunity to officially clinch a playoff spot. They ended the day having lost their No. 3 seed and in peril of slipping further down the Western Conference standings.
A 107-103 loss to the NBA's top team, the Phoenix Suns, was the cause for the drop.
The surging Dallas Mavericks usurped the Warriors' position with a win in Cleveland and the Denver Nuggets and Utah Jazz are well within reach of pulling the Warriors into the fifth seed.
The Warriors and Mavericks are both 48-29 after Wednesday's games; Dallas has the tiebreaker advantage with a 3-1 head-to-head record against Golden State this year. The No. 5 Nuggets (46-31) are two games back and the No. 6 Jazz (45-31) are 21/2 games behind the Warriors' No. 4 seed spot.
Could the Warriors slip into a sixth seed? Unlikely, but possible. At stake in the Warriors' final five games — potentially all without Steph Curry — is home-court advantage. Should they slip into the five seed, Golden State could be hitting the road and lose the Chase Center advantage to begin the first round on April 16.
The Warriors can still climb back into the No.3 seed spot and certainly clinch home-court advantage in their five remaining regular-season games, but their fellow contenders will make it tricky.
Dallas has won three straight and seven of its past 10 games. Luka Doncic is fueling that roll, perhaps making a late run at the MVP conversation while averaging 30 points, 9 rebounds and 8 assists per game in March with a Mavericks team that seems to have solidified its identity.
The Nuggets and Jazz aren't far behind, but trending in opposite directions. Denver has won three straight and six of their past 10 games with MVP candidate Nikola Jokic averaging 30 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists in 15 games this month.
The Jazz are slipping, losers of five straight and six of their past 10 games. Utah stars Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert sounded exasperated with their team's effort after their latest loss on Tuesday, losing a 25-point lead to the Clippers.
“We don't get our hands dirty. We never get our hands dirty,” Gobert told reporters.
Added Mitchell: “I don't know what to say. This is the same (expletive). This is literally
the same thing as last year.”
Though hot on the Warriors' heels in the standings, the slumping Jazz may be a welcome sight for Golden State in their game on Saturday.
The Warriors weren't preoccupied with seeding after their loss to the Suns on Wednesday. Instead, they found a few positives in their fourth straight loss.
For the first time in weeks, they played high-intensity defense and fought blow-forblow with a contender. Draymond Green played his best game since his return from injury. A shift happened when he decided to communicate more on defense, he said.
Head coach Steve Kerr noted that Green took a step physically, too.
“It looked to me like he was a step quicker to the ball and a step quicker to his rotations,” Kerr said. “It looked like he turned the corner physically and that was a great sign.”
With Andre Iguodala's impact as a point forward and handsy defender, and Jordan Poole's career high-tying 38-point night, the Warriors played a cohesive, sharp and intense style of basketball on Wednesday that they'd lost touch with over the last month-plus. If the Warriors hope to pump the breaks on a standings tumble, they'll have to pull those threads from the loss.
“We don't do moral victories around here,” Green said. “But I think we found ourselves tonight.”