Golden State enters key phase of schedule without All-Star Curry

Steph Curry’s injury is not necessarily a death sentence for the Warriors’ season. For one, the upcoming break in the schedule — eight days around the All Star Game — will minimize the number of games Curry will miss.

Still, it is a crucial stretch that the Warriors began Wednesday night in Portland.

Golden State plays the Lakers, Washington and the Clippers before the break. After the break, they play 11 of 12 against the Western Conference, where all but two teams can be considered contenders for a playoff spot.

Entering Wednesday, 4½ games separated the third-place team from the 12th-place team. The Warriors stood seventh. (The top six advance to the playoffs.

The next four play for two remaining spots.)

To their advantage, the Warriors won’t leave California again until March 6. They have seven home games and three trips to L.A., facing the Clippers next Tuesday and the Lakers on Feb. 23 and March 5. They will pay for this travel break in March with an eight-day trek that starts in L.A. with stops in Atlanta, Memphis, Houston and Dallas.

Coach Steve Kerr, who has been around the NBA for the last 34 years, recently said he’d never seen the standings so compacted.

Usually this time of year, you have a pretty good sense of your team, where it stands, and where it’s most likely to end up.

Not so this season.

The Warriors have been a season-long mystery.

Other than a five-game winning streak that started on Christmas Day, the Warriors haven’t had a sustained stretch of success.

Entering play Wednesday, they’d had only two other winning streaks longer than two games.

But they went into Portland with five wins in their last seven games and some promising signs.

Klay Thompson has been one of the team’s best players in the new year, averaging 26.2 points per game while posting shooting splits of 46.2% on field goals, 45.5% on 3s and 93.8% from the line. His 42 points Monday night were the most he has scored since returning from two crippling leg injuries.

Jordan Poole had his first double-double of the season Monday night, including a career-high 12 assists to go with 21 points. Andrew Wiggins and JaMychal Green appear to be finding their form after missing significant time.

With all these pieces coming together, along with the emergence of Jonathan Kuminga as a steady two-way force, the Warriors have reason to think they can survive Curry’s absence.

“Although Steph is out, it’s a strength-in-numbers game,” Thompson said, calling back the slogan of championship seasons. “We’ve got to collectively come together and pick up for his absence.”