Warriors:
What are Golden State’s chances of attaining Klay Thompson’s stated goal of not losing any more games before the playoffs, meaning a 24-game winning streak?
Warriors guard Klay Thompson grumbles when shepherded to postgame media scrums, speaks in a hushed monotone, often loses his train of thought during interviews and smiles after the final question is asked.
However, his reluctance to be the center of attention hasn’t stopped him from delivering some of Golden State’s most telling sound bites. Last week, after the Warriors’ win over the Wizards, Thompson offered an important glimpse into the team’s psyche when he told reporters: “We really want to try to win every game going into the playoffs.”
All players want to win whenever they step on the court, but seldom are they bold enough to speak publicly about wanting to close the regular season on a 24game winning streak. Such proclamations conflict with the one-day-at-a-time axiom
that is so cherished in sports.
Making Thompson’s stated goal even more unique is the fact that, despite being hyperbolic in nature, it is realistic. With Kevin Durant on the roster, Golden State is considerably more talented than the group that opened the 2015-16 season with 24 straight victories. It should help the Warriors, who are prone to complacency, that the Rockets sit a halfgame above them in the Western Conference standings for home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
Given Houston’s recent dominance, Golden State might need to run the table on the regular season — or, at least, come close — to enter the playoffs with the No. 1 seed. The Rockets, who have the tiebreaker advantage over the Warriors by winning the season series 2-1, have won 15 games in a row. With its defense complementing a potent, sharpshooting attack, Houston appears unlikely to veer drastically off course.
“It might be unrealistic,” Thompson said of Golden State winning out, “but it would be nice to do that because we’re right on Houston’s heels. It’s a very tight race right now, so we’ve got to try to take the lead.”
The Warriors are 5-0 since the All-Star break, a stretch that has included wins over playoff-bound Oklahoma City and Washington. Defense and focus, two areas of concern entering their midseason respite, have been strong points.
With five weeks until the playoffs, Golden State stares down perhaps its friendliest stretch of the season. The Warriors are playing Phoenix and Sacramento, two of the West’s four worst teams, a combined five times. Of the four back-to-back sets left on Golden State’s schedule, two are against the Suns and Kings.
Only one game — at Indiana on April 5 — is in the Eastern time zone. No road trip is longer than two cities. Golden State figures to be favored in each of its remaining 19 regular-season matchups, in many of which it probably will be favored by double digits.
Some of the Warriors’ more formidable opponents won’t be at full strength. San Antonio (Thursday and March 19) is without Kawhi Leonard, and Minnesota (Sunday) is sans Jimmy Butler.
“The league has done a good job all year of keeping the bunches of games out of the schedule,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “So, there’s plenty of rest. It seems like we just have a game every other day, which is nice. I think our guys are for the most part pretty healthy, and it’s a good stretch for us.”
The rest of Houston’s regular-season slate is far more daunting. It begins a four-game road trip Tuesday against Oklahoma City, Milwaukee, Toronto and Dallas, three of which could play deep into the playoffs. Home games against the Spurs and Clippers are followed by a grueling three-game trek against likely playoffbound West teams New Orleans, Minnesota and Portland.
Still, the Rockets have made a habit of hushing their doubters. Beating out Houston for the No. 1 seed might be the motivation Golden State needs to run the table and make Thompson look like a soothsayer.
“With this team, I think anything is possible,” Warriors forward Kevon Looney said. “We have a great team. If we put our minds in it and we lock in, we’re really hard to beat.”