Warriors: Feeling uncomfortable as playoffs start.
No more excuses as ‘real’ action begins
Thirty minutes after enduring a 40-point beating Tuesday night in Salt Lake City, Warriors point guard Quinn Cook filtered out from the showers and glanced at a TV mounted on the far wall. On the screen was Houston’s Chris Paul lacing a dribble between Lakers center Ivica Zubac’s legs before Paul knifed through the key for an uncontested layup.
“Damn,” Cook said, shaking his head as he turned toward his locker stall.
It was a sobering reminder of how much has changed for Golden State. A year after they steamrolled to their second NBA title in three seasons, the Warriors are no longer the
prohibitive championship favorites entering Game 1 of the first round Saturday against San Antonio. The Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook has Golden State as co-favorites with Paul and the Rockets — the NBA’s best team at 65-17 — just to win the Western Conference.
After perhaps the most apathetic 58-win regular season in league history, Golden State clings to the belief that heightened stakes will be enough for it to suddenly start playing up to its abilities. In recent days, as he fielded repeated questions about “turning on the switch” and “stepping up to the challenge,” head coach Steve Kerr balanced his optimism with a heavy dose of realism.
“They’re going to bring out the best in us, or they’re going to completely expose us,” Kerr said Friday of the Spurs. “One way or another, that’s probably a good thing for us.”
Three seasons ago, Golden State played with the joy that comes with zero outside expectations. Two seasons ago, motivated by the urge to silence anyone who doubted their surprising run to the 2015 NBA title, the Warriors won a leaguerecord 73 regular-season games. Last season, they were fueled by their Finals collapse to Cleveland and the arrival of Kevin Durant.
With 12 players back from its 2017 championship team, Golden State has experienced the mental and physical toll that comes with trying to play deep into June for the fourth consecutive year.
Players greeted losses with relative indifference as Kerr preached that the only antidote for a “championship hangover” is patience. With the games that matter not arriving until midApril, the Warriors saw no need to fret over defeats in November, December, January or February.
Kerr could relate because he dealt with a similar situation in 1997-98 as a reserve guard with the Chicago Bulls. That Chicago team, fresh off its second straight NBA title, looked uncharacteristically human as it plodded through a 62-win regular season. Such warts were forgotten after the Bulls hoisted the Larry O’Brien trophy for the third year in a row.
The difference between that Chicago team and these Warriors, however, has been health. With their core of Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen and Dennis Rodman leading the way, the 1997-98 Bulls won 16 of their final 19 regular-season games. This 2017-18 Golden State team has been ravaged by injuries — at times, playing without all four of its All-Stars — as it dropped 10 of 17 games entering the playoffs.
It hardly helped that, with the Warriors locked into the No. 2 seed behind Houston, many of those matchups were meaningless standings-wise. Golden State now hopes to show that it still has plenty of talent to weather the absence of Stephen Curry, who will miss the first round with a sprained left MCL.
“In your mind, you’re telling yourself, ‘We’ve got to be better, we’ve got to do better,’ ” associate head coach Mike Brown said. “Still, it’s hard sometimes mentally and physically to get to
the level of these teams where they’re fighting just to get into the playoffs.”
Looming is a team also without its best player. Though the Spurs have yet to rule out Kawhi Leonard for the series, reports suggest that it is extremely unlikely he will return against the Warriors after being limited to nine regular-season games with a quad injury.
But even if Leonard is sidelined for the first round, Golden State knows better than to overlook a Gregg Popovich-coached team. This is a franchise that has won five NBA titles since 1999 and hasn’t missed the playoffs since 1997. Without Leonard for almost 90 percent of the regular season, San Antonio won 47 games and secured the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference.
“They’re as disciplined as anybody we’re going to face in terms of establishing a style, a pace, a defensive awareness and a mind-set,” Kerr said of the Spurs, who tied with the Utah Jazz for the fewest points allowed per game (99.8). “It’s hard. When you play them, there’s nothing easy. It’s not going to be 128-121. It’s going to be a grind.”
In the wake of Tuesday’s 119-79 loss to Utah, Kerr told his players to go home, enjoy their day off Wednesday and arrive at practice Thursday ready for the playoffs. The message was clear: After a six-month prelude, the real season has arrived.
In case players needed another reminder, they needed only to watch Paul dribble between Zubac’s legs on that lockerroom TV.
“You’re excited to start the playoffs,” Draymond Green said. “This is what you play for.”
Connor Letourneau is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: cletourneau@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Con_Chron