Warriors announce rest of their schedule

The Warriors on Wednesday announced the final 35 games of their 72game regular season. The second half of that 202021 slate includes eight backtobacks, 18 games on national TV and quite a rigorous start. Here are three takeaways:

Big start: After the AllStar break, the Warriors won’t ease into the second half. They go to Los Angeles to play the Clippers on March 11 in a TNT game, then host Utah (March 14) and the Lakers (March 15, ESPN).

Those three opponents occupy the top three spots in the Western Conference standings.

If the Warriors could win two of those three games, they’d set a positive tone for the rest of the season. The first half of Golden State’s 72game slate has been defined by

To become anything more than a fringe playoff team, the Warriors must string together wins — including against some of the NBA’s top clubs.

Travelheavy stretch: The NBA has done a solid job easing the travel grind for teams amid the coronavirus pandemic, scheduling numerous twogame “series” between franchises in certain cities. Still, the Warriors were bound to have at least a couple of chaotic travel stretches.

Perhaps Golden State’s craziest will come from midApril to early May, when it plays nine road games in eight cities in a 20day span. That includes an April 1415 backtoback in Oklahoma City and Cleveland before the Warriors head to Boston (April 17), Philadelphia (April 19) and Washington (April 21).

Such a stretch could be tough for the Warriors’ younger players to navigate, but elder statesmen such as Stephen Curry and Draymond Green should have no issues. They’ve seen worse. Given its national TV schedule and location on the West Coast, Golden State is annually one of the most traveled teams.

Friendly ending: The Warriors close the regular season on a sixgame homestand; May 6 and 8 against the Thunder, May 10 against the Jazz, May 11 against the Suns, May 14 against the Pelicans and May 16 against the Grizzlies.

This is a huge benefit, given that teams like to rest at home as much as possible before the playoffs. Perhaps never has that been more important than this season.

The Warriors, eighth in the Western Conference standings at 1715, may have to participate in a playin tournament to make the playoffs. After the regular season, the teams in seventh through 10th places in each conference will compete for the seventh and eighth seeds in the playoffs.