Rising team tries to find consistency of the elite
The Warriors returned home early Thursday morning following a largely successful 4-2 eastern swing that had opposing coaches parroting each other’s talk about the Warriors “peaking” as the season’s stretch run approaches.
The comments were similar to ones made nearly two months ago, when the Warriors returned from a 6-1 East Coast roadie that had them locked with the Clippers atop the Pacific Division.
But the Warriors aren’t approaching their upcoming home slate the same way they did in January.
In fact, they’re hoping that a completely different mindset will lead to completely different results.
“We said we were going to treat every single game after the All-Star break like a playoff game, and these upcoming games back home are no exception,” Warriors power forward David Lee said. “We took care of business on the road. Now, it’s time to go back to Oracle, and our thought is that we shouldn’t lose any more games at home this year.”
The Warriors were set up to move past the Clippers in January, when they got to play seven of nine and 11 of 15 games at Oracle after the successful roadie. But they didn’t take every game seriously and seriously lost ground in the standings.
After the first nine games of the home-heavy span, the Warriors had fallen to four games behind the Clippers. After the 15th game, they
limped into the All-Star break — looking up at both the Clippers and Suns in the Pacific and clinging to a 1½-game lead over Memphis for the Western Conference’s final playoff berth.
“We’re capable. We just have to figure out a way to put it together consistently,” Stephen Curry said. “We’ve got talent, but we’ve got to outwork people. That’s what we did (on the road). … We’ve just got to keep that same level (at home). It’s hard to do that, but that’s what the great teams do. We’ve got to find out how to not have the rollercoaster ride, but to keep it consistent.”
The Warriors should have plenty of reasons to bring the focus, energy and effort that have characterized their road approach this season. After playing Atlanta on Friday, the Warriors host Phoenix and Dallas — the two teams directly behind them in the West — and then hit the road to play the Clippers — the team ahead of them in the Pacific.
It could be a little more difficult to find motivation for a five-game homestand later this month. From March 1830, the Warriors play only one team in the playoff picture (San Antonio); Memphis, which is ninth in the West; and three of the Eastern Conference’s worst five teams.
In failing to take advantage of its previous favorable stretch in January and February, the Warriors lost home games to three teams that are currently .500 or worse (Charlotte, Denver and Minnesota). They also lost to Washington, which is just three games over .500 overall and 10-15 against Western Conference opponents.
“I can’t overemphasize enough how tough it is to win games in this league — home or away,” Warriors head coach Mark Jackson said. “We’ve got to be better at home, but give teams credit. Whether it’s a Spurs team that is somehow battling for the best record in the Western Conference — even though they’ve been shorthanded, a Washington team that finds itself in the playoffs in the Eastern Conference or a Charlotte team, it doesn’t look so crazy that we lost to those guys. Somehow, they’ve been able to do it night-in and night-out.
“We’ve got to take care of business, and we’re going home, playing some pretty good basketball. This is a great opportunity for us to continue to build.”