“It’s like ‘The Sopranos.’ It’s over. Find a new show.”
— Kemo, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — We should bury the Golden State Warriors, right?
They are barely in the playoffs as we speak, holding on to the 10th and final spot in the West with their incisors and toenails. They are old and brittle, an afterthought in a conference with a dreadnought playing for the Denver Nuggets, a likely MVP finalist shining nightly with the Oklahoma City Thunder (if said dreadnought doesn’t win the award himself) and a highlight factory playing with the Minnesota Timberwolves. The West is loaded with assorted Lukas and Zions and Kawhis, all healthy and dealing as the regular season nears its end. The Phoenix Suns lurk. The precocious Houston Rockets’ habits are starting to catch up to their talent.
Meanwhile, Draymond Green’s now getting tossed less than four minutes into games.
All dynasties, from Ming to Westwood, ultimately end. Age, weighted expectations, jealousies and hunger conspire against anyone staying on top forever in their chosen profession. And here we find the Dubs, with Stephen Curry’s minutes running into the red, Klay Thompson bouncing between Old Klay and … Klay’s Old, Jonathan Kuminga dealing with tendinitis, Chris Paul just now back from another injury, and Andrew Wiggins just starting to look like the Wiggins who was the difference-maker for Golden State during its last run to its last title in 2022. Kevon Looney now comes off the bench in favor of rookie Trayce Jackson-Davis. There’s no good reason to think they have much magic left, at least not this season.
They’re toast.
Except … 21-15.
That’s Golden State’s record on the road this season, supplemented Friday with a workmanlike win over the Charlotte Hornets. Charlotte isn’t good, obviously. But the Hornets were putting up good defensive numbers right around the All-Star break. Friday, though, the Dubs sliced them up like an Easter roast lamb. I lost track of all the back cuts and dunker spot layups and lob dunks — except for the sick left-handed one Jackson-Davis tossed down from CP3.
They’ve won at Oklahoma City, at New Orleans, at Sacramento. They’ve won in Philly and New York and Orlando. (They’ve also lost at Denver and Minnesota and Dallas. I know.)
“Our road performances have kept us alive,” Curry said after Friday’s 115-97 win.
And the Warriors have always, always won on the road in the postseason — 28 straight series, basically the entirety of the Curry-Thompson-Green era, in which Golden State took at least one road game, before they failed to do so last year in their second-round loss to the Los Angeles Lakers.
Winning on the road plays in the postseason. So if there is anything on which the Warriors can still hang fleeting hopes of a playoff run this year, it’s their disposition away from Chase Center, where they’re just 18-19 this season.
“It’s bizarre,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Friday.
“A year ago, it was the complete opposite. We were 33-8 at home and 0-41 on the road or so. So, who knows? It’s hard to explain these things. The main thing is we’re playing well right now. We’re in a pretty good groove. Wiggs, this is the best Wiggs has been all year. Trayce is coming into his own. Gary Payton (II) looks fantastic. We’re coming along well. And obviously, we’re in a fight with a lot of teams. The West is just loaded this year. A year ago, we probably had a similar record — I think we ended up (44-38) — and we were the six seed. This year, we could end up with a better record and be the 10th seed.”
And this isn’t a small sample anymore. The Warriors have played .667 basketball for 30 games (20-10). Since Feb. 1, the Dubs have been in the top 10 in a lot of meaningful categories. During this stretch, Golden State is sixth in the league in defensive rating (110.9) and eighth in net rating (5.4). The Warriors are tied with the Miami Heat for third in opponent field goal percentage allowed (.456), trailing only Minnesota and the New Orleans Pelicans. They’re tied with Houston for sixth in opponent effective field goal percentage allowed (.529). They’re tied for eighth in opponent 3-point percentage allowed (.350). And they’re just outside the top 10 in opponent free-throw attempt rate (.219).
The Warriors will have to win a lot on the road in the postseason — if they make it. Even if they get into the Play-In Tournament, they’ll have to win at least once away from home just to advance. And they won’t have home-court advantage in any subsequent series.
“Being comfortable in hostile environments, being comfortable in allowing your defense to travel and being able to rely on that, whatever the case is, it’s the polar opposite of last year,” Curry said. “I was joking that we might need to stay in hotels in San Francisco the night before home games and act like it’s a road game, take the bus in.”
The Warriors, emotionally, surrounded Green after his ejection in Orlando. Curry’s angst in the moment was clear, but afterward, they defended their guy. It helped that Green didn’t make excuses.
“It just can’t happen,” Green said on his podcast Thursday. “I said what I said. I deserved to get kicked out at that point.”
And it helped that the Warriors were able to beat the up-and-coming Magic, a night after an impressive smackdown of the Heat in Miami.
It’s not that the Warriors liked that Green self-destructed again in a big moment. But given some of his worse in-the-moment decisions over the years, getting tossed Wednesday without laying hands on anyone is kind of … progress. It’s a delicate balance Golden State asks of Green, just as it’s been for 13 years: Play on the edge, but don’t go over. They then can’t abandon him when he still occasionally crosses it — verbally.
But Green is still a defensive sensei. His latest co-worker at that end is Jackson-Davis, whose presence has allowed the Warriors to move Green back to his natural forward spot instead of having to play center in ultra small-ball lineups to get more regular burn for the emerging Kuminga. (Kuminga missed Friday’s game, his second straight, with knee soreness.) Looney’s minutes in the rotation have dwindled as TJ-D’s have increased. Jackson-Davis is no defensive stopper, but against Charlotte, he had 18 points and eight rebounds in just under 31 minutes, making 9 of 13 from the floor.
No one paying attention would favor Golden State in any postseason series — if it can hold off Houston. Not against LeBron and Anthony Davis in a potential Play-In; or against Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, Bradley Beal and the Suns; or against the Wolves if the Warriors get out of the Play-In round as the ninth or 10th seed; or against the Thunder if Golden State rallies to get 7 or 8 and wins the Play-In from there.
But I can’t quit them. Probably should. But not yet.
“That’s what coach keeps praising to us and preaching,” Jackson-Davis said. “All we have to do is get in.”
(Top photo of Stephen Curry: Jared C. Tilton / Getty Images)
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