{"id":120339,"date":"2025-01-27T17:40:50","date_gmt":"2025-01-27T22:40:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=120339"},"modified":"2025-01-27T17:51:54","modified_gmt":"2025-01-27T22:51:54","slug":"warriors-brutal-upcoming-stretch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/01\/27\/warriors-brutal-upcoming-stretch\/","title":{"rendered":"Brutal Upcoming Stretch Could Make or Break the Warriors Season"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sitting in 11th place in the Western Conference, with a record of 22-23 on the season, the Golden State Warriors can ill-afford to lose much more ground. Currently, the Warriors are not only outside of the West\u2019s top-six but outside of the play-in seeds as a whole. Unfortunately for the Warriors, their upcoming schedule isn\u2019t doing them any favors. Granted, it comes with the territory of playing in the Western Conference, but the Warriors\u2019 next 10 games are an absolute gauntlet of playoff contenders. <\/span><\/p>\n

Golden State may already be eyeing the NBA All-Star break\u2014which, coincidentally, is taking place in the Bay Area. But first, they\u2019ve got 10 games to put the entirety of their energy and focus toward. To further drive home the high-end stakes of their upcoming stretch, the Warriors will be home for just four of those 10 games.<\/span><\/p>\n

Additionally, the Warriors will mostly have to put out their best efforts without the support of some of their main contributors. Firstly, Draymond Green<\/a>, who has been nursing a calf strain<\/a> for just over a week, is expected to remain out for at least a few more games. Secondly, Jonathan Kuminga<\/a>, who hasn’t played since early January, is expected to be sidelined past the All-Star break due to his nagging ankle injury<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n

The Warriors have been fortunate enough to recently regain players like Brandin Podziemski<\/a> and Gary Payton II.<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>Nevertheless, they desperately need what both Green and Kuminga provide. If the Warriors falter during their upcoming stretch and can’t stop their tumble down the Western Conference standings, there may not be a whole lot to play for once action resumes post-All-Star break.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brutal Upcoming Stretch Could Make or Break the Warriors Season<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Warriors\u2019 Reasons for Optimism<\/b><\/h3>\n

Luckily for the Warriors, due to the jumbled nature of the Western Conference standings, they are just four games back from the sixth seed. While things have certainly looked bleak as of late for the Warriors\u2014winners of just four of their past 10 games\u2014they’re still just one good win streak away from making a real surge up the standings. Furthermore, while seven of the Warriors\u2019 next 10 games are clashes with potential playoff contenders, they’re not all currently playing to the best of their abilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Over the next three weeks, the Warriors have matchups with the Thunder, Suns, Magic, Lakers, Bucks, Mavericks, and Rockets to look forward to. While that is a daunting lineup of opponents, it’s worth noting that other than the Thunder, Rockets, Bucks, and maybe the Lakers, the three teams have appeared very vulnerable lately.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the case of the Magic, they\u2019ve been struggling to reintegrate star forwards Franz Wagner<\/a> and Paolo Banchero<\/a> back into the lineup, and are just 3-7 in their last 10 games. In the case of the Suns, they\u2019ve recently been playing better with a 7-3 record in their last 10 games. Regardless, few other teams have failed to live up to expectations as much as Phoenix has this season. As far as the Mavericks are concerned, the injuries they\u2019ve had to deal with have been nothing short of brutal. Aside from being without superstar guard Luka Doncic<\/a> since Christmas, they\u2019ve recently lost both Dereck Lively II<\/a> and Maxi Kleber<\/a> for the foreseeable future<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Last Word<\/b><\/h3>\n

The Warriors remain in a tough situation\u2014between a rock and a hard place essentially. With each passing game, it becomes clearer that this is not a championship-caliber squad<\/a>, yet the team simultaneously continues to signal its unwillingness to make a substantial move. As long as Stephen Curry<\/a> is healthy and available, however, the Warriors will continue to play to win. While their upcoming stretch leading into the All-Star break is brutal, it’s also an opportunity. With multiple matchups awaiting them against opponents who sit above them in the standings, the Warriors have a legitimate chance to make up some real ground. It’s going to take a lot of high-level coaching and scheming from Steve Kerr<\/a>, but if the Warriors can escape their upcoming schedule with an above .500 record, their season may still have legs post-All-Star weekend. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sitting in 11th place in the Western Conference, with a record of 22-23 on the season, the Golden State Warriors can ill-afford to lose much more ground. Currently, the Warriors are not only outside of the West\u2019s top-six but outside of the play-in seeds as a whole. Unfortunately for the Warriors, their upcoming schedule isn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5268,"featured_media":120356,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,25,62],"tags":[48978,409,4297,48,528],"class_list":["post-120339","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-warriors","category-nba","tag-brandin-podziemski","tag-draymond-green","tag-jonathan-kuminga","tag-stephen-curry","tag-steve-kerr"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120339","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120339"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120339\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120358,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120339\/revisions\/120358"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120339"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120339"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120339"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}