The Weekly Dish

At the final quarter mark of the season, the Warriors appear to be rounding into playoff form.

For the week of Monday, Mar. 2 – Sunday, Mar. 8

With three victories in four games, including wins over Milwaukee, Dallas and the Clippers, the Warriors appear to be inching toward the goal of every team with championship aspirations: to be playing their best basketball at the commencement of the postseason. Due to the length and the grind of the regular season, not to mention injuries, it’s often difficult to time things up just perfectly to be firing on all cylinders once the games really start to count. Yet, while there are still 21 games left to play before getting to that point, we’re seeing little glimpses that indicate the Warriors may be playing it out just right.

While the dud against the Nets can be written off as the result of ragged play at the end of a season-long road trip, the three ensuing victories each showed the characteristics of a team with the potential to do major damage come playoff time. In the win over the Bucks, the Dubs withstood the charge of an inspired underdog through three quarters, and then ran away with the game in the fourth, building up a double-digit lead in the first three minutes of the final frame. It was a rope-a-dope style approach for the Warriors, withstanding run after run from the Bucks and patiently waiting for the opportune moment to land the knockout blow. Stephen Curry delivered the haymaker with a trio of three-pointers in a span of 66 seconds, and the Bucks couldn’t get up off the mat for the remainder of the contest. Then, in their final two victories to close out the week, the Warriors forced two Western Conference playoff teams into submission in Ronda Rousey-like fashion, rapidly squeezing the life out of their hopes with sequences of morale-draining dominance. In both cases, the final score didn’t reflect the true narrative of the game, as garbage time scoring eroded upon the 18 and 19-point leads the Warriors had generated by the end of each respective third quarter. That’s three victories over three sure-fire playoff teams, a promising sign considering that’s, at the very least, the kind of talent the Dubs are sure to encounter throughout the postseason. After a road-heavy February in which the Warriors didn’t particularly look their best, they’ve opened up March looking like a team more than capable of playing well into June, with still 21 games left to reach their peak.

Coming off late toe surgery, Shaun Livingston was the forgotten man of the Warriors’ offseason acquisitions, unable to operate at full-speed until well after the conclusion of the preseason. Not only did the rehabilitation inhibit his ability to form any on-court chemistry with his new set of teammates, the time off the court set his personal in-season progression on a different track from the players that had been in the gym since day one. Whereas most players were in mid-season form 30 games ago, Livingston hit that mark only recently, and it’s made the Warriors even more potent and dynamic than they already were. Not only does he provide the Warriors with an additional primary ball-handler aside from Stephen Curry, his unique size for his position affords the Dubs several advantages on both ends of the floor. At 6’7”, he fits right in with the Warriors’ versatile identity and is yet another member of the team capable of seamlessly switching from player to player on defense, while he utilizes his height advantage on offense to create post-up situations against his almost-always smaller defender. He’s a smart, heady player, universally regarded as a great teammate, and while he’s not the athlete he was upon entering the league, he’s showing he’s still got plenty of tools left in his toolbox. Over those last four games, he averaged 14.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 4.3 assists and one steal in 27.0 minutes per game, shooting 59.5 percent from the field and scoring in double-digits in every contest, including a season-high 21 points in Sunday’s win over the Clippers. It’s no coincidence that as the Warriors have played more of a small-ball lineup with great success over the last several games, Livingston has been at the very center of it, and will likely remain so until that changes. Steve Kerr was already having a hard time finding enough minutes for all the players on his increasingly deep squad, but when Livingston is playing like this, he has no choice but to find ways to keep him on the court.

I told you last week that the schedule was going to get easier soon, and the wait doesn’t appear to be much longer. Beginning with their game tonight in Phoenix, the Warriors next five opponents have a combined record of 106-206 (.340) on the season, including three of the worst seven records in the league. After their bout with the Suns, the Warriors will return home to face the Pistons on Wednesday. When you combine the fact that Detroit is on a six-game losing streak and the Warriors have only lost two games at Oracle all season, the odds would seem to be in the Dubs’ favor. After that, the Warriors will travel to Denver on Friday night, where they’ll take on a Nuggets squad that has lost 21 of its last 25 games. The Dubs will then make a quick turnaround and return to the Bay Area to play host to the Knicks on Saturday night in the second game of a back-to-back. This is the NBA and their opponents aren’t just going to roll over, but this week provides a tremendous opportunity for the Warriors to expand upon their current 5.5 game lead atop the Western Conference.

The Dish has been served.