The Weekly Dish

There's only one month left in the regular season, and the Warriors are approaching it with much larger goals in mind.

For the week of Monday, Mar. 9 – Sunday, Mar. 15

There’s exactly one month until the end of the NBA regular season, and judging by the Warriors’ play of this past week, far bigger goals remain than what they’ve achieved thus far. Heading into tonight’s matchup with the visiting Lakers, the Dubs’ magic number to clinch a playoff berth is down to one, meaning that either a Warriors’ win or an Oklahoma City loss would guarantee Golden State a spot in the postseason. While making the playoffs in the West is certainly an accomplishment, particularly as quickly as the Dubs have sewn it up, their presence in the postseason was basically a foregone conclusion months ago. They’ve been arguably the best team in the league from start to finish, and if you’ve watched even a handful of their games this season, you knew they would finish in the top-eight, barring any unforeseen health issues. So, just as we’ve become accustomed to the idea of the Warriors as a sure-fire playoff team, so too have the Dubs themselves, an understanding that will continue to manifest itself in the team’s approach to closing out the remainder of the regular season and beyond.

In each of this past week’s victories over Phoenix, Detroit and New York, the Warriors reinforced their position atop the NBA’s upper-echelon of teams, soundly defeating their less accomplished opponents with several bursts of irrefutable superiority. Ironically enough, that identity played an equally influential role in the Warriors’ lone defeat of the week, a close loss in Denver in which the Dubs were without Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights. Excluding Speights, who missed the game due to suspension, the absence of the remaining four players was completely voluntary, as Steve Kerr made the choice to sit a vast majority of his main rotation in favor of getting them some much-needed and much-deserved rest. Despite that the Dubs didn’t come away with a win, it was promising to see the younger, less used players like Justin Holiday and James Michael McAdoo perform so well in the opportunity created, and it likely won’t be the last one in the final month ahead. It may disappoint fans who intend to see those players when purchasing tickets, but that isn’t Steve Kerr’s concern, and frankly, it shouldn’t be. The Warriors have proven they have the talent and character to make a run at a championship, and they deserve the right to go for it. That means keeping their eye on the prize at all times, and basing their decision-making off of it. The Dubs have a decent chance to put together one of the top-10 winningest regular seasons in league history, but that accomplishment would lose so much of its allure if they faltered at the outset of the postseason. On the brink of a playoff berth, it’s important to reinforce the understanding that this team has much larger goals than simply getting to the postseason. This final month is about setting themselves up to do major damage once they do.

As the Warriors are fine-tuning their play for the playoffs, so too is Klay Thompson. After undergoing a bit of a slump (for his standards, at least) coming out of the All-Star break, Thompson appears to have righted the ship, which is just about the only think he isn’t sinking right now. In his three games this past week, Thompson averaged 26.3 points in 30.4 minutes on 50.9 percent (28-of-55) shooting from the field and 54.2 percent (13-of-24) from three-point range. He was also a perfect 10-of-10 from the free-throw line, further evidence of his transformation into more than just a deadeye shooter. Either he or Curry is bound to go off on any given night, and on the occasions that both are feeling it, well, good luck to the opposition. The Dubs are 51-15 all-time in games in which both members of the Splash Brothers score at least 20 points in the same game, and judging by the way both Thompson and Curry are shooting the ball lately, don’t be surprised if the Warriors add more wins to that count in the coming games.

While the Warriors beat up on some inferior competition last week, the week ahead offers some considerably tougher challenges. After the Dubs’ fourth and final meeting of the season with the Lakers tonight, the Warriors will round out the week with three more home games against teams that are a combined 28-9 since the All-Star break. Wednesday will bring the much-anticipated rematch with the East-leading Hawks, as the Dubs will attempt to avenge their 124-116 defeat in Atlanta on February 6. Following that, the Warriors will play a rare home back-to-back, hosting the Pelicans and Jazz on consecutive nights. Anthony Davis comes to town on Friday in a possible first round preview, followed by the streaking Jazz on Saturday night. Not only does Utah boast the league’s best record (10-2) since the All-Star break, they’ve held all but two of their opponents over that span to 88 points or less. That’s three tough games in a row, which makes it a good thing that they’re all at Oracle, where the Warriors have only lost two games all season.

The Dish has been served.