The Weekly Dish

With a month to go in the regular season, the Warriors are setting themselves up for a long postseason run.

For the week of Monday, Mar. 14 – Sunday, Mar. 20

We’re just about 80 percent of the way through the regular season, and with each game that passes, the more the path ahead comes into view. Playoff berth? That happened a while ago. Home court advantage in the first round? Clinched that a week ago. Division title? As a result of the Clippers loss to Cleveland on Sunday, you can place a big check mark next to that one, too.

The fact is that the Warriors are, and have been, so far ahead of the pack all season long that they’re lining up their postseason journey far earlier than most teams ever have. While the vast majority of the rest of the teams in the league will be duking it out for playoff positioning over the next four weeks, there’s not a whole lot of mystery surrounding where the Warriors will end up, or how they’ll get there. Don’t get me wrong, there is still plenty at stake for the Dubs. As historically prolific as they’ve been, San Antonio has been nearly equally impressive and sits just 3.5 games back of Golden State at the top of the Western Conference standings. Those two stellar squads will play a total of three more times in the regular season, and considering they’re a combined 62-0 at home this season, home court advantage throughout the playoffs might mean more than ever. That race could come down to the very final week of the season, but only if both sides maintain their current trajectories up until that point. That means each and every game between now and then carries just as much weight as the final week of the season, which puts the Warriors in a position where they need to be performing at the top of the game even before the playoffs begin. They took some steps toward that goal within the last week, but there’s still some room for improvement, and luckily for them, still plenty of time to figure it all out.

Last week, I pointed out a recent downward trend in team-wide three-point shooting. I also mentioned that shooting slumps are just an inherent and expected part of a grueling 82-game grind, and the Warriors were likely to return to their terrific three-point shooting ways in short order. Well, it didn’t take very long. After shooting at a 35.3 percent clip from behind the arc in post-All-Star break play up until the beginning of last week, the Warriors combined to shoot 42.0 percent from three-point land during their four-game winning streak, which is slightly better than their league-leading 41.3 percent clip for the full season. It was really just a matter of ‘when’, not ‘if’, the Warriors would regain their proficiency from long range, and it’s no coincidence the Dubs scored at least 115 points in each of the games during their current streak. But while the Warriors seem to have solved their shooting troubles, they could still use some work on the defensive end. The Magic and Suns both rank in the bottom-six of the league in offensive efficiency, and although the Warriors prevailed over both of them, they allowed an average of 114.5 points per game in those victories. As usual, pace must be factored into any judgment, and although it wasn’t a stellar week on the defensive end, the advanced metrics reveal that Golden State is moving the needle in the right direction. After allowing an average of 106.9 points against per 100 possessions in post-All-Star break play up until the beginning of last week, the Dubs trimmed their defensive rating to 105.2 in their four victories. That still pales in comparison to their cumulative defensive rating of 100.6 on the season to date, but it’s a positive development, especially when you consider that the Warriors scored 120.7 points per 100 possessions in those four victories.

Much of the improvement on the defensive end and the staggering offensive numbers can be attributed to increased ball security. The Dubs have matched their season-low with only eight turnovers in each of their last two games, constituting their first instance of back-to-back games with eight or fewer miscues since January 31st and February 2nd, 2012. It’s not rocket science. If you create more possessions as a result of strong defense, value those possessions by not turning it over, and then redeem those extra possessions for points at a highly efficient rate, you’re going to be a tough team to beat. The more improvement the Warriors display in each of those areas, but primarily on the defensive end, the more prepared they’ll be to chase a second-consecutive championship beginning in a month’s time.

This week’s edition of the Dish contains a first – as in, for the first time in the history of this column, the reigning Western Conference Player of the Week will be passed over for the Spotlight. That’s not intended as disservice to Stephen Curry, who earlier today was named Player of the Week for already the fifth time this season, but simply to highlight the much-needed contributions of Marreese Speights over the past few games. Speights’ averages of 11.0 points, 3.8 rebounds and 1.3 assists per game last week don’t exactly leap off the page, but you couldn’t come away from those games without acknowledging the role Speights fills oh so well for this team. His number isn’t going to get called every night, but when it does, he’s proven himself someone to be counted on. After notching 16 points in just 15 minutes on Wednesday against the Jazz, Speights followed that up with another 25 points and nine rebounds in only 18 minutes in Saturday’s win over Phoenix; that’s the second-most points scored in 18 or fewer minutes by a player coming off the bench in the last 30 years of the league. He’s averaging 21.9 points and 10.6 rebounds per 36 minutes of playing time, the highest per-36 scoring average of any NBA reserve averaging at least 10.0 minutes per game. Speight’s excels when he knows he’s on the court to score, and he’s performed that job admirably, particularly for a second-unit that lacks a dominant scorer. Particularly with Andre Iguodala being unavailable for the next two weeks due to an ankle injury, the Warriors’ reserves will be counted on to step up their games as a whole, and Speights is off to a great start, leading by example.

The Warriors have excelled at Oracle Arena all season long, and they get a couple more chances to extend their NBA record home winning streak this week before heading out on the road for their longest remaining road trip of the season. First up, the Warriors will play the visiting New Orleans Pelicans tonight in their final meeting of the season, before hosting the New York Knicks on Wednesday in their lone visit to Oracle Arena this year. After that, the Warriors will head out on a three-game, four-day road trip, beginning on Friday night in Dallas against the Mavericks. Then, the very next night, the Warriors will play the Spurs in San Antonio in a game that will pit two teams with the highest composite winning percentage this late in the regular season in the history of the NBA. It’s a week that features several league stars in addition to multiple potential Warriors’ playoff opponents, so it should give Golden State a good idea of where they stand heading into the final push of the season.

Till next week.