The Weekly Dish

As other teams scramble for playoff positioning, the Warriors have been preparing themselves for the postseason all year long.

For the week of Monday, Apr. 4 – Sunday, Apr. 10

All good things must come to an end, right? It’s true; the Warriors are not invincible when it comes to regular season home games. Not quite, at least. Friday’s home defeat at the hands of the visiting Celtics snapped the Warriors’ NBA record 54-game home winning streak, a stretch that lasted the prior 506 days. When you lose that infrequently in one particular location, the actual defeat itself can seem far more momentous than it actually is. But in reality, it was exactly that – a single defeat in a single game. Streaks are fun. They give us something to talk about, and for the players, something to aim for. But when it comes down to it, even with that loss, the Warriors have still won 74 of their last 75 home games. Perhaps it doesn’t hold quite the allure of an uninterrupted winning streak, but nonetheless, the defeat doesn’t undo the entirety of the home court advantage the Warriors have created over the last few years. It’s still there, it’s palpable and it was evidenced when the Dubs began a new home winning streak on Sunday against the Trail Blazers.

At Steve Kerr’s press conference prior to that game, he mentioned that the Warriors need to focus on ‘playing well’ as opposed to ‘playing to win’. They did that in the second half when they ran away with the game, and more closely resembled the team that has held the league’s spotlight since the very first day of the season. Kerr detailed that ‘playing well’ is not based on any one statistic per se, “but we know when we see it what we’re looking for,” and frankly, it doesn’t take six championship rings to be able to deduce when the Warriors are firing on all cylinders. As we approach the final five games of the regular season and some of the injured players return to the fold, it would seem logical that the Dubs would get back to ‘playing well’ on a consistent basis, with their full squad in tow.

Speaking of injured players returning to action, much has been made of the supposed mutually exclusive relationship between continuing to try to win games and resting players, but it’s simply untrue. There’s no reason the Warriors or any other team would be incapable of accomplishing both tasks simultaneously, and in fact, they’ve been doing it all season long. Whether due to injury or simply resting during blowouts, the Warriors coaching staff has made a conscious effort to get their players consistent rest throughout the season, and because of that, they’re in a position now where they can continue to try to win games without it coming at the expense of pushing the players past their limits. Heavy-minutes players like Draymond Green, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have gotten plenty of rest during the Warriors’ frequent fourth quarter blowouts, and the more aged veterans like Andrew Bogut, Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston have been given the occasional night off. Factor in the somewhat lengthy injuries to players like Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and Festus Ezeli, and what you get is a Warriors team, the vast majority of which is either right on pace with their minutes totals from a season ago, or significantly more rested.

There’s also a relative component to rest, too. Every team plays 82 games, and at the end of the season, everyone is tired. But when you compare the Warriors’ heavy-minutes players’ total minutes played this season to those of opposing players Golden State could possibly see in the postseason, suddenly it’s apparent that, relative to their counterparts, the Warriors are rested. Draymond Green plays the most minutes per game (34.7) of anyone on the team, but he’s played nearly 300 fewer total minutes than James Harden has this season. Similarly, Curry has played nearly 140 fewer minutes than Russell Westbrook, and Klay Thompson has played nearly 120 fewer minutes this season than LeBron James. As the great John Wooden frequently expounded, “Failing to prepare is preparing to fail,” it’s clear the Warriors have been preparing for this situation all season long. As we head into the postseason, where teams actually get more rest in between games, it would appear the Dubs are well-situated for another deep playoff run, regardless of how they approach the final five games of the regular season.

This award could have gone in several directions, but this being the penultimate Dish of the season, it seemed only right to identify Harrison Barnes for his recent contributions to the team. Yes, Stephen Curry is in the midst of his typical end-of-season three-point parade and Draymond Green nearly averaged a triple-double for the week, but it’s Barnes whose play deserved some extra recognition. Not only did Barnes average 13.3 points and 8.3 points per game while leading the team in total plus-minus for the week, but his current streak of seven-straight games scoring in double-figures matches the longest such streak of his young career. Barnes always seems to crank it up a notch in the postseason, and if his recent stretch of play is any indication, he could be headed for another productive playoff run. Even when he’s not scoring, he’s providing valuable defense and rebounding, and when you consider the Warriors often have a distinct advantage when they go with a small lineup, Barnes is absolutely critical to that ability, as his strength and versatility help to mitigate some of the inherent disadvantages that come with playing a small lineup.

There’s only five games remaining on the Warriors’ regular season schedule, and four of them come within the next week. First, the Warriors will get a chance to begin building a new home winning streak when they host the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves and San Antonio Spurs on Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Then, the Dubs head out for their final road trip of the season, a weekend back-to-back in Memphis on Saturday and then in San Antonio on Sunday. While that’s by no means an easy slate of games, particularly considering the fact that the Spurs have yet to lose a home game this season, an undefeated week would give the Warriors the most successful regular season in the history of the NBA, with still one game left to play.

Till next week.