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Pat Spencer flirted with a triple-double, Quinten Post racked up 19 points off the bench, and Brandin Podziemski finished with 20 points, but the Warriors didn’t have enough scoring talent to steal a win at Miami on Wednesday.
The reason Golden State didn’t have enough offense was because Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green each sat out.
That none of them were sidelined with serious injuries is the biggest victory of the Warriors’ 3-3, up-and-down road trip. Heading home whole, after such a sketchy schedule, is an achievement.
It might not feel like it in the Warriors’ locker room, but the trip should be a moral victory. To withstand six games in nine days — and the prior four weeks in which practically every day was either a game day or a getaway day — is to succeed considering the rash of injuries across the NBA.
This was perhaps the most difficult stretch of the Warriors’ schedule from a travel and volume of games standpoint. Now it’s behind Golden State (9-8). And through a combination of luck, injury management, and pacing, the Warriors are mostly intact.
“It’s not like we get a break, but we do get to go home, and that’s a big thing,” head coach Steve Kerr told reporters after the 110-96 loss to Miami. “We’ve only had five home games out of the first 17, so the schedule does turn our way. But we need to take advantage of it.”
The Warriors’ road trip wasn’t a rip-roar. It started with a blowout loss to the defending champions in Oklahoma City that left them embarrassed. Draymond Green called out the Warriors, saying that “personal agendas” need to fit within the confines of the team better while questioning players’ commitment to winning. That lit a fire in the locker room, leading to consecutive thrilling wins at San Antonio in which Steph Curry went for 46 and 49 points. Golden State took care of business in New Orleans on Sunday before the role players let the veterans down in Orlando on Tuesday and couldn’t pull off what would’ve been a massive upset in Miami.
All told, a 3-3 expedition to the Bible Belt, South Texas, and Florida is an acceptable outcome. What’s more important is that the Warriors came out of it — and the preceding schedule challenges — mostly unscathed.
Complaining about the schedule in the NBA is trite. No team expresses gratitude to the schedule gods.
But the Warriors have legitimate gripes. They played back-to-backs in each of their first five weeks (no other team has played four, and the Rockets have yet to play any). They’re about to have their first homestand of the season, as 12 of their first 17 games have come away from Chase Center.
“We’ve been bickering about it internally a little bit,” Spencer admitted to reporters in Miami. “We’re a little bit older. I think we’ll be grateful toward the end of the year that this isn’t the stretch we have come the end of the season.”
They’ve withstood their early-season grind in firm playoff position and with a more or less healthy roster. Much of the rest of the West can’t say the same.
The Mavericks, Grizzlies, and Clippers each entered the season with playoff aspirations. Those teams didn’t expect to have fewer wins than the Utah Jazz at this point. Their plans didn’t include firing their general manager (Mavs), dealing with an increasingly disgruntled point guard (Grizzlies), or removing Chris Paul from their rotation (Clippers).
Other teams also haven’t stayed as healthy as the Warriors, either. Soft-tissue injuries are more common early in seasons, but the rash of sidelined stars has already inspired Kerr to renew his long-held call for a shortened season.
Victor Wembanyama, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jalen Williams, Anthony Edwards, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, Paolo Banchero, and Zion Williamson are either sidelined or have already missed time.
Meanwhile, the Warriors’ 35-and-up core of Curry, Butler, Green, and Al Horford have stayed mostly healthy, with just bumps and bruises. Their minutes have been managed to varying degrees, with all four sitting out the Miami game.
Against the Heat, the Warriors fell behind 20-4 in the opening minutes before Spencer ignited a furious comeback. But without Jonathan Kuminga — who missed his fourth straight game with bilateral knee tendinitis — as well as the veterans, the Warriors lost the fourth quarter 38-22.
The silver lining of a tough early schedule is that it lightens up eventually. The Warriors play their next five games at home and will hold multiple much-needed practices during that span.
Golden State has eight back-to-backs left, with no more than two in any month the rest of the way. They’ll be in the state of California all of April before the playoffs, almost all of January, and also have a light February because of the All-Star break.
“Obviously would’ve liked to grab these last couple on the road,” Spencer said. “But to be where we’re at with the number of games we’ve played, to — knock on wood — have a really healthy team at this point of the season. I think we’ll be grateful we’re not doing this on the back end of the year.”
There will be rough patches, injuries and challenging opponents, no doubt. But the most extreme stretch of the Warriors’ schedule is over.
The team’s immediate focus will be on reducing turnovers. Golden State coughed the ball up 21 times against Miami and is undefeated when winning the turnover battle.
Rest, health, and more practices can only help.