‘Mediocre' Warriors trending up, trudging through NBA's dog days at halfway mark originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – Whoever was in charge of the music after the Warriors’ blowout win against the Portland Trail Blazers on Tuesday night was in a very particular mood. They were feeling an era and style that has lasted the test of time.
From Notorious B.I.G. to Mase, 90s rap took over the Warriors’ weight room and the locker room walls. When they come back from the NBA All-Star break that begins for them Feb. 12 and gives Golden State eight days between games, it wouldn’t be surprising if a much different song with a much different vibe started the playlist.
A different-but-welcome vibe, to be clear.
Cue up Florence & the Machine’s “Dog Days Are Over.”
The Warriors hit the official halfway mark of the 2025-26 NBA season with their 22-point win over the Blazers. They now have played 41 games, yet still have 14 to go before the All-Star break. In other words, the Warriors are right in the first stage of an NBA season’s dog days.
Steph Curry, at nearly 38 years old and in his 17th season, knows all about them. So does Jimmy Butler, 36 and in his 15th season, and Draymond Green, 36 in March and in his 14th season. The oldest and longest-tenured NBA player on the Warriors is 39-year-old Al Horford in Year 19, who became well acquainted with this period on the calendar long, long ago.
One of the rare Warriors players who can’t huff and puff and shake his head getting through the next 14 games is Brandin Podziemski.
“I shouldn’t have to,” Podziemski said after Tuesday’s win. “I’m 22. Young guy, just be ready to play every game, every day.”
There isn’t a defined definition of the dog days. Warriors coach Steve Kerr had them starting with the new year and ending with a renewed energy and focus coming out of the All-Star break. For Butler, they begin just a bit earlier at Christmas, or right after.
“We are in the middle of them,” Butler said. “It’s always a blessing to be able to play basketball in the best league in the world. let’s not forget that. But then I think anywhere from like after Christmas somewhat, like January up to the All-Star break it gets really repetitive.
“I think you just got to put your head down, get through it, compete, try to win as many games as you can. The dog days are amongst us.”
Each game feels heavier and harder on the body. The want of coming to the gym every day starts to wane. Without being able to pinpoint the exact timing, Green remembers a moment early in his career where a friend came to his room on the road in LA. Green was feeling the dog days.
At 3:30 p.m., the Warriors’ buses were set to leave for the arena. It was 3:05 and Green still can feel himself sitting and staring at the wall.
“He’s like, ‘Man, what’s wrong with you? I said, ‘I don’t know, but I’m exhausted,’” Green remembers. “And so you start to figure it out. And as you get older, you learn how to manage it a little more. Like, I bet you [Warriors rookie] Will Richard’s head is spinning, like he don’t know whether he’s going left or right, up or down right now. It just happens.”
All these years later, Green started to have those same feelings. The walls were closing in on him again. He admitted those feelings in the locker room after the Warriors’ tough loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Sunday.
“I showered and got out so fast after last game, and I told them in the locker room, ‘I just want y’all to know I’m not upset. I’m not mad. I know people are going to see I left quick. I just need to get out of here. These walls are closing in on me,’ ” Green said.
The previous game, Green played 27 minutes in what became a blowout win against the Sacramento Kings. But the game before that was a one-point loss in LA against the Clippers that broke him down physically. In Green’s words, he was “beat up.”
He spent two extra hours getting his body ready every day after that loss from one week ago. Given an escape route, Green took it. He’s happy to be on an eight-game homestand. That doesn’t change the walls inside Chase Center feeling more like a jail or casino to him than his basketball home.
To Green, the dog days are squinting with no start or end in sight. Just a heavy haze.
“What it is, for those that don’t know this is, like, you can’t quite see the beginning of the season. It was too long ago. Can’t quite see the end. It’s too far away,” Green explained. “The All-Star break also is just a little too far, and those make the dog days for you. So we’re in them.
“Gotta find a way to get wins in them, though.”
Beating the Blazers for the first time in their fourth attempt improved the Warriors’ record to 22-19, putting them on pace for 44 wins, which would be four fewer than last season. The Warriors have yet to achieve a four-game win streak and be four games above .500. They’ve also won nine of their last 13 games but still remain the No. 8 seed in the Western Conference standings and are three games behind the No. 6-seed Houston Rockets to escape the NBA play-in tournament.
Starting with the Warriors’ first game after their Christmas Day win, they’re 6-4 in their last 10 games. The dog days.
Self-assessing what the Warriors have been with 41 games down and 41 games remaining is an easy answer for Butler.
“Mediocre,” he said. “We need to win more games, lose less games. That’s just where we are. I think the worst place to be is to be mediocre because like, yes, it can go either way but nobody wants to be just average. Nobody wants to be average.”
Nothing about the Warriors’ preseason expectations, holding onto their 23-8 stretch with Butler and the what-ifs of Curry’s health in the playoffs, was mediocre. Average wasn’t an answer.
Butler wasn’t on the aux and didn’t have his say in the Warriors’ postgame music. He’s been feeling rap with a Gospel undertone recently, searching for something to lift him and give him the right motion to move forward. That’s what he would have gone with. Take that for what you will.
Trudging through the dog days is a countdown to seeing the light, with opportunities for the Warriors to be on the rise if they can win this fight.
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