After a season of such misery for the Warriors, any postseason exit is merciful originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
SAN FRANCISCO – At the risk of being accused of suggesting public euthanasia, here goes.
As it trends, the Warriors and their skeletal roster will plunge into the offseason in a few days, perhaps as soon as Wednesday. Barring the miraculous, surely sometime in April.
Would a brief postseason be such a horrible conclusion?
Would that not be a merciful way to close a profoundly unsatisfying season punctuated by a merciless second half?
Yes, I know athletes train to do their best, give their all, and never abandon the goal. Winning is good for any soul, and for some, nothing matters more.
This is not about surrender. This is about an aggressive futility that sank its teeth into the Warriors and shows no sign of letting go.
With Jimmy Butler III sidelined for the season and Stephen Curry out for nine weeks, the Warriors steadily spoke of building good habits and playing as a team, being “on a string” defensively on one end while making defenses work on the other. They knew they were hampered, yet they had difficulty giving themselves a chance.
The most recent example came Thursday night at Chase Center, where Golden State ended its home schedule with a 119-103 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers. Such a score was rationally predictable with Kristaps Porzingis, Al Horford and Curry in street clothes.
The Warriors’ principles were a mess. They bobbled and flung their way to 19 turnovers, gifting the Lakers 28 points. Through three quarters, Golden State had more turnovers (16) than assists (15), literally helping LA more than each other. The Warriors are 80 games into the season, without Curry for 28 of the last 30, and still have too many possessions dying on the dribble, sprinkled with maybe one late-clock pass. Zero-pass possessions are a sin in coach Steve Kerr’s system, yet there are times when the ball never leaves the original dribbler.
The Warriors have endured such unrelenting misery over the last 37 games that they surely are bracing for what lies ahead Friday night when they face the Kings in Sacramento, or Sunday when they close the regular season against the Clippers in Los Angeles or next Wednesday when they land in the NBA play-in tournament.
“We’ve been through the wringer here over the last six, eight weeks,” Kerr said Thursday night. “But we’re in a position where we have a chance to get into the playoffs. Got some guys who are getting healthy. Have a chance to hopefully put together a game tomorrow where we have what our roster would look like for the play-in games.
“So tomorrow and Sunday to develop a little rhythm and get a swing at it. We got some hope.”
That hope must be tempered by uncertainty. That’s the way of the Warriors for the last 80 days. The Warriors do not know who will be available for any of those games because each day begins with multiple availability mysteries. Golden State’s injury reports since Jan. 19 have been depressing on sight and epic in length.
Yet Kerr continues to insist there can be internal growth.
“For the next two games, just intensity and connection defensively,” Kerr said of his desires for the team. “Talking, communicating and really being loud and being aggressive. Draymond (Green) will take care of that. And then, on offense, we’ve got to be a little cleaner; we had 19 turnovers tonight. We put a lot of guys in some tough spots.
“But getting some guys back, we should be able to do a better job of taking care of the ball and executing.”
Getting some guys back has been the rallying hope of Kerr and the healthy guys on the roster for two months. Losing Butler for the season punched a gaping hole through the Warriors’ lofty ambitions. When Curry went down 11 days later and during the nine weeks he missed, that hole expanded and hope began fading. The entire operation went from sagging slowly to sinking like a stone.
Moses Moody, a key reserve and occasional starter, sustained a season-ending injury last month. Though Kerr hopes Horford can return Friday night or Sunday, his season will end with him missing more games than he plays.
The paper-logical trade on Feb. 5, an attempt to rescue this season and perhaps bolster those to come, brought them the zigs and zags that innately come with teams buying a ticket to The Porzingis Experience.
The Warriors spent weeks yearning for Curry’s return, largely to witness his court collaboration with Porzingis. As they waited, they dropped from eighth place in the Western Conference to ninth and, finally, to 10th, which reserves the last seat on the last bus to playoff possibilities.
“We’re back in the fight with Steph,” Kerr said after Curry’s encouraging return last Sunday.
“We got Steph,” Brandin Podziemski said Thursday night, citing the source of his optimism. “That solves a lot of it. But we got a lot of winners. KP’s won a championship. Al’s won a championship. Steph and Dray. We got vets that have won championships, Gary (Payton II).
“So, I like our chances when it comes to a one-game situation.”
Despite a season during which so many elements the Warriors could least afford to go wrong went catastrophically wrong, there remain at least three games. Coaches and players already are prepping to face either the Clippers or the Trail Blazers next Wednesday.
Golden State would like a fourth game, in which a victory would mean a trip to Oklahoma City to open a first-round series against the defending champion Thunder. The Warriors would like to go out, if they must, on their feet. It’s the noblest kind of exit.
Deep down, however, they could not be blamed, after all they’ve been through, for feeling that if ever a season deserved to be put out of its misery, it is this one.
