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Windhorst claims flawed Warriors entering ‘energy-zapping' stretch originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

Brian Windhorst believes the Warriors are ill-equipped to handle a long NBA playoff run due to their roster construction.

The ESPN analyst explained that Golden State is in a difficult position in the Western Conference playoff standings.

“I agree with you that the difference between the No. 2 and No. 8 seed in the [Western Conference] is negligible,” Windhorst said to Courtney Cronin, Monica McNutt and David Dennis Jr. on “First Take” on Thursday. “All of those teams believe they can beat each other, and all of those teams have flaws that will allow them to be beaten. Clearly, the Warriors are flawed, look what happened last night.”

"Clearly the Warriors are flawed, look what happened last night." 😬 @WindhorstESPN on how Golden State's 114-111 loss to the Spurs could affect their playoff fate in the West 👀 pic.twitter.com/AaeWXoOwzV

— First Take (@FirstTake) April 10, 2025

The Warriors blew last night’s game against the depleted San Antonio Spurs 114- 111, allowing Harrison Barnes to hit the game-winning 3-pointer as time expired. The shocking loss moved Golden State down in the standings to the No. 7 seed, dangerously close to ending up in the play-in tournament.

Windhorst then explained why the Warriors’ potential postseason lineup decisions might prove to be disastrous.

“The way the Warriors are going to try to pull this off [is] they’re going to try to play with a very small lineup,” Windhorst said. “And I just think what you’re going to ask this team to do to make a long playoff run, what you’re going to ask Draymond Green to do. Guard bigger players, play with a lot of energy. I think it’s going to be energy-zapping for them. So, I think they need to be doing the opposite, they need to be taking load off instead of adding load on.”

After trading for Jimmy Butler, Golden State has emphasized smaller lineups, with Green at center. While that approach has worked, it also strains Green to match up against larger players. Rookie center Quinten Post has looked solid coming off the bench, but it’s uncertain if he could handle more playing time in a hotly contested playoff series.

The Warriors have two regular-season games remaining against the Portland Trail Blazers (35-45) and the Los Angeles Clippers (48-32), and will need to win both contests to have a shot at a top-six seed and a guaranteed playoff berth. The separation between the No. 4 and No. 7 seeds in the conference is a minuscule one-and-a-half games, so Golden State cannot afford another misstep.

If they’re unable to win out and get some help, the Warriors would have a play-in game on Tuesday, an unenviable spot to be in for a team with deep playoff aspirations.

For now, the Warriors turn their attention toward Portland on Friday, a must-win game if they want to avoid the play-in.

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Why Post, GP2 severely were missed in catastrophic Warriors loss originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – The two most important numbers from the Warriors’ 38-point obliteration of the Phoenix Suns on Tuesday night were 26 and 20 – the first representing how many minutes Steph Curry played, and the second being the playing time for Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green.

Both the Warriors and San Antonio Spurs were on the second night of a back-to-back when they played each other Wednesday night at Chase Center. The Warriors’ stars were rested from a blowout win, while the Spurs battled the LA Clippers the previous night and their top two players – Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox are out for the season.

Didn’t matter. The Warriors fumbled a 12-point fourth-quarter lead, losing 114-111 on a night where an inexcusable loss couldn’t be accepted.

The mood wasn’t doom but gloom after the disappointment, and to coach Steve Kerr the absence of two key role players was evident throughout the loss.

“I think we really missed Gary tonight,” Kerr said. “Missed QP. We’ve really developed a good group, rotation-wise, with those guys.”

Gary Payton II (right knee inflammation) and Quinten Post (illness) missed their second straight game. Their presence wasn’t needed against the Suns where the Warriors led from the nine-minute mark of the first quarter through the rest of the game. But this part of the season is all about fit and combinations going into the postseason, and these two players are puzzle pieces placed in unison for the Warriors.

Only two players had a positive plus/minus for the Warriors in their three-point loss. Steph Curry was a plus-14 in 36 minutes, and Post’s replacement, Trayce Jackson-Davis, was a plus-3 in three minutes off the bench.

The non-Steph minutes have turned from a close-your-eyes-and-look-away situation to a major positive since Butler’s arrival. When he sat against San Antonio, any positive momentum created was tossed to the toilet and flushed away.

“Huge,” Kerr said. “I thought that was the key to the game – top of the second, top of the fourth. We played two great quarters tonight, first quarter and third quarter. Both of those quarters, top second and top fourth, they blitzed us. … Those were the two key stretches in the game.”

And they’re where Post and Payton come into play.

To start the second and fourth quarters, Kerr essentially has been replacing Curry with Post, a seven-footer who can let it fly from deep. The lineup of Podziemski-Moody-Butler-Green-Post has a 18.3 net rating with a 112.4 offensive rating and 94.1 defensive rating. Post gives Butler a shooter and gives the group both size and spacing.

He also is shooting 41 percent from three this season, which tops Curry’s 39.5 percent and leads the Warriors. His 3-point prowess was imperative on a night where Brandin Podziemski (1 of 5) and Moses Moody (1 of 7) went 2 of 12 from three. Post is shooting 41 percent from three in the second quarter (25 of 61) and 39 percent in the fourth quarter (16 of 41).

Kerr and the Warriors’ coaching staff have emphasized winning the first and last four minutes of quarters. Through the first four minutes of the second quarter, the Warriors were outscored 15-3. If you extend it to the first six minutes, the Spurs had a 20-3 advantage. Then to start the fourth quarter, the Spurs raced out to a 15-7 run through the first four minutes.

“Couldn’t get a stop,” Green said. “Couldn’t get into nothing offensively. Couldn’t get a stop.”

Is that Payton’s music you hear? He’s the ultimate wild card Kerr can call upon, making his long injury history and health going forward that much more important to the Warriors’ success.

Though the Warriors lost the previous game Payton played, falling 106-96 against the Houston Rockets, Payton was phenomenal. In 20-plus minutes off the bench, Payton had 16 points, five rebounds, two assists and three steals. Individually, Payton had a 128 offensive rating, 100 defensive rating and a 17.0 box plus/minus against the Rockets.

His point-of-attack defense was severely missed against San Antonio’s Rookie of the Year frontrunner Stephon Castle, who blew past Warriors defenders all night. The Spurs went 7 of 10 on threes in the fourth quarter, and three were from clear drive-and-kick situations.

When one or two bench links are missing from the chain, the Warriors can’t crumble. They did. Post has been great with Butler, and Payton’s chemistry alongside Curry can cure all. Are they the ultimate X-factors?

That question can be looked at differently in nearly every game. In this catastrophic loss, the answer was obvious, with hopes they’ll be back as soon as Friday against the Trail Blazers in Portland.

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The feelings Luka Doncic kept private during the past two months started pouring out.

Literally.

Moved to tears by a two-minute montage that played on the video scoreboard at American Airlines Center on Wednesday night, Doncic later recalled thinking, “There’s no way I’m playing this game.”

He didn’t have a choice.

Luka got emotional watching his tribute video from the Mavs 🥹 pic.twitter.com/ySim9PqNUg

— NBA TV (@NBATV) April 9, 2025

Doncic wiped his eyes with a towel, walked by a gauntlet of high-fiving reserves and joined the Lakers’ other starters on the floor.

What followed was a performance described by Lakers coach JJ Redick as “superhuman.” Not even Doncic could explain what happened.

More than two months after the Dallas Mavericks traded him to the Lakers, Doncic returned to the arena he called his home for more than six years.

His line in the Lakers’ 112-97 victory: 45 points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals.

This was the kind of moment in which Shohei Ohtani would have blasted a ball into the upper deck, and that’s what Doncic did.

What Doncic did on Wednesday was the basketball equivalent of Ohtani homering last month in the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Tokyo or homering three times last year on the night he became the first 50/50 player in baseball history.

On the most high-profile stage he’s played on in a Lakers uniform, with the eyes of the entire basketball world on him, Doncic delivered.

“He’s teary-eyed still as we walk out on the court for the tip ball,” Redick said. “To have the emotional resolve to then go put on that kind of performance, it’s superhuman.”

Little wonder why Doncic remains beloved here.

He is beloved in Dallas for the same reasons Ohtani is now beloved in Los Angeles. Because he is fearless. Because he delivers. More specifically, because he delivers when he is expected to.

Never was a performance like this from Doncic as anticipated as it was on Wednesday night.

Doncic’s trade to the Lakers has remained a source of controversy because of how stupid it was, pretty much everyone outside of Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison wondering why anyone would part ways with a generational talent who is still only 26.

Doncic didn’t want to be traded, and Mavericks fans didn’t want him to be traded, creating a strange dynamic in the arena in which fans of both the home and visiting teams were on the same side: Doncic’s side.

When James attempted free throws just four seconds into the game, “Fire Nico” chants started. The chants were heard throughout the game.

As obviously shaken as Doncic was by the emotionally-charged environment before the game, he looked entirely unaffected during it.

“You call that an out-of-body experience,” James said.

Doncic shot and shot and shot.

By the end of the first quarter, Doncic had 14 points. By halftime, he had 31. The 30-point half was his first with the Lakers and the 14th of his career.

“I thought he was gonna get 50,” Redick said, jokingly adding, “I was disappointed.”

Doncic finished the game 16-of-28 shooting, including seven of 10 on three-pointers. He acknowledged he was drained by the experience.

Asked what he was thinking when he checked out of the game and received a standing ovation from what used to be his home crowd, he replied, “Honestly, I don't really know. I wasn't even thinking.”

Doncic said he encountered trouble sleeping on Tuesday night, even though the Lakers had played earlier in the day in Oklahoma City. He said he woke up exhausted on Wednesday. Walking into the arena, Doncic said he was “a little bit of both, happy and angry.”

Nonetheless, he delivered.

Read more:'Everybody had my back.' Lakers forge tighter bond supporting Luka Doncic in Dallas

James explained what this could mean for the Lakers in the postseason.

“I mean, he’s battle tested,” James said. “He’s been in big moments, he’s played in big moments throughout his career. Literally less than a year removed from the NBA finals, so he knows what to expect. He’s special with it.”

Doncic was already an established star when he moved to Los Angeles, just as Ohtani was last year. Now, Doncic will have the chance to do what Ohtani did, to become a champion, to become a civic hero.

He just has to deliver again.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.

Tom Thibodeau just became the fourth-winningest coach in New York Knicks history, passing Pat Riley on Saturday as his team notched their 49th win of the season. But as has often been the case with Thibodeau’s coaching milestones, the moment wasn’t met with pure celebration. Instead, familiar questions around a controversial overtone of his NBA coaching career loomed – namely, Thibs Minutes Syndrome.

Thibodeau has long carried a reputation for running his starters into the ground, a narrative built on his unwavering reliance on his first unit and reluctance to tap into his bench. This year, Knicks starters lead the NBA in total minutes played by more than 500 minutes. And the concern isn’t new: last year, as New York’s best chance to make the NBA finals in decades unraveled amid a cascade of injuries, criticism of Thibodeau’s substitution patterns resurfaced with a vengeance.

Recently, the conversation was reignited when one of Thibodeau’s stars, small forward Mikal Bridges – one of the league’s most durable players – was uncharacteristically candid on the subject in an interview with the New York Post. “Sometimes it’s not fun on the body,” he told Stefan Bondy in March. “I think [Thibodeau] just gets in his ways and gets locked in. He just wants to keep the [starting player] out there.” Bridges followed that with a pointed call to give the bench more run: “We’ve got a lot of good guys on this team that can take away minutes. Which helps the defense, helps the offense, helps tired bodies being out there and giving up all these points. It helps just keeping fresh bodies out there.”

Thibodeau, for his part, has long dismissed the discourse. “I think sometimes people get caught up in the wrong stuff,” he said during a 2018 radio appearance in Minneapolis. “The most important thing is the winning.”

That philosophy has followed him for years – and so has the criticism. His reputation as a career-shortener is now accepted as near-gospel, a perception rooted in part in Derrick Rose’s devastating knee injury under Thibodeau’s watch in Chicago. But that perception, renewed by Bridges’ comments, prompted a deeper question: is there actual, empirical evidence that Thibodeau’s players are more prone to injury?

The short answer? Not really.

NBA injury data is, by nature, frustratingly opaque – injuries are often categorized alongside “rest” or “illness”, making it difficult to isolate meaningful trends. That’s why, in trying to answer the question of whether Thibodeau’s players are actually more prone to injury, we had to go deeper. That led us to Jeff Stotts of InStreetClothes – a longtime independent researcher who’s spent over a decade meticulously building his own proprietary injury database. The data isn’t public, and to our knowledge, it’s never been shared in this form before. Stotts was able to extract and isolate the specific data we needed, and after a month of obsessive digging, what we found was – while perhaps anticlimactic – illuminating: there’s no clear or consistent pattern showing Thibodeau-coached players are more likely to get hurt than anyone else.

Injury spikes during his Bulls tenure can largely be attributed to Rose and a lengthy absence from Richard Hamilton. But aside from those exceptions, there’s no continuous or notable trend. While it’s fair to wonder whether heavy minutes might have subtle or long-term effects – and while Thibodeau’s approach may still be out of step with evolving sports science – the data doesn’t support a definitive link between his coaching style and injury risk.

Still, the process of looking into Thibodeau’s record revealed a broader, perhaps more unsettling trend: injuries have been rising across the NBA for more than a decade, regardless of coaching style, playing time or load management.

CJ McCollum, NBPA president and guard for the injury-depleted Pelicans, sees it firsthand. He talked to the Guardian last week in Los Angeles about the somewhat alarming trend and whether he had any ideas as to what could be causing it. “I think guys are playing a lot more basketball before they get to the NBA: grassroots, high school, college,” he said. “Just a lot of basketball being played. So at 22, 24, their bodies have been through a little more than [players] in previous years.”

It’s a hypothesis others share. In a 2019 feature for ESPN, Baxter Holmes dove into the theory of how early single-sport specialization and the year-round youth hoops circuit have pushed young players’ bodies to the brink before they even reach the league. “These kids are ticking time bombs,” one expert said in the piece.

McCollum also pointed to changes in team routines. “Earlier in my career, we practiced a lot more. Training camp was longer, there were more preseason games,” he said. “Now, with efforts to reduce back-to-backs, we have more single-off-day breaks and fewer practices. Guys are coming in in shape because they’re playing year-round, but there’s not as much ramp-up. Sometimes it’s too much information. Paralysis by analysis.”

There’s also, of course, the unpredictable: luck. “Sometimes injuries just happen,” McCollum said. “You can do everything right and still get hurt.”

His head coach, Willie Green, echoed that uncertainty. “I do not have a good guess on what the reason is,” Green said. “But I think the best thing we can do is have depth – a deep roster to withstand injuries. That’s what we’ve done in the past. This year, we just didn’t have enough guys available to fill in when our main players went down.”

And that’s where the Thibodeau debate still has legs. Even if his players aren’t getting hurt more than others, the broader trend of rising injuries – especially among starters logging heavy minutes – suggests every team may need to embrace depth more proactively. High-end talent isn’t going to become less important in the NBA landscape any time soon, but Green is likely onto something: depth may just be the way of the future for teams looking to weather an increasingly inevitable injury storm.