Lunch and the Warriors? Matinee game day preview
UPDATE: Porzingis out for this game (illness)
POST-PUBLISH EDIT / BREAKING NEWS: PORZINGIS IS OUT TODAY
The Golden State Warriors are officially in the tail end of the regular season now. The All-Star break is wrapped up, the health of the team’s players feels more important than the outcome of any given game - and the Sunday matinee games are starting up.
Today, the Warriors are on ABC at 12:30, in what used to be one of the primary heralds of the impending arrival of the post-season. Now, sure, it’s still ABC, but it’s one of the myriad options fans have to juggle in order to watch their favorite teams so I don’t know what to call this; certainly not a major broadcast network; maybe one of the largest streaming and viewing services?
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (29-27) at Denver Nuggets (36-21)
WHEN: Sunday, February 22nd; Noon-thirty ←early game alert!
WATCH: ABC
The stars are aligned, the dice cast
For those that may have missed it, the Warriors announced on Thursday that Curry would be re-evaluated in 10 days - a timeline that that entails missing at least five more games. Curry, who hasn’t played since the end of January, will certainly need additional time. Even assuming that he is fully cleared at that time, it’s all but a given that Curry will end up missing more than just the five games that will be played prior to his re-evaluation. In other words, “mid March”; which would give the team about a month ahead of the Play-in Tournament to get their rhythm back.
Today’s opponents, the Denver Nuggets have gotten their star back, but have seen mixed results in regards to getting their old cadence re-established.
Between these two teams sits most of the playoff chase. The Nuggets are sitting solidly in 3rd, part of a mid-tier bucket of teams that extends all the way down to 6th place.
Similarly, the Warriors find themselves floating in the midst of an equally large logjam, just a bit further down the standings. But barring anything extreme, the playoff roster is pretty well set out West - maybe the order will shuffle around, but it appears as if we can pretty safely already predict the 10 playoff teams this season.
So thankfully, this means that the Warriors have picked a fine time to get experimental. The lost time without Curry is significant, and all but removed any chance of climbing up into that higher middle bracket; but for a team with so many injuries and question marks, this is a perfectly acceptable contingency. The Warriors are certainly not where they want to be, but the more humble dream of showing up as a low seed and causing some playoff noise is still very much intact.
Any consideration of Curry just getting shutdown to fully recuperate ahead of next season was laughed out of the room by Kerr late last week. It’s clear that as soon as Curry is healthy enough to go, he’ll be back.
“Well, what are we protecting him for? We’re not going to do anything silly, obviously,” Kerr said. “We are protecting him. But as soon as he’s healthy, he’s going to play. That’s what this is about. We have lots to play for. We’re right in the mix in the playoffs. This is an injury that’s been nagging. It’s not like this is something that’s going to hurt him next year if we put him out there now.
“It’s just injury management. As soon as he’s healthy and ready to go, he’ll be out there.”
So this afternoon becomes less about a single result and more about signals: Which lineups hold? How does the spacing feel? Can the Warriors manufacture enough tempo and confusion to survive without their engine? These are the questions that matter now. Anyways, Golden State will continue to experiment with their new addition (and existing known absences), still seeking a new stable reality while continuing to await the return of star, Stephen Curry.
Kristaps Porzingis was more than good in his debut: he was intriguing. Though not yet the sort of needle mover the Warriors expect him to become here eventually, having him on the court was immediately noticeable. One of the biggest players to ever wear a Warriors uniform, Porzinigis also provides the deep shooting touch that has always been the interesting missing element that has proven to be the most elusive.
Quintin Post came as close as any to fulfilling that last season, but a declining shooting percentage from behind the arc (dipping to 35% after hitting 40.8% from deep last season on similar shot volume) had derailed that - even prior to the acquisition of Porzingis.
So now, the Warriors are going to hope to keep their playoff dreams alive, while also figuring out this newest, latest iteration of their roster. Coach Steve Kerr isn’t done with his rotation experiments just yet
"Hopefully the minutes go up, but it’s all really kind of day to day," Kerr said. "Our training staff will determine that. It was a good starting point last night -- he felt good after the game, we had a good practice today and Kristaps took part in everything."
Kerr went on to indicate that Porzingis almost certainly won’t play in this week’s upcoming back-to-back, but they do expect his minutes totals to slowly ramp up.
It’s just the latest balancing act in a season that has seemingly spent most of the calendar on the high beam. Arms aren’t flailing, but only because the internal balancing muscles are so well developed.
What the Warriors are navigating now isn’t merely a stretch without their best player - it’s a temporary identity shift. Without Curry’s gravity bending defenses into geometric compromise, Golden State must manufacture offense through experimentation, pace, and size combinations that would normally serve as changeups rather than foundations.
Prediction
The Warriors win!
Porzingis gets in some good minutes, but the game is broken by the Warriors multi-guard lineups slicing and dicing Denver’s defense into enough of a mess for the victory.
post game celebration thread is up!
A sentence that Dub Nation has learned to fear:
The only thing standing between GSW and a massive massive upset is inbounding the ball.