Preview: Ok, now do it against a good team
Warriors finally stopped the losing streak, but will be tested by Celtics
The Golden State Warriors are by no means thriving, but tonight’s game against the Boston Celtics represents something of a litmus test. While no single game can truly decide the overall merit of a roster, some of these contests do offer the chance for a re-evaluation against a known commodity.
The Warriors now find themselves on the other side of the coin when it comes to bad teams getting geared up for battles against the upper echelon of the league. Maybe the Warriors have a shot here, maybe not - but darn it, one way or another, you can rest assured that this roster is about to give it their best (albeit likely sloppy) effort.
The Boston Celtics are coming out the other side of the injury window, less than 4 games behind the Detroit Pistons for first place in the Eastern Conference - and with Jason Tatum returning. 1
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (33-35) at Boston Celtics (45-23)
WHEN: Wednesday, March 18th, 2026; 4pm PDT
WATCH: ESPN; NBCSBA
The Last Unicorn
Look, I don’t know if Kristaps Porzingis is the answer or not, but he’s shown that he really can be a game changer, when healthy. It’s that final caveat that brought him to Golden State. The second of two big men plucked from the Celtics after winning a ring. Supposedly rebuilding this year - after a failed repeat attempt - the Celtics are here as a viable contender again.
The hill is looking increasingly steep. A sisyphean task that’s becoming all too familiar for Golden State and their fans. Golden State needs to stop their slide - they had a nice start in their last game - and are hoping to build on that success.2
But look. The reality is that this isn’t one of those games that matters extra, that will be coming in a few more games when Curry (presumably) returns. He’s on the road trip with the team, and according to coach Steve Kerr has been available for some level of scrimmage activity:
“He’s trending in the right direction,” Kerr said. “He’s ramped up his workouts. The reason he’s on the trip is because he now needs extra bodies, people to play with and we’ll be doing that over the course of this road trip over the next week.”
Kerr added that the next step could come soon.
“The hope is he’ll be able to scrimmage by the end of the trip, but it’s literally day-to-day,” Kerr said.
Literally day-to-day.3
In some ways, I’m a relatively high stress guy. Not as an overall approach to life, but there are some more strategic elements to this game called life that have me engaged with more intent.
Curry is everything for this team. They’ve established their floor, but Curry establishes this team’s ceiling. When he comes back, the rules that govern the limits of what this team can and cannot do will fundamentally shift. From the sound of it, that day is approaching sooner and sooner.
This hearkens back to the acquisition of Andrew Bogut, when the team leaned into the uncertainty to chase a big player with a well-fitting upside. Golden State is doing the basketball equivalent of asymmetric warfare, chasing market inefficiencies and hoping for good outcomes.
The thing is, Porzingis is beginning to deliver on some of this vision - even before Curry is here to help serve as a catalyst.4
If I can be so bold as to borrow the words of fellow DNHQ founder, Daniel Hardee, this is an entirely new wrinkle:
Porzingis is averaging 17.2 points in just 23.7 minutes this season. His career line is 19.5 and 7.6 boards in 30 minutes. The Warriors are playing him in half a game’s worth of minutes and getting production that would lead most starting fives. The moment he runs pick-and-roll with Curry, with Moses Moody, Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos orbiting the perimeter and De’Anthony Melton applying chaos from every where else, every coaching staff in the West is going to need a new gameplan and a therapist.
The league hasn’t seen this film yet. Forget the Jimmy conversation. He can’t play right now, and as much as he makes this Warriors roster probably invincible when healthy, he’s not gonna be on that court the rest of the season.
Whether or not this iteration of the Warriors can beat the Celtics isn’t really all that germane to any long term plans or concerns. Instead, both teams have longer lenses focused on outcomes that don’t involve the other NBA Conference for quite some time. But still, it would be pretty cool to beat these Celtics, with our two stolen/acquired big men playing a large role.
Eventually, the Warriors are building for an outcome very much in parallel to what the Celtics have found this season. Some secondary players have smoothly moved into primary roles, and the team has gelled enough that they can legitimately be considered an elite.
Golden State has tried this before. Rehabbing a unique player isn’t necessarily unique to basketball, but it truly is one of Golden State’s most repeated strategic priorities. By playing the long game with these gambles on extremely talented - but injured - players, the Warriors are able find some market inefficiencies
If this is what it takes for it to come together for the Warriors, then at least the proof of concept has been believable.
Prediction
I’ll be gone for a while (day job work trip), but I think the Warriors won’t end up as the 9th or 10th seed.
See you in April!
This is a crazy comeback. Initially injured on May 12, 2025 (during Game 4 of the Eastern Conference semifinals against the Knicks). The injury occurred in the final minutes of the game, and he underwent surgery the next day. Jimmy Butler’s surgery was quite a bit longer out from the initial injury.
Interestingly, the last time these teams faced off this season (their first and only preceding matchup this year) it was the first game that Porzingis appeared in as a Warrior
Same.