Warriors gain ground in “8 Games To Make or Break The Season”, now face The Killer 8

Exceeding expectations in the most bummer way possible

Bleacher Report @BleacherReport

Warriors are 7-26 on the road this season.

So, how did those Eight Games go?

Let’s check in on my “eight games without Steph to make or break the season”. I targeted this stretch as a crucial one that could decide the season. I anticipated needing to go 3-5 in order to keep playoff hopes alive. If we can just get into the playoffs with healthy starting five, then GSW will have a fair shot.

Target: (2-1)

• Fri, Feb 24 vsHouston - win

• Sun, Feb 26 vsMinnesota - win

• Tue, Feb 28 vsPortland - win

Target: (1-4)

• Thu, Mar 2 vsLA - win

• Fri, Mar 3 vsNew Orleans - win

• Sun, Mar 5 at Los Angeles - loss with Steph

• Tue, Mar 7 at Oklahoma City - loss with Steph

• Thu, Mar 9 at Memphis - loss with Steph

On the positive side, GSW did MUCH better than I anticipated, going 5-3 instead of 3-5. On the negative side, they’ve looked worse and gotten less healthy since Steph has come back. And they started so well that some people got excited that the team had turned a corner instead of just celebrating that the team played their hearts out to win five straight massive comeback wins.

Let’s look ahead to the next stretch:

Things will get worse before they get better: The Killer Eight

This is a rough stretch, even if Steph is back at a high level. 5 game road trip sandwiched by three home games against serious contenders. They should beat ATL and HOU. The other teams are better, but if they can steal just one game, that makes them 3-5 and 37-38 by the end of this. That should be right in the middle of the scrum for the play-in.

Target: (3-5)

• Sat, Mar 11 vsMilwaukee

• Mon, Mar 13 vsPhoenix

• Wed, Mar 15 at LA Clips

• Fri, Mar 17 at Atlanta

• Sat, Mar 18 at Memphis

• Mon, Mar 20 at Houston

• Wed, Mar 22 at Dallas

• Fri, Mar 24 vsPhiladelphia

The home stretch

7 games to go, and GSW will have to go 3-4 to make the target of 40 wins. But this is a stretch where a Full Squad could make a last ditch run.

SAS and probably OKC are trying to lose. DEN and SAC may be resting.

Target: (5-2)

• Sun, Mar 26 vsMinnesota

• Tue, Mar 28 vsNew Orleans

• Fri, Mar 31 vsSan Antonio

• Sun, Apr 2 at Denver

• Tue, Apr 4 vsOklahoma City

• Fri, Apr 7 at Sacramento

• Sun, Apr 9 at Portland

Emotional balance for the next two weeks

Just a suggestion. This team is unlikely to “turn the corner” unless everyone gets healthy and health seems unlikely until near the playoffs, if at all.

So for the rest of the season, we are going to see a .500 team that is struggling to stay in the mix while working its healing components back into the team. This next stretch of games is HARD. The home games will be against better teams, and you shouldn’t look down on any road game in the NBA (except to teams trying hard to lose).

The next eight games aren’t a referendum on whether Poole should be traded in a salary dump, whether Draymond should be waived, whether every player under 32 should be traded for a backup center. They won’t prove that the players are gutless, that Kerr has no concept of lineups, that Myers destroyed the team, that the league has solved the Warriors.

They are just a hard stretch of games to be survived. Prepare for GSW to lose the majority of them, but pull for them to win each game in front of them and for them to stay in the mix going into the final 7 game stretch of the season.

The next eight games are going to be TOUGH, so if you can’t deal with watching the injured, battered lion in winter valiantly trying to figure out things out and probably losing more than they win, you might need to avert your eyes.

De Fense! Clap clap. De Fense! Clap clap.