Warriors keep everyone guessing
Warriors keep everyone guessing
The Suns roll into town, but then Golden State hits the road later in the week for a tough trip
I don’t think anyone knows exactly what they’re going to get out of the Golden State Warriors on any given night. Forget about how the season ends, there’s enough mystery on a daily basis to keep everyone guessing about each and every game. Tonight should be no different. The Phoenix Suns don’t have Kevin Durant - he’s out for a while (perhaps even through the end of the regular season); the Warriors are still without Andrew Wiggins, but got some good news with Jonathan Kuminga being upgraded to questionable. Kuminga, weirdly, rolled his ankle in warmups in a way very similar to Durant’s injury.
GAME DETAILS
WHO: Golden State Warriors (35-33) vs Phoenix Suns (37-30)
WHEN: Monday, March 13th, 2023 // 7pm PST
WATCH: NBCSBA; ESPN
Warriors turnaround moment? Hold on to your hats!
There are still the same structural concerns in Golden State. Andrew Wiggins may or may not be back, same goes for key trade deadline acquisition, Gary Payton II. The roster gamble on James Wiseman came up snake eyes. The Warriors are doing fine, thanks for asking, but they’ve needed to lean heavily on Draymond Green and Kevon Looney to play heavy mid-season minutes. Between all the injuries and uneven play from players like Jordan Poole and Klay Thompson, you don’t have to squint hard to see how the Warriors ended up mired in the middle of the Western conference.
But these are still the defending champs, as Stephen Curry and the Warriors reminded the world via a Saturday night OT thriller.
In talking about this team and what a weird season it has been, it feels like a recurring theme that no matter where you fall within the spectrum of delusional belief - no one is writing this squad all the way off. Part of it is who we are talking about, and a big part of that is what they’ve accomplished.
How many times do they have to remind us?
Well, as Curry said after the last game, we may be a little short on hard evidence this season - but that’s okay.
“My belief is extremely high. But you would like to have a solid run of full squad so you can kind of really assess what we have. Last year, we had certain bright spots where we had everybody and you could see it. But as of right now, we haven’t really had that yet.”
We’ve had great games from Curry. Thompson started off real slow but has really turned a corner in the new year. Looney and Green have proven their worth again and again. Many of the role players have had a shiney moment or two as well. But the main problem is how frequently it all fails to come together.
Even for the best teams we’ve ever seen, there’s no guarantee that it all works out. So no matter what, there’s an uncertainty that we have to live with. Maybe it will all come together, but it won’t be tonight.
If we’re lucky though, the Warriors can do enough to pick up another needed win.
Prediction
Kuminga returns, and the Warriors win.
Post-game party: https://dubnationhq.com/p/post-game-party-thread-warriors-do
Glad this was not a down-the-wire game...we only shot 58 percent from the free throw line, 14-24....something to keep an eye on as we go on the road...