Well, it's that time again folks, the twilight of the NBA season is drawing closer everyday. The time of the year when teams buckle down and scrap it out for playoff positioning, while other teams fade off into the sunset. And with only 15 games left on their schedule the Golden State Warriors are inching closer to another season sans playoffs, despite all the promise the team has for the future.
Currently sitting 7.5 games behind the Memphis Grizzlies for the 8th and final playoff spot in the Western Conference, this is undoubtedly the most important week of the Warriors season. Even though during the last week the Warriors got a win in Cleveland, an exhilarating win over the Orlando Magic in overtime where they set a new franchise record 21 three pointers, and ended Kevin Love's 53 game double-double streak in a beat down of the T'Wolves. But they gave away a game against the underachieving Nets in the 4th quarter and got smacked around by the lowly Kings at Arco/Power Band Pavilion, two games that the Warriors desperately needed to make a run at the playoffs.
Now the Warriors stand on the verge of becoming completely eliminated from the postseason if they lose a few more games, and have a doozy of a stretch ahead of them. They start on Wednesday as they host the talented Dallas Mavericks at Oracle, then head out on a 4 game road trip around the Southwest against the Phoenix Suns on Friday, then in Dallas to face the Mavericks again on Sunday, then to San Antonio on Monday to face the top seeded Spurs, then finish it off the following Wednesday in Houston to play the Rockets. That's 3 of their next 5 games against two of the top teams in the West, with only one of those games at home. The Warriors are going to have to dig really deep to get those wins.
It's not looking good, but it's never over until it's over. Stranger things have happened in sports than a team this far back making the playoffs over the last few weeks of the season. As long as they block out their performance against the Kings and harness their game against the Magic, they might have a shot to win the majority of these next 5.