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In today’s Dub Hub:
- Steve Kerr gets honest about the Warriors’ chances of reaching the sixth-seed following Saturday’s 129-101 loss against the Lakers.
- Steve Kerr walks back comments on Kristaps Porzingis’ POTS diagnosis.
- Jonathan Kuminga scores 20 points in Hawks’ 135-101 win over the Blazers.
For the past two seasons, the Golden State Warriors’ postseason path has gone through the Play-In Tournament. Last year, they finished as the seventh seed and had to survive a matchup against the Memphis Grizzlies in order to reach the playoffs. The year before, their season ended early with a first-round play-in loss to the Sacramento Kings.
Entering this season, the goal was clear: avoid that path altogether.
With early momentum and a defined direction following the trade for Jimmy Butler, Golden State believed it could secure one of the Western Conference’s top six seeds. But those plans took a major hit when Butler tore his ACL, ruling him out for the remainder of the season. The situation became even more difficult once Stephen Curry began missing time with a lingering knee injury that has already sidelined him for 10 games and is expected to keep him out even longer. Together, those injuries have made a top-six push significantly harder.
The Warriors now sit eighth in the West, five games behind the current sixth-seed Los Angeles Lakers. That gap grew larger over the weekend after Golden State suffered a 129–101 loss to LA this past Saturday. With just over 20 games remaining, head coach Steve Kerr addressed whether reaching the sixth seed is still a realistic goal.
“It’s a lot to make up with 22 games left,” Kerr said during his postgame press conference. “We don’t even talk about it. It’s not anything that is worth discussing because we just have to try to go out and win and see what happens.”
That mindset reflects where the Warriors are now. Instead of chasing a specific seed, the focus has shifted to the barebones of getting healthy and giving themselves a chance to build momentum for a potential postseason run.
For more on this and other news around the NBA, here is our latest news round-up for Monday, March 2nd:
Warriors News:
Should Warriors shut down ailing Steph Curry until NBA play-in tournament? | NBC Sports Bay Area
Going into Sunday, the Warriors are 4.5 games back of the Lakers for the No. 6 seed. That gap can rise to five games by the end of Sunday night after the Lakers’ game in Los Angeles against the Sacramento Kings. The Warriors are three games behind the No. 7-seed Phoenix Suns, who currently are down Devin Booker and Dillon Brooks. For how difficult leaping into the top six and out of the play-in tournament would be for the Warriors, it’s virtually impossible they fall out of the top 10.
The No. 10-seeded Los Angeles Clippers play the 19-win New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday night. They’re four games behind the Warriors in the win column going into that game, and the Clippers also are Golden State’s next opponent Monday night. More importantly, nobody below the Clippers or the No. 9-seeded Portland Trail Blazers are going to move ahead of them.
Kerr walks back comments on Kristaps Porzingis’ diagnosis | ESPN
“I read about the POTS diagnosis and called the Hawks [general manager] Onsi Saleh,” Kerr said. “He’s a good friend of mine and I said ‘Is this POTS story real?’ He said it’s actually not POTS. That was some misinformation that was out there.”
Kerr walked that hypothesis and assessment back on Saturday when asked to clarify.
“It was a stupid mistake by me to talk about something I’m not qualified to talk about,” Kerr said. “Even trying to discuss the diagnosis, that was a mistake. I need to leave that to professionals.”
Gui Santos describes funny family reaction after signing new deal with Warriors
NBA News:
NBA Storylines: Remaining strength of schedule rankings | NBA
The Clippers have a league-high 11 games remaining against the bottom nine teams in the league. They’re also one of two teams with a league-high seven rest-advantage games remaining on their schedule, though they’re 0-5 in rest-advantage games through February.
Hawks win 4th straight game behind Jonathan Kuminga’s 20-point performance
In case you missed it at Golden State of Mind:
Kristaps Porziņģis out for fifth straight game
Regardless of the question of whether Porziņģis still suffers from the effects of post-orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) or not — a recent controversy sparked by head coach Steve Kerr’s comments during a radio hosting — it is quite clear that Porziņģis isn’t quite 100 percent ready to see the floor for a prolonged period of time.
Follow @unstoppablebaby on X for all the latest news on the Golden State Warriors.