By: Jared Williams
Basketball is full of misconceptions. There’s the idea that “tanking” doesn’t work -disproven by the 96-97 Spurs (for Duncan), the 2002-03 Cavaliers (for some dude named Lebron), the 2007-09 Seattle SuperThunder (for draft picks and if you want to get conspiratorial, low attendance so they could move), and your 2011-12 Warriors (but shhh don’t tell anybody!).
There’s the myth that Steph Curry can’t play defense when actually he has the 10th best Defensive Rating in the NBA out of players who’ve played more than 40 games. There’s the mythological rule that you can’t catch your own air-balled shot. Finally, there’s the idea that the All Star Game equates to the halfway point of the regular season. Then, surprise, you learn that by the All Star Game the Warriors had played 62% of their regular season games, and that was the lowest percentage in the NBA!
If the regular season were an airplane flight, we’re past the point of receiving underrated peanuts and undersized beverages. The “Fasten Your Seatbelt” sign isn’t lit for the descent yet, but the kid with the aisle seat has begun their constant stare across the row in anticipation for the moment the plane will emerge from the clouds and the window’s view will become exponentially more interesting. The All Star Game didn’t mean the halfway point -it meant the beginning of the ending run.
As of right now (February 26th), the Warriors have 28 games remaining in the regular season. Assuming they clinch the West’s #1 Seed with games to spare (which we’ll talk about later), they’ll have 25ish games left with their FullSquad intact because Popovich disciple Steve Kerr will rest players once they clinch. That means the Warriors have 25 games to prepare for the playoffs -to fix the fixable, eliminate the undesirable, and perfect the good. And that’s the subject of this article: the top 4 objectives for the Warriors in the rest of the regular season in order to maximize their playoff chances -going from #4 (of moderate importance) to #1 (DEFCON 1 importance!).