BOSTON — After a sixth loss in their past seven games, Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr laid bare the cold reality his team has been facing for weeks as it hobbles toward the regular-season finish line.
“Can we prepare ourselves for the play-in [tournament]?” Kerr asked. “We’re going to be in the play-in. We know that.”
The loss pushed the Warriors to 10th in the Western Conference standings, a half-game below the Portland Trail Blazers. There’s no threat behind them. All five of the teams outside the West playoff picture are at least nine games back with 13 left.
So there is no more room for the Warriors to fall. But there’s also not much ability to climb. Golden State’s 120-99 road loss in Boston on Wednesday night dropped its record to 33-36, nine games away from the Denver Nuggets (and a top-six guaranteed playoff spot) and six games away from the seventh-seeded Phoenix Suns.
“We’ve had our eyes on six for a while,” Kerr said. “That’s out of the question now. We’re not getting there. If we can string together some wins, try to get to eighth, that’d be ideal. Get two cracks at [getting in the playoffs]. But we’re not getting to seven. We know that.”
Through this turbulent patch, there are signs of slight optimism.
Warriors star Stephen Curry has sat out the previous 19 games because of a persistent right knee issue, but he is on this trip and has been intensifying his court work. He got in some light contact work while in Boston and there is some internal hope he can be cleared for a scrimmage before the end of the trip, which could pave the way for his return before the end of March.
The Warriors were 27-22 on the night Curry called out of a loss to Detroit because of his troublesome right knee. They’ve gone 6-13 since.
Their latest setback was a 21-point blowout loss in Boston, where they looked helpless against the firepower of the Celtics. Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum scored 56 combined points, but Kerr said he was more worried about the nuanced mistakes, lazy third-quarter fouls and propensity to get back-cut on defense.
“We have to be prepared for when we get guys back, when Steph’s back, when Moses [Moody] and Al [Horford] are back,” Kerr said. “If we’re prepared when they get back, we can do some damage and go on a run. But we can’t have game-plan mistakes, we’ve got to build better habits, box out, take care of the ball in transition.”
The Warriors have circled the eighth seed as their newest target because it would give them a guaranteed home game in the play-in tournament, two opportunities to win one game and at least a chance to avoid the top-seeded Oklahoma City Thunder if they did advance.
The LA Clippers, currently eighth, have lost three consecutive games, leaving the door cracked. The Warriors are one game back and face the Clippers on the last day of the regular season.
But that’s still nearly four weeks away. In the meantime, Kerr is asking for the team to build better habits ahead of Curry’s return, but their ultimate fate is essentially determined.
“We know it doesn’t matter if we win 13 games or we lose 13 games,” forward Gui Santos said. “We’re going to be playing [in the play-in].”
