Reality Check

 The night of my last post, Steph Curry went down with an ankle injury towards the end of a game against the Chicago Bulls that the Golden State Warriors then narrowly lost.  He was out three games, and the Warriors lost two of them.  With Curry back and scoring 31 points in 3 quarters, they looked good beating the Lakers in LA, though the fairly early exit of Anthony Davis with a nasty eye injury might have been the key.  

Then they lost at home to the surging New York Knicks, which combined with the Lakers convincing beat down of Atlanta, dropped them into 10th place.  It was the Knicks' fifth win in a row on the road, but notably Coach Kerr and especially Steph Curry did not emphasize this momentum in their postgame comments.  Kerr said the Warriors had simply been outplayed.  Curry expanded on that idea, noting that a week or so ago he was talking about the Warriors moving up to the sixth slot for the playoffs, but now it didn't seem to matter what slot they got, if they played in the playoffs as they did against the Knicks, they wouldn't get very far.

It was a sobering reality check.  The Dubs have a physical disadvantage against particular teams but  the quality of their play is in their own hands.  So even if it was an off night, there can't be too many of those for the rest of the season or the playoffs.

Meanwhile, Kerr continues to play his depth.  Nobody cracked 30 minutes on the floor against New York but Curry and Green, and both of them barely.  In that game only Jackson-Davis was truly impressive, with 19 points and 10 boards in his twenty-some minutes.  The other bright spot is Klay Thompson, who had great games (though in slightly different ways) against both the Lakers and the Knicks.  He continues to thrive off the bench. Draymond Green may be hampered by injury, and Moses Moody is also questionable.  Obviously Dray is a big factor, and in particular matchups Moody could be. 

Now the Dubs have a chance to improve their doleful record at home with two more games this week, against Memphis and Indiana.