The players are saying all the right things and abusing all the right cliches in explaining why they aren't winning more often. They've run out of cliches. There are no more excuses.
Steph Curry missed another game with his fragile foot. Andris Biedrins remains on the MIA report. The second unit is better than the starting five statistically speaking. Two members of that "second" unit Ekpe Udoh and Dominic McGuire have turned into starters the past two contests.
They had won two in a row prior to the All-Star break beating the Clippers at home and Phoenix on the road. They had a five game road trip to start the second half and got one win in their first three stops in Indiana, Atlanta, and Philly.
The players were talking about how they aren't playing down to their competition anymore and how they were a different team now. They were going to win the last two games of the trip against a couple of dregs from the Eastern Conference in Toronto and Washington. Instead they threw up another stink bomb in Toronto and lost to a team that scored 83 points as they could only manage 75 themselves.
2-3 is no where near as nice as 3-2. Hoping they can bounce back today from the hangover against the Wizards that is, otherwise they are looking a 1-4 road trip squarely in the face. Convention wisdom says that Mark Jackson's regular sleep paterns have been altered by now.
The second half schedule does them no favors as it is heavily weighted in road games and with teams in the playoff hunt. After the Wizards game they play only once over the next four days, and that is against the Grizzlies on Wednesday. Starting Saturday at home against the Mavs, they play six games in eight nights and three of them are on the road against the Clippers, Kings, and Jazz. Mixed in between are the two other home contests against Boston and Milwuakee.
Technically speaking the Warriors are still in the hunt for the eighth and final playoff spot. They are five games behind current spot holder the Denver Nuggets. There is also that small problem of having four other teams in between them and their coveted spot. So, that being said Mark Jackson had better wrap his head around the fact that this particular team, barring any huge, giant, Howard like trade coming up before the deadline, is not going to be a playoff team and should see what their younger players can actually provide for them or for someone else in trade value.
In order to keep their #1 pick in next year's strong draft they would need to be in the top seven. Eight or higher and the pick is part of a piror trade. I'm not sure what Joe Lacob and company have up their sleeves, but Warriors fans who are constantly blue in the face, continue to hold their breath, waiting for the time when their team is for real.
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