Looking to hold their ground in the packed Western Conference standings, the Golden State Warriors travel to face the freefalling Phoenix Suns on Tuesday.
Golden State (46-32) enters the final week of the regular season in a four-way tie with the Los Angeles Clippers, Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies for the No. 5 spot. The Warriors are also just a half-game behind the No. 4 Denver Nuggets and two games behind the No. 3 Los Angeles Lakers.
After a five-game winning streak boosted the Warriors’ chances of avoiding the play-in tournament, Golden State fell on Sunday to the visiting Houston Rockets 106-96.
In a rare poor offensive night for Stephen Curry, the sharpshooter finished with just three points on 1-for-8 3-point accuracy in 33 minutes.
“This is the NBA season. You go through 82 games and there’s just nights where you don’t have it,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr said of Curry. “Steph didn’t have it tonight. (Houston) did a great job defensively. Take Monday off and get ready for Phoenix.”
As for the Warriors’ postseason chances, Kerr knows his team controls its own destiny with four games remaining. Following the Phoenix game, Golden State plays host to the San Antonio Spurs, visits the Portland Trail Blazers, then faces the visiting Clippers.
“I look at every score and the schedule for tomorrow and the next day after that,” Kerr said. “The only thing I know for sure is if we win our last four games, we’re not in the play-in. We might get a little bit of help so that we don’t need to win our last four, but we can’t worry about any of that. You’ve just got to worry about the next game.”
Despite Curry’s off night, the 37-year-old still paces the Warriors with an average of 24.4 points per game, which is followed by Jimmy Butler’s 17.1 (since joining the team) and Jonathan Kuminga’s 15.6.
Phoenix (35-43) is quickly seeing its postseason hopes slip away, riding a six-game losing streak and sitting 2 1/2 games behind the Dallas Mavericks for the final play-in spot.
After losing leading scorer Kevin Durant (26.6 ppg) to a left ankle sprain on March 30, the Suns dropped all three games of their road trip last week, including a 112-98 defeat against the New York Knicks on Sunday. Trying to keep the club’s head above water, Devin Booker poured in 40 points on Sunday and averaged 38.7 points on the trip.
“Whatever the situation is, whether we’re in or out, we’re going to give it our all and do what we can do,” Booker said.
With Phoenix in serious danger of missing the playoffs for the first time since 2020, coach Mike Budenholzer’s first priority is to get the level of play back up on Tuesday.
“We’re down to four games, and I think we’ve got to put all of our focus on Golden State and getting a win,” Budenholzer said. “We have to get some wins going down the stretch here and see what happens with those other teams, that’s all you can do.”
Durant will remained sidelined for the game against his former team.
–Field Level Media
