After winning on the road for the eighth straight game on Friday night in Toronto, the Warriors are heating up just in time to aim for a significant surge up the standings.
Additionally, there is still plenty of time for that to occur.
With 23 games left, the Dubs are now one percentage point ahead of the Lakers for the ninth-best slot in the Western Conference after their victory over the Raptors.
However, that also raises a slightly sensitive issue.
Imagine the state of Golden State if the team hadn’t let so many late leads slip away.
Elias Sports Bureau reports that during the 2023–24 season, the Dubs led in the fourth quarter of more than half of their 27 losses. Golden State had a double-digit lead in the fourth quarter on four of those instances, yet they still lost.
The Warriors would be in good condition and in fifth place in the Western Conference if they were to win even five of the 14 games in which they have let up leads in the fourth quarter.
They currently have to have a very strong finish over the next six weeks in order to stay out of the play-in bracket.
But for now at least, the Warriors are demonstrating that they can hang on when the chips are down. In Toronto, they most definitely didn’t stray from that.
With 4:50 remaining in the game, the Raptors had cut their deficit to 106-96 from a 13-point deficit at the start of the fourth quarter, but Golden State rallied and managed to win.
That was significant, especially considering that the Warriors were playing with a depleted roster due to the absence of Brandin Podziemski and Andrew Wiggins.
Following a six-hour delay in their travel from New York, Golden State was likewise operating on a brief rest. Even though the players’ lack of sleep was evident early on, the Warriors were still able to prevail in the end.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Toronto, “Last night was brutal.” “Those are the worst travel conditions I have ever encountered while playing in the NBA.” Although it was somewhat difficult, I’m proud of the group for their competitive spirit. We had a reasonable slow start, but after that, we really settled in and performed well.
The Warriors suffered one of the cruelest collapses of the season on January 4 at Chase Center against the Denver Nuggets. The defending champions overcame an 18-point deficit in the fourth quarter to win on Nikola Jokic’s game-winning 39-foot bank shot at the buzzer.
The Warriors and their supporters were taken aback by the defeat, which occurred during a run of 4-10 play during which the club appeared set to miss the postseason.
When the Dubs lost to Atlanta in overtime after letting a late lead slip away, a month later, it appeared that the pattern might persist.
The roster’s composition probably had a role in some of the issues the squad had early in the season. Although the idea of winning seems straightforward, knowing how to accomplish it consistently is a process that only a few players on the squad were really proficient at.
The team’s core three of Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and Stephen Curry obviously know how to do that. However, the current Warriors squad also includes a number of young players who, while receiving a lot of crucial playing time, may not have the same level of NBA hardship experience as the other three.
The results indicate that they are beginning to understand it now.
“You need to be resilient if you want to win,” stated Green. You have no choice if your leaders are strong. Everyone else sort just follows suit when you have it.
These hard, close, and challenging games are almost a given for Golden State. This season, the Warriors have played an NBA-high 37 crucial games, going 18-19.
They are now demonstrating that they are capable of handling these situations and winning. More than anything else, that suggests a bright future for the Warriors as they begin to consider the postseason.
