On cue, the Warriors are finding their focus. It’s not there every minute of every game, nor does it have to be, but knowing they can reach down and get it has them thinking big.
Really, really big. As in: Closing the season with a 24-game win streak.
“We want to really try and win every game going into the playoffs,” Klay Thompson told reporters in Washington after a 109-101 victory over the Wizards Wednesday night gave the Warriors their fourth consecutive win.
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The boldness comes not in Thompson wanting to win every game -- that’s always the goal for every player in any game -- but in his willingness to say it.
“It might unrealistic,” Thompson conceded, “but it would be nice to do that because we’re right on Houston’s heels. It’s a very tight race right now, so we’ve got to try and take the lead.”
Winning the final 20 games is, actually, conceivable. It’s a lot to expect but the schedule is relatively friendly, as is the vast majority of the competition. The Warriors will be favorites in every one of those games.
They play the sorry Suns three times, the lowly Kings twice and the hapless Hawks twice, with the first of those games coming Friday in Atlanta.
Golden State Warriors
After the Warriors return to the Bay Area this weekend, eight of their next 12 games are at Oracle Arena. It’s the perfect time to gather momentum.
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The Warriors face the Nets and the Lakers each once, and of their four remaining back-to-back sets, three involve either the Suns or the Kings -- with two of them actually against those teams.
The fourth back-to-back is the biggest challenge ahead. The Warriors face the Spurs on March 8 in Oakland and the Trail Blazers the next night in Portland. It would be a tough sweep, but within the reach of a team that last postseason locked in and went 16-1.
Two days after the Spurs/Blazers back-to-back, the Warriors travel to Minnesota, which will be without Jimmy Butler. That’s a win if the Warriors are fully engaged.
The three biggest threats, in addition to the Spurs/Blazers back-to-back, would be games at San Antonio on March 19, at Oklahoma City on April 3 and at Utah on April 10, the regular-season finale.
The way the Rockets are rolling, that final game against the Jazz could have significant consequences.
The Warriors know what it’s like to win 24 consecutive games; they did it to open the 2015-16 season.
They know what it’s like to peak at the end of a season; they did it last March and April, winning 15 of 16, with the lone loss coming after they secured the No. 1 overall seed.
“We’ve got to, obviously, stay in the moment,” Curry cautioned in Washington.
“But we haven’t run off a long win streak in a while, so that would be a nice feeling going into the playoffs if we could build that type of momentum.”
Is a 24-game win streak likely? No. Will it be required to catch the blazing Rockets? Nope. Houston will lose some games in March/April, even though they won them all in February
Any chance the Warriors put together a perfect home stretch requires that they stay healthy and fully focused.
“We’ve been through situations where we just tried to win games, as opposed to reflect on how we’re playing night in, night out,” Curry sad. “We’re approaching that mindset with a different perspective and holding ourselves to a high standard, not just about having our talent and outplaying other teams.
“We’ve got to actually play better.”
If they do that, they’ll have a chance.