After a hot start to the 2021-22 NBA season, the Warriors are limping into playoffs in search of a seventh league title.
With the team’s confidence at a season high back in November, Klay Thompson, observing from the bench, boldly proclaimed it was “championship or bust” for Golden State. Is that still the case?
General manager Bob Myers stopped by NBC Sports Bay Area’s Warriors Pregame Live on Wednesday, where he told Dorell Wright he isn’t too fond of the phrase.
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“I don’t love [championship or bust] even if we were healthy and great,” Myers said. “I will say that I like the saying that we think we have a chance to win. We think we have enough. … If we’re healthy, we’ll find out if we have enough -- and the team that has enough is the team that wins.”
At the time of Thompson’s comment, the Warriors were five weeks into the season and had the best record in the NBA. Even without Thompson, the remaining core of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala paired with the presence of young stars such as Jordan Poole had the team flying high at the top of the Western Conference standings and in the power rankings.
Now, however, a freefall over the Warriors’ last 40 games -- amplified by injuries to their core vets -- has the team sitting at the No. 4 seed. They have lost four straight and seven of their last eight games, and are 6-12 since the All-Star break.
The Warriors had an NBA-best net rating of 13.6 through the first 40 days of the season, per NBA.com. Days 41 through 80 saw that rating dip to 3.2, then up slightly to 3.4 over the next 40 days. Throughout the last quarter of the NBA season, Golden State’s net rating is -1.0 through March 28.
Still, Golden State is rolling into its last five games of the season with high hopes. The Warriors are desperately clinging on to their chance for home-court advantage following Wednesday’s 107-103 loss to the Phoenix Suns, which saw them lose their grasp on the No. 3 seed.
As the team eagerly awaits the return of Curry, Green and Iguodala have returned to the court and Thompson is back in the picture. How far they’ll go in the postseason remains to be seen, but Myers still has somewhat of an “all or nothing” attitude as the team chases its fourth title in eight years.
Golden State Warriors
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“There’s degrees of how close you get. We’ve been the closest you can be in ‘16 and lost in Game 7. Then you feel like, ‘You know what, we were right there,’” Myers said. “But if you lose before the finals, I certainly don’t go, ‘We almost won.’ You lose in the first round, you didn’t almost win anything. If you lose a series and it didn’t go seven games, I don’t want to hear it.”
The Warriors will look to improve upon their playoff seed when they take on the Utah Jazz at Chase Center on Saturday.
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