Warriors' five-game stretch crucial to NBA playoff hopes

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Steve Kerr for awhile now has been saying he truly believes the Warriors will make a run and climb the Western Conference standings.

Well, now is the perfect time to make that happen.

Four of Golden State's next five games are against the Washington Wizards (18-32), Houston Rockets (14-37), Oklahoma City Thunder (20-32) and Cleveland Cavaliers (19-32).

Plain and simple, the Warriors should win all of those matchups. And if that becomes a reality -- and if we assume they lose to the Denver Nuggets on Monday night -- they will be 28-28 entering next Saturday night's primetime game at the Boston Celtics.

Golden State at that point in time very well could have leapfrogged the San Antonio Spurs, who have lost four in a row and eight of their last 10.

The goal for the Warriors (24-27) is to try and catch the No. 8 seed Memphis Grizzlies (26-23).

The bad news is that the Grizzlies are hot right now having won four straight. The good news is that the Grizzlies' schedule is about to get really hard, as this is their eight-game stretch from April 14 through April 28:

Golden State Warriors

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-vs. the Dallas Mavericks, at the Chicago Bulls, at the Milwaukee Bucks, at the Denver Nuggets, at the LA Clippers, at the Portland Trail Blazers (twice), at the Nuggets and vs. the Trail Blazers.

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So the opportunity absolutely is there for the Warriors to make a little noise over the next couple weeks, and put themselves in a stronger position for the play-in tournament.

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