Rocket Rivalry: As of March 7, 2024, the Golden State Warriors recorded 33 wins and 28 losses for the 2023-24 season—not the best in the league, but not the worst. On that same day the Houston Rockets recorded 27 wins and 34 losses. As of Sunday, March 25, 2024, the Warriors are 36-34 and the Rockets are 35-35. After the Rockets win eight games in a row they’ve now caught up to the Warriors and are a few games away from passing the number ten-ranked Western Conference team—currently, the Rockets are ranked eleventh.
Why is this such a big deal? If the Rockets end up passing the Warriors at the end of the regular season (Sunday, April 14, 2024) then Golden State will not compete in the play-in tournament—this decides who gets the seventh and eighth playoff seeds. There is time still on the clock for Golden State to hold off Houston, but as the Rockets begin to take off who knows how this regular season will end?
GSW Standout Statistics: Out of the last ten games Golden State has only won four. With only one of the teams’ starters appearing in every game (Jonathan Kuminga—totaling 30.5 minutes, 20.2 points and 4.8 rebounds on average) Head Coach Steven Kerr has been giving his seasoned Warriors players full-game breaks to keep his roster healthy—not just in case they make the play-in tournament, but for the following season. Every one of their starters played at least seven games except for Chris Paul and Klay Thompson; both players equally appeared in three games and played about 30 minutes apiece. Steph Curry, who played seven of their last ten, averaged 30.8 minutes per game (MPG) and 22.9 points per game (PPG). Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins both appeared in nine games and stayed on the court for 30.1 and 30.5 MPG, respectively. As for Paul and Thompson: Paul averaged 31.1 MPG, 12.7 PPG and 7.0 assists per game (APG)—which keeps him even at the top of the team leaderboard for assist—and Thompson averaged 29.3 MPG and 19.0 PPG.
What do all these statistics mean? This displays that the team is playing at a “normal” performance; unfortunately, this version of gameplay isn’t cutting it. Coach Kerr has realized this, too. As he begins to rearrange lines, create new plays and come up with new ways to attack the paint it’s only a matter of time before a winning plan is in play.
Sources: ESPN.com, LandOfBasketball.com, The Athletic, NBA.com, StatMuse.com, Si.com
Kerr’s Korner: Head Coach Steve Kerr has many difficult decisions to make. Towards the middle of the season, he decided to bench Klay Thompson and make him the dreaded “sixth man.” This, along with other hard-to-make decisions, have reporters, analysts and fans—including myself—wondering what is at stake for the future of Golden State. According to Sports Illustrated, Kerr wants to play more than the 11 players currently in rotation. Kerr’s new lineup includes incorporating Trayce Jackson-Davis in place of Kevon Looney. Both players are going to be needed for the finals according to Kerr, in order to get the rookie ready for a potential fight to the final he is going to need reps.
Limiting Minutes: Head Coach Steve Kerr has only been playing Steph Curry for about 30 minutes a game. Analysts, such as Shannon Sharpe are not too fond of this decision. Kerr defends his ruling of limiting Curry’s playtime by saying, “ ... we’ve put the burden of this franchise on his shoulders for 15 years ... if you [want to] say that playing 30 minutes instead of 32 is a difference [between a win and a loss], I totally disagree with that.” in a press conference held on March 6. Others like Kendrick Perkins agree with Kerr’s decision. Perkins recently said, “that’s a smart move by a coach and that has faced reality.”