6th in the West, a victory in front of the Los Angeles Lakers who will have to play in the play-in tournament, Golden State qualified for the playoffs by easily controlling Portland (157-101) during the last match of the regular season. And for good reason, not everything has been easy this year for the defending champions. They who hope to win a fifth ring in nine years.
Not far from the industrial disaster at the start of the season, the Warriors of Stephen Curry recovered well. Indeed, when he had just won the trophy Larry O’Brienrewarding the winning franchise of the NBA finals, Golden State got into trouble when Draymond Green hit Jordan Poole in training. To this we can add the repeated absences of Curry et Andrew Wiggins to the many arguments explaining this poor 6th place in the West. However, the Warriors are on 8 wins in the last 10 games and may have started a good dynamic at the dawn of these playoffs.
NBA – Playoffs: Will the Grizzlies go another step or definitely ruin everything? https://t.co/wBOCHbvv4U pic.twitter.com/phSZ4frUXV
— le10sport (@le10sport) April 10, 2023
And the franchise MVP is…
With a season at almost 30 points and 50% in shooting on average, it is very difficult not to release the name of Stephen Curry when you wonder who is the best player in Golden State this year in the NBA. If he missed a big twenty games, injured, the 35-year-old leader was still very effective at three points. Indeed, the most prolific shooter of all time runs 42.7% behind the arc on average.
What should we expect from the Warriors now?
The objective is simple for Golden State : perform a back-to-back. This performance, the franchise had achieved in 2018 in a period when the Warriors have chained five NBA Finals. However, the task will already be difficult against the Kings in the first round since Stephen Curry and his teammates aren’t known for being the strongest defensively. Facing them, they will have one of the best offenses in NBA history according to some statistics, with D’Aaron Fox with the wand.
