Steph Curry<\/a> (knee) missed his 10th consecutive game, Kristaps Porzingis (illness) was ruled out shortly before tipoff and what was left of the Warriors\u2019 starting five crumbled against the Lakers\u2019 Big 3.<\/p>\nLeBron James (22 points, nine assists, seven rebounds), Luka Doncic (26 points, eight assists, six rebounds) and Austin Reaves (18 points) had all checked out for the final time by the midpoint of the fourth quarter and still individually bested the Warriors\u2019 top scorer, Gui Santos (14).<\/p>\n
Rookie Will Richard added to the Warriors\u2019 injury woes, rolling his ankle and leaving the game in the second quarter.<\/p>\n
![\"Golden](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f96afb3c26ba252469a67a4d43c435b6.jpeg\"\/)
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Golden State Warriors\u2019 Stephen Curry, left, speaks to Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic, right, after an NBA basketball game, Saturday, Feb. 28, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo\/Godofredo A. V\u00e1squez) AP<\/p>\n
Only more miles will be required to be put on the Warriors\u2019 aging and ailing group the further they fall in the standings. As the No. 8 seed as it currently stands, they would need to either beat the seventh-seeded Suns on the road or prevail in a second play-in contest against the Trail Blazers or Clippers, who have the Nos. 9 and 10 spots all but locked down.<\/p>\n
After the loss, the Warriors trail the Suns by three games for the No. 7 seed with a 2.5-game cushion on the Blazers in the No. 9 spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t even talk about it,\u201d Kerr said. \u201cThat\u2019s not anything that is worth discussing because we just have to try to go out there and win and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Warriors emerged from the play-in last season to upset the Rockets in the first round. But the veteran group said the pedal-to-the-metal final two months of the season, including the play-in win, caught up to them as Curry went down injured and they lost to the Timberwolves in five games the following round.<\/p>\n
Making matters more complicated, Golden State is already without Jimmy Butler for the rest of the season and is unsure when Curry will be cleared to return. The team is set to provide an update on his right knee Sunday, but Curry reportedly suffered a setback over the All-Star break and the ailment commonly known as runner\u2019s knee already has a varying timetable.<\/p>\n
In an interview with ESPN during the game, Curry said he expects it is \u201cgoing to be a little longer\u201d before he is cleared to return. Golden State hosts the Clippers on Monday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Warriors Gary Payton Jr. SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 If they hadn\u2019t already, the Warriors can probably kiss any hopes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3790],"tags":[1013,7,559,870,4077,313,871,4034,1698,300,4044,185,251,150,4033,4043,368,326,6,66742,932,859,308,1617,255,17879],"class_list":["post-632093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles-lakers","tag-austin-reaves","tag-basketball","tag-clippers","tag-gui-santos","tag-jake-laravia","tag-jimmy-butler","tag-kristaps-porzingis","tag-la","tag-la-lakers","tag-lakers","tag-lalakers","tag-lebron-james","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-losangeles","tag-losangeleslakers","tag-luka-doncic","tag-marcus-smart","tag-nba","tag-nba-basketball-game","tag-steph-curry","tag-the-warriors","tag-timberwolves","tag-trail-blazers","tag-warriors","tag-will-richard"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116153357424396706","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Warriors](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/f24d5249f3266caa394e5ff842563abe.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\n![\"Golden](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/06f8c4c90f9ea67d708af77167dcced0.jpeg\"\/)
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