{"id":641036,"date":"2026-03-05T13:59:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:59:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/641036\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T13:59:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T13:59:14","slug":"why-warriors-with-curry-injured-have-to-make-nba-playoffs-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/641036\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Warriors, with Curry injured, have to make NBA playoffs"},"content":{"rendered":"

HOUSTON \u2013 Kevin Durant has had a turbulent first season in Houston.<\/p>\n

Privately, the future Hall of Famer has been accused of using anonymous social media accounts<\/a> to trash his teammates. Publicly, his expressions of exasperation are a common sight as his Rockets coworkers brick shots or both defensive rotations.<\/p>\n

But there is no argument that he would be better off around his old Warriors fling<\/a>, who flirted with trading for him last February before moving on to Jimmy Butler.<\/p>\n

While the Rockets enter Thursday\u2019s home game seeded third in the West and winners of seven of 10, the visiting and hobbling Warriors (31-30) are clinging to the eighth seed after losing two in a row.<\/p>\n

Steph Curry has missed the past 11 games and will be out at least another 10 days with runner\u2019s knee.<\/p>\n

Kristaps Porzingis has been sidelined since mid-February with what coach Steve Kerr has dubbed a \u201cmysterious\u201d health condition, after Porzingis previously disclosed that he has postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. And of course, Butler is now rehabbing from a season-ending ACL tear.<\/p>\n

Draymond Green\u2019s<\/a> offense has totally abandoned him of late \u2013 he is\u00a0minus-107 in his last nine games played without Curry.<\/p>\n

Youngsters Brandin Podziemski, Gui Santos and Moses Moody \u2013 who is out Thursday with a wrist injury \u2013 have displayed noticeable improvement with increased opportunity since the calendar turned to 2026, but none are a franchise cornerstone for the post-Curry era.<\/p>\n

These are not exactly ideal circumstances to begin a three-game trip that is shortly followed by a grueling six-games-in-nine-days gauntlet through much of the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

It is the kind of scenario that would beget tanking for a better draft pick for many franchises whose top four players are either old, injured or both.<\/p>\n

Not the Warriors.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to find ways to be better, and get ready for the next one,\u201d 39-year-old center Al Horford said after Monday\u2019s loss to the Clippers. \u201cWe\u2019re moving on to Houston and seeing how we can go in there, and compete, and get a win.\u201d<\/p>\n

A righteous desire to compete till the end isn\u2019t the only reason the Warriors are shunning this approach.<\/p>\n

Yes, the Warriors entered Wednesday night just 1.5 games ahead of the Clippers and just 2.5 above the Blazers for the No. 8 seed, which requires just one play-in victory to reach the playoffs. But there is no realistic way Golden State tumbles to the No. 11 seed, out of the play-in tournament entirely and into better lottery odds.<\/p>\n

The shorthanded Warriors dismantled the lifeless Grizzlies in southwest Tennessee by 20 points a week ago. Memphis is 23-37, 7.5 games back of the Warriors and\u00a0obviously tanking after trading Jaren Jackson Jr. at the deadline.<\/p>\n

Even if the Warriors stumble against both the contending Rockets and Thunder to begin the trip, they finish with a likely victory over the Jazz, whose desire not to field a competitive team has caught the eye of the league office.<\/p>\n

The Warriors are thus persisting in the oddest of spots between the tankers and the contenders during the playoff push.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re stuck making the postseason.<\/p>\n

Can\u2019t worry about the uncertainties or the unknowns of the season,\u201d Podziemski said. \u201cAt least that\u2019s how I approach it and I just try to go out there and give it my best every night.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 Kevin Durant has had a turbulent first season in Houston. Privately, the future Hall of Famer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":641037,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3789],"tags":[7,159,160,559,164,155,4034,192,4032,165,251,135,4033,4031,6,161,162,163,83445,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-641036","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-clippers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-clippers","12":"tag-golden-state-warriors","13":"tag-inside-sports","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-clippers","16":"tag-laclippers","17":"tag-latest-headlines","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-clippers","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-losangelesclippers","22":"tag-nba","23":"tag-peninsula","24":"tag-san-francisco","25":"tag-san-francisco-county","26":"tag-social-alert","27":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116176930171219068","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641036","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=641036"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/641036\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/641037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=641036"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=641036"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=641036"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}