Why Warriors’ win over Jazz was ‘biggest game of the year’
With a win against the Utah Jazz, the Warriors can finish no worse than
sixth place in the Western Conference.
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 2: Golden State Warriors’ Gary
Payton II (0) has fun with Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30)
while on the bench in the second half of their NBA game at Chase Center
in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, April 2, 2022. The Golden State
Warriors defeated the Utah Jazz 111-107. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area
News Group)
>SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – APRIL 2: Golden State Warriors’ Gary
Payton II (0) has fun with Golden State Warriors’ Stephen Curry (30)
while on the bench in the second half of their NBA game at Chase Center
in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, April 2, 2022. The Golden State
Warriors defeated the Utah Jazz 111-107. (Jose Carlos Fajardo/Bay Area
News Group)
By MADELINE KENNEY | mkenney@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: April 3, 2022 at 5:45 a.m. | UPDATED: April 3, 2022 at 9:13 a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2022/04/03/why-warriors-win-over-jazz-was-biggest-game-of-the-year/

SAN FRANCISCO — Coach Steve Kerr didn’t have to pin a sign on the
Warriors’ bulletin board in their locker room or repeatedly circle
Saturday’s game in red ink on a calendar.

Even if it wasn’t openly discussed between the coaches and players,
Golden State knew just how important a win over the Utah Jazz this
weekend would be.

“Oh yeah,” said Kerr, beaming with a smile. “Well aware.

“We didn’t talk about it a whole lot as a team but the guys know,” the
coach continued Saturday night after the Warriors’ 111-107 comeback
victory. “I know they were talking amongst themselves.”

Kerr told his coaching staff that the game against the Jazz was the
“biggest game of the year.” And the injured Stephen Curry echoed that
sentiment to some of his teammates.

A loss would have jeopardized the Warriors’ chances of having home-court
advantage in the playoffs. Luckily, Golden State doesn’t need to worry
about that just yet after Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole led the team to
overcome a 16-point deficit in the game’s final eight minutes for the
win in a performance that was nothing short of amazing.

The Warriors (49-29) have now secured a playoff spot for the first time
since 2019 and own the tiebreaker against the Jazz. They can finish no
lower than sixth place in the Western Conference standings and are
currently in sole possession of the No. 3 seed, sitting one game ahead
of the Dallas Mavericks and a cushy three games in front of the Jazz and
Denver Nuggets with just four games remaining in the regular season.

After the game, Poole said the team didn’t directly discuss the game’s
implications, though it had to have been in the back of their minds.

“We just know we need to go out there and win games,” Poole said. “Last
game [against the Phoenix Suns], we had a lot of energy, a lot of
positive things and we just tried to take that momentum and bring it over.”

The Warriors trailed by as many as 21 points in the second quarter, but
Poole kept them in the game, scoring 14 of the Dubs’ 22 points in that
frame.

Golden State defended the perimeter better in the second half, limiting
Utah to shooting 27.3% from beyond the arc, and made the Jazz pay for
playing center Rudy Gobert in drop coverage.

Thompson, who finished with a game-high 36 points, was especially lethal
from 3, converting on four of his seven attempts from behind the 3-point
line in the fourth quarter.

The high-intensity ending to Saturday’s game should set the tone for the
Warriors entering the final week of the season.

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“It really just showed a lot about our team and the guys on our team to
be able to come back from the deficit. We were against a really good
team, all games are important at this point,” Poole said.

The Warriors will travel to Sacramento for Sunday’s game against the
Kings before hosting the Los Angeles Lakers at Chase Center Thursday.
They’ll close out the season with a back-to-back set on the road,
stopping in San Antonio Saturday before their regular-season finale in
New Orleans April 10.

“We should win these next [four] games if we play with the energy we did
tonight,” Thompson said.

Poole hasn’t played in a playoff game yet, but he got a taste of what
that might be like in front of Saturday’s raucous crowd at Chase Center.

“You love to play in an environment like that, Chase is amazing when
everybody’s on their feet,” he said. “I know it’s really hard to play
[there] if you’re the opposing team, and I just hope we can keep the
energy up because when we feel that, it’s almost really hard to not want
to go out there and play as hard as we can.”

--
Madeline Kenney | Warriors reporter