Kurtenbach: Here’s the Warriors’ path to another title — or a potential
breakup
Warriors-Kings: Sacramento is the first step as Golden State seeks to
ignore the regular season and go back-to-back
>Golden State Warriors’ Draymond Green #23 reacts in the first quarter
of their NBA game against the Sacramento Kings at the Chase Center in
San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area
News Group)
By DIETER KURTENBACH | dkurtenbach@bayareanewsgroup.com | Bay Area News
Group
PUBLISHED: April 15, 2023 at 8:05 a.m. | UPDATED: April 15, 2023 at 8:05
a.m.
https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2023/04/15/kurtenbach-heres-the-warriors-path-to-another-title-or-a-potential-breakup/

The Golden State Warriors might have been the last team to qualify for
the playoffs, but they also could be the last team standing come June.

Yes, again.

The Warriors will begin their quest for a fifth title in eight years
Saturday night in Sacramento (5:30 p.m., KGO-TV). And while the team’s
44-38 record in the regular season left plenty to be desired, the Dubs
are confident and eager for the “real” season.

The path to the title will not be easy — the Warriors’ regular-season
struggles cannot be discounted. At the same time, the Western Conference
could easily be turned upside-down and still make sense.

After so many seasons in which the Warriors were an obvious choice to
win the title, these playoffs have a chance to be chaotic.

But if we’ve learned one thing about the Warriors, it’s that they thrive
in chaos.

They live for it.

“You feel it more than you see it,” Warriors guard Jordan Poole said of
the intensity of the playoffs. “How possessions matter, play calls,
missed shots, fouls, or turnovers — you feel the magnitude… Those who
like to play in the bright lights thrive in situations like that and
look forward to them.”

Top Las Vegas sportsbooks have the Warriors as the No. 2 favorite to win
the Western Conference, trailing only the Phoenix Suns, led by former
Warrior great Kevin Durant.

If the Dubs make good on that bet, it will be Golden State’s seventh NBA
Finals appearance since coach Steve Kerr was hired before the start of
the 2014-15 season, further cementing Golden State’s status as one of
the greatest teams in modern sports history.

There’s more on the line for the Warriors than just a trophy this spring.

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With new league rules set to further punish big-spending teams, the
Warriors could be the last NBA dynasty.

And if the Warriors don’t win this postseason, it could well bring about
the breakup of the team’s dynastic core, as Draymond Green could opt
into free agency this summer, and league luxury tax costs could chase
him from Chase Center.

No pressure, right?

More grim news: After a charmed path to the NBA Finals last season —
everything seemed to break just right for the Dubs — the Warriors’ path
in these playoffs could prove treacherous.

After a half-decade of Warriors dominance, the NBA wanted parity. The
Warriors haven’t quite cooperated, but the rest of the league has upped
its game. The Warriors’ possible playoff opponents are a who’s-who of
the NBA’s best.

>Sacramento Kings' De'Aaron Fox #5 goes to the basket as he's guarded
by Golden State Warriors' Moses Moody #4 in the third quarter of their
NBA game at the Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Nov.
7, 2022. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

The Warriors will start in Sacramento. And despite this being the Kings’
first playoff appearance since 2006 — the first iPhone was still eight
months from being released the last time they were in the playoffs —
Sacramento is no joke. Led by former Warriors top assistant coach Mike
Brown, the Kings posted the greatest offensive season in NBA history,
averaging 120 points on 104 possessions per game.

The Kings will test the Warriors’ defense from the opening tip of Game
1. If Green and company can’t slow down that historic attack, the
Warriors might find themselves in the unenviable position of having to
go basket-for-basket with Sacramento, all while lacking home-court
advantage.

The Warriors should advance past the Kings, though — they are a far more
complete team.

But, as you’d expect, the challenge will only increase from there. The
Warriors will face either the Los Angeles Lakers or the Memphis
Grizzlies in the second round.

That’s the Warriors’ old rival — LeBron James — or their new rivals —
the trash-talking, always-complaining, Warrior-hating, rough-and-tumble
Grizzlies.

Again, the Warriors are markedly better than both teams, but that
doesn’t mean either opponent will fail to exact a price from the champs
along the way, or maybe even beat them.

If the Warriors can advance to the Western Conference finals, they might
get a break — in the form of the No. 1 seed Denver Nuggets, whom the
Warriors dispatched in five games in last year’s first round.

>Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry #30 shoots over Sacramento Kings'
Domantas Sabonis #10 in the second quarter of their NBA game at the
Chase Center in San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, Nov. 7, 2022. (Jane
Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

But they might also face Durant and the Suns, in a series between two
titan teams that will be seeping in emotion and will carry an NBA
Finals-level of national interest.

It’s exhausting to think about navigating all that just to reach the
Finals, where the best of the East — the league’s better conference this
season — looms.

In all likelihood, that means either the Milwaukee Bucks, the NBA’s best
team this year, led by arguably the best player in the world, Giannis
Antetokounmpo; the Philadelphia 76ers, led by this year’s presumed MVP
Joel Embiid; or the Boston Celtics, last year’s opponent in the Finals.

If the Warriors can win another title, it’ll be the team’s most
impressive championship yet.

And it will come after as unimpressive of a regular season as this team
has had in its dynastic, healthy seasons.

So did the Warriors spend the last six months teasing the rest of the
league into a false sense of possibility, or are they genuinely vulnerable?

Or, to ask another way: Will the Warriors be raising another trophy in
June, or will we be raising a glass to one hell of a run?

Tonight is the first step on the road to finding out.

--
Dieter Kurtenbach | Sports Columnist
Sports columnist Dieter Kurtenbach analyzes the amazing and roasts the
absurd in the world of sports for the Bay Area News Group. He was
previously a national sports columnist for Fox Sports and a staff writer
at the South Florida Sun Sentinel. He can also be heard on KNBR
(104.5-FM, 680-AM). He graduated from the University of Missouri in
Columbia, Mo., with a BA degree in journalism.