On the day the Golden State Warriors traded for Jimmy Butler, they were 25-26, tied with the Sacramento Kings for the 10th seed in the Western Conference, in danger of dropping out of the Play-In Tournament entirely.
After Butler’s first game with the Warriors — a blowout win over the Chicago Bulls to edge them back to .500 — coach Steve Kerr said the far-off team goal was to eventually climb up to the sixth seed.
It only took 15 days. Butler and the Warriors started rattling off wins so quickly, and the middle of the conference started melting down around them so rapidly, that they snuck into the sixth seed before the end of February, the same month they traded for Butler.
But before this past week, the idea of flying up the standings much further seemed overly ambitious. They’d lost two in a row to start a daunting six-game road trip and still felt a little too far out of reach from teams like the Memphis Grizzlies, Los Angeles Lakers and Denver Nuggets.
But Memphis fired its coach in the middle of a losing streak, and the Nuggets and Lakers suffered a pair of heartbreakers at the buzzer as part of their own wobbly stretches, bringing all three back within striking distance right as the schedule delivered the Warriors this triple-header: at Grizzlies, at Lakers, versus Nuggets.
In three separate cities spread over four days, the Warriors won all three in relatively convincing fashion: 134-125 over the Grizzlies, 123-116 over the Lakers and 118-104 over the Nuggets on Friday night on the rough side of a back-to-back after returning from a 14-day cross-country trip.
“I’m tired,” Draymond Green told reporters. “I just want to go home, relax, go to sleep.”
Steph Curry starred during the four days, scoring 52, 37 and 36 points in the three wins — 125 points on 76 shots in 12 quarters. He already has 23 made 3s in April. No other NBA player has more than 12.
Brandin Podziemski made 12 3s in three games in April, second only to Steph Curry’s 23 made threes in those games. (David Gonzales / Imagn Images)
That other NBA player is Brandin Podziemski. He made 12 3s in that three-game run, backing up his 28-point outburst in Los Angeles with 26 more points against the Nuggets on Friday night. Green was excellent defensively. Butler chipped in 57 points in the three-game stretch. Moses Moody made seven of his 13 3s. The Warriors are 14-0 when using that five-man group as their starting lineup.
The significance of these three wins can be felt in the updated standings. The Warriors are nowhere near out of Play-In danger. The Grizzlies, Minnesota Timberwolves and LA Clippers loom below them. But those three wins have opened up a path for them to pass either the Lakers, Nuggets or both and capture home-court advantage in the first round.
3. Lakers: 47-30
4. Nuggets: 47-31
5. Warriors: 46-31
6. Timberwolves: 45-32
7. Clippers: 45-32
8. Grizzlies: 45-32
The Warriors have the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Timberwolves and Grizzlies. They’ve lost the head-to-head tiebreaker to the Lakers, Nuggets and Clippers. So they’d have to finish a game ahead of Denver and both Los Angeles teams to get slated above them.
“I don’t know that it’s quite as important (to get home court),” Kerr said. “I would say that the main focus for us — and I would guess the other five or six teams — is to stay out of seven and eight (seeds). You just don’t want to mess around with that Play-In situation.”
If the Warriors win out, they’d need the Lakers to lose twice or the Nuggets to lose once to move past them. Considering their remaining schedules, there’s a practical path to the Warriors moving into the third or fourth spot.
Here are the Warriors’ five remaining games: versus Rockets, at Suns, versus Spurs, at Blazers, versus Clippers.
Here are the Lakers’ five remaining games: at Thunder, at Thunder, at Mavericks, versus Rockets, at Blazers.
Here are the Nuggets’ four remaining games: versus Pacers, at Kings, vsersus Grizzlies, at Rockets.
(Top photo of Steph Curry reacting after hitting a clutch 3-pointer against the Nuggets: David Gonzales / Imagn Images)