The Golden State Warriors may be able to earn another trip to the NBA Finals and win it all again this year, but in doing so they will have to go through unfamiliar territory.
The Warriors, who will face the San Antonio Spurs in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, are facing unexpected turmoil due to the injury issues they have faced this season. In total, several All-Star players have missed 66 games this season for the Warriors, that’s the most in the league.
Players like Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green, Kevin Durant and more recently Stephen Curry have all landed at one point or the other in the infirmary with all kind of injury issues.
The team now seems vulnerable because it lacks the depth from previous seasons as their current bench is quite depleted. As a result, a trip to the finals may be a little bumpier than usual.
Especially if they are forced to go head to head with a team as talented and deep as the Houston Rockets, or a resourceful rival like the Oklahoma City Thunder, who has the players to go toe-to-toe with them and finished with a 2-2 record in the regular season series.
More troubling is the fact that at times the Warriors lost games they were supposed to win due to a lack of effort from several players. Consequently, this is the first season under Steve Kerr in which they finish with less than 60 wins.
One player that has been widely criticized has been Kevin Durant, who despite his superstar status failed to deliver when the team needed him the most. Durant had his field goal percentage drop from 55 percent to 48.5 after Curry went down with a sprained MCL on March 23.
Perhaps after being so dominant over the last three years and winning two titles in that span, the Warriors are bored of the process of going through the regular season and trust they can turn the switch on during the playoffs to win it all again.
The problem is that when a team is battling injuries and lack bench depth they may not be able to just turn it on when they desire to do so. If so, this postseason they will have to navigate uncharted waters to earn their third title in the last four years.
