Marcus Smart's ferocious fall to the ground cost the Warriors dearly.
Steve Kerr called it a "dangerous move" and immediately quarreled with Smart, but after the game calmed down, the first time to lift the difference, Draymond Green and Curry himself also expressed their positions, admitting that Smart's action was "not dirty".
Cole is also a player, of course, understands that Smart did not deliberately hurt people, and the reason why he did not suppress the fire is mainly because he knows how Curry's injury will affect.
Mr. Curry was shown to have a sprained ligament in his left foot that was not too serious to be retested two weeks later. However, with only a few weeks left in the regular season, this will still cost the Warriors a lot.
Counting from the March 17 battle against the Green Army to today's away Game Wizards, the Warriors, who lack Curry, have swallowed four of their last five games and are in worrying shape. Worse still, they could even fall out of the top four in the West and lose home field advantage in the first round.
The Warriors have the last seven games of the regular season (3 home and 4 away), and the remaining schedule is 7th among the league's 30 teams, with an overall win rate of 53.2%.
After playing the Wizards today, the Warriors will fly to Memphis overnight to challenge the Grizzlies. Next, they will face the Suns, Jazz, Kings, Lakers, Spurs and Pelicans. Among them, the Grizzlies, Suns, and Jazz are all top-notch and difficult opponents, while the Lakers, Spurs, and Pelicans are fighting for the place in the playoffs, and will not easily lose any game, only the Kings, relatively easy to play.
What's more, in these 7 games, the Warriors have to face three "back-to-back" schedules, including one "back-to-back", according to the Warriors' consistent employment habits (the most recent back-to-back is March 24 against the Heat, Klay, Dream, Potter did not play), which means that at least three of them will arrange a large rotation of players.
Playing the Wizards today is the warriors' back-to-back first game, Klay, chasing dreams at the same time shows that the Warriors want to fight for this game, tomorrow against the hot Grizzlies, you can strategically give up. Next, the Warriors will face the Jazz and Kings on March 3 and March 4, and fight for three consecutive days on April 8, 9 and 10 against the Lakers, Spurs and Pelicans. So under normal circumstances, the Warriors will arrange for the veteran to take a break in at least 3 of the next 7 games.
The Warriors unexpectedly won a victory against the Heat with the excellent performance of young players, which was the only victory for the team since Curry was injured, but with the Heat's recent poor form, it seems that it cannot be inferred that no Klay and Dream Chasing would make the Warriors stronger. Judging by the Warriors' recent poor performances (consecutive losses to the Magic, Hawks, Wizards), they may only win 2 or 3 of the last seven games.
The Warriors are currently in third place in the West with 48 wins and 27 losses, but are only 2 wins and 3 wins away from the Lone Rangers and Jazz behind them.
They have played against the Lone Ranger 4 times in the regular season, 1 win and 3 losses; and the Jazz have played 3 times, 2 wins and 1 loss, if the next meeting loses to the opponent, the two sides will also be tied 2-2, then the Jazz as the number one in the Northwest Division will enjoy the ranking advantage. So there's a good chance that when the final record is played, the Warriors will be ranked behind the Jazz and the Lone Rangers.
To tie the Warriors, the Lone Rangers only need to win 2 more games than the Warriors for the rest of the season. The Lone Ranger ranks 27th in the league in terms of remaining schedule difficulty (43.7% win rate), and the last 7 games are against the Lakers, Cavaliers, Wizards, Bucks, Pistons, Blazers and Spurs, which is obviously a relatively easy task in terms of their 14-6 status as of the end of the day.
In contrast, the Warriors want to keep the top four in the West, and the Jazz are the competitors they have to focus on. Not only are the Jazz three wins behind the Warriors, but gobert and Whiteside have recently had back-to-back injuries and have had to temporarily sign Monroe for the emergency. In addition, their remaining schedule is second only to the Warriors, ranking 8th in the league (opponents have a 52.9% win rate), and the last 7 games are the Clippers, Lakers, Warriors, Grizzlies, Thunder, Suns and Trail Blazers.
Of course, no matter how hard the Jazz struggle, the situation is better than the current Warriors, if the Warriors are optimistic about not being surpassed by the Jazz, it is mainly because of the 3-win record advantage.
So on April 3, home against the Jazz, the Warriors to fight for the victory, as long as they win this direct dialogue, they can basically ensure the top four rankings, and if they lose, the final result is difficult to say.
But in any case, from the current situation, the Warriors are likely to meet the Jazz in the first round, and as for ranking fourth or fifth, the difference is mainly in home advantage.
The Warriors are probably the most pronounced team in the league in terms of "home advantage", and this season, they are 29-9 at home, second in the league after the Suns with 31 wins and 8 losses. But the Suns performed better on the road, with an exaggerated 30-6 record, compared to the Warriors' 19-18 away performance. From this point of view, the fourth or fifth is a big difference.
The Warriors went all the way in the first half of the season, leading the league, but from the beginning of Green's injury, the record declined all the way, and it was difficult to wait until Green returned to the Big Three, just played two games, Curry was injured, so the ranking from first to second to third, and now even fell to the top four.
But the Warriors' decline in the rankings is not necessarily all bad. Because in this way, they can avoid meeting the Lakers again in the first round.
I can imagine the fans and friends seeing this place and disagreeing because of the Lakers' poor state this season. But no matter what, as long as LeBron James is still there, the Lakers team still has room for imagination. What's more, the recovery of thick eyebrows is going well, and it is expected to return in early April, and if they can hold on to the play-off qualification, they are still opponents that most teams do not want to meet.
Of course, in the end, no matter how many Warriors are ranked, who they are against in the first round, whether they have home advantage or not, if they want to go further in the playoffs, or even regain the championship, they have to pin their hopes on themselves.
The Big Three's repeated injuries have seriously undermined the Warriors' run-in plan, and if Curry, Green, and Thompson can't adjust to their best condition in time, when the battle really starts, the enemy may not be so important.