The Golden State Warriors begin the must-win portion of their regular-season schedule when they host the Utah Jazz on Sunday night in San Francisco.
With their hopes of earning a top-six playoff spot basically gone, the Warriors (42-35), currently 10th in the Western Conference standings, can help their play-in status by moving up one, two or even three spots over the course of the regular season’s final five games.
Golden State still has games remaining against two of the three teams currently residing in those spots. They visit the Los Angeles Lakers on Tuesday, then host the New Orleans Pelicans on Friday.
The Warriors would capture the season series against both the Lakers and Pelicans with one additional win. They split their season series against the fourth team in the 7-10 mix, the Sacramento Kings.
Golden State also faces Utah (29-48) twice, including at home again in the regular-season finale next Sunday, and the host Portland Trail Blazers on Thursday.
Having put themselves in a better position by winning six of their past seven games, a 5-0 finish could vault the Warriors into seventh in the West, which would mean having to lose consecutive play-in games at home to be denied a playoff berth.
Golden State guard Gary Payton II has been impressed with the way his teammates have stepped up their game with the finish line in sight.
“We had to be (in playoff mode), probably for the past week, week and a half,” he said. “We had to make some things happen, just continue to play at a high level. Know what’s at stake. The rest of these games are probably playoff, play-in atmosphere.”
A matchup with the Jazz means a chance for five different first-year players to improve upon statistics that could land them on all-rookie teams.
Jazz guard Keyonte George began the weekend ranked first in the NBA among rookies in assists (315) and fourth in scoring (884 points), with Golden State’s Brandin Podziemski third (258) and seventh (632), respectively.
Podziemski also ranks second in plus/minus (plus-243) and fourth in rebounds (398), while teammate Trayce Jackson-Davis is second in shooting percentage (69.9), fourth in blocks (65) and eighth in rebounds (308).
Utah’s injury-ravaged lineup has also included two fast-closing rookies in Brice Sensabaugh, who had a pair of 22-point games this past week, and Taylor Hendricks, who has scored 18 points in two of his past three games.
George, Sensabaugh and Hendricks will have something to prove on Sunday with Jazz coach Will Hardy having benched them early and often in Friday’s 131-102 road loss to the Los Angeles Clippers.
“There’s going to be questions about certain players’ minutes, but right now, we’re trying to build habits,” Hardy said of his rookie trio. “We’re trying to form a concept on both ends of the floor that we think will help our program and these players individually.”
The loss was Utah’s 11th in a row. The Jazz and Warriors haven’t met since February, when Golden State went to Salt Lake City twice in four days and came away with 129-107 and 140-137 wins.
–Field Level Media