The formula to tanking, as told by Twitter, revolves around showmanship. The tanking team must still bring in revenue, aka butts in seats. To do so, games must be exciting-- close throughout the first three and a half quarters. From there, the team in tanking question must slowly trick off their lead-- committing untimely fouls, weird substitutions, and even in some cases hold onto timeouts late in games. And, in the end, the tanking team delivers a good show while building onto their lottery odds.

This formula is what the Golden State Warriors have been accused of living by over the past few weeks. With exceptions to games like their November 20th unspeakable blowout loss to the Dallas Mavericks, the Dubs have managed to keep games interesting while adding more losses into their L column. 

Take their loss to the Portland Trailblazers.

Despite only having five wins at the time, the Dubs found a way to do most things on the court well--having one of their best three-point shooting showings of the entire season with 16 makes at a 42.1% clip. Even though their perimeter defense has been nonexistent the majority of the season, they managed to hold the Blazers to just 29% on threes. They crashed the glass repeatedly, turning in second and third efforts and following up on misses for a total of 17 offensive rebounds. They executed offensively, making good shot selections and moving the ball-- en route to 24 assists and only committing just eight turnovers.

Granted, the Blazers led most of the way, but the Warriors were able to stay close the entire time-- limiting any Blazer runs didn’t last very long.

“I think we’re just competing. That’s really the biggest thing,” Marquese Chriss said after the game. “There were some games earlier in the season where we just let it get away from us and then we try to fight our way back and you can’t play uphill the whole game. So I think [the key is] just managing the game.”

But in the end, the Warriors underwhelming shooting from inside the arc mixed with uncharacteristic free-throw woes brought the Warriors another L. To put their shooting struggles into perspective; they only shot 38.5% on two-pointers and 60.9% from the free-throw line. Entering the game, the Dubs were shooting roughly 48% on twos and 81.4% on free-throws. Had they shot at their regular rates while taking the same number of twos (65) and foul shots (23) that they took on Wednesday night, they would have scored 128 points in a game where they allowed 122. But that didn’t happen, so another L was dropped into the loss column.

Friday night’s game was similar, in terms of excitement. Steve Kerr’s squad was able to sprout out to a 20 point lead on the New Orleans Pelicans with seven minutes left in the second quarter.  

In past years, that type of lead so early meant checkmate, but this year no one could have reasonably believed that they would run away with things. And those people were entirely right because that 20-point edge went away… quick. When the Warriors trailed by six with under three minutes remaining in the fourth, it felt like they were about to put the finishing touches on another end-of-game collapse.

But then something happened. The Warriors stepped up. They made quality shot selections and, more importantly, made those shots. They were able to string together timely stops, turning in one of their best crunch-time pieces of work this season. When the dust settled, they had pulled out a 106-102 win to improve to 6-24.

“It feels really good,” head coach Steve Kerr said. “More than anything I’m just relieved and happy for the players because these are great guys that are working hard every day and putting in the effort. They are just young and it’s hard to win in this league. It was really good to see us close the game down the stretch.”

Don’t we love a good throwaway season?

The Splash Brothers are resting, Draymond Green is doing the bootleg version of load management, and LaMelo Ball or maybe James Wiseman is existing and getting ready for the Draft Night. 

And all the while, the great fans of Dub Nation get to watch next year’s pivotal role players develop and turn into swiss army knives right before their eyes. 

Sell tickets, keep the game close, lose in the end (or maybe pull out a few), and repeat-- that is the formula. That is the current law of the state. That is the reality of Steve Kerr and his Warriors-- which they will never admit (mainly because of Adam Silver).  

The cycle will most likely continue into this upcoming week, as the Dubs have a four-game week ahead, which includes the honorable Christmas day game against no other than the Houston Rockets.

Before the Warriors can get to Christmas, they have a Monday night date with the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Chase Center. The Wolves have been dealing with their own share of struggles that may add to the win column.

After Monday night, the Dubs will host the Houston Rockets on Christmas day, the Phoenix Suns on Friday, then fly to Dallas to take on the Mavs Saturday.

The Warriors have shown improvement in their offensive consistency-- collectively becoming smarter decision-makers. More importantly, the Dubs are the healthiest they are probably going to be the entire season. Moving forward, they will need to capitalize on quality possession, limiting empty trips. On top of that, their team defense will have to be on a string. 

Their matchups this week feature teams that have elite perimeter players-- if all healthy. Defending them on an island is nearly impossible-- thus the word elite. To limit their scoring, the Warriors will have to help on the initial and help the help more than anything-- all things that rely on defensive chemistry. If the defense doesn’t show up, it can be a long week.

You can catch the Warriors in action against the Minnesota Timberwolves Monday night at 7:30 PST on NBC Bay Area.