Full Warriors Season Schedule Release: Key Games and Expectations
Golden State basketball is one of the greatest shows on Earth. The team has a record of 377 consecutive sell-outs at home, good for a full four and a half full, 82-game seasons – meaning there’s been nine years straight at home of selling out both Roaracle and the newly-christened Chase Center. The 2012-2013 playoffs was a sort of coming-of-age for Stephen Curry, putting up a performance only those who followed him closely during his NCAA run at Davidson would recognize. The Warriors were eliminated in six games against the San Antonio Spurs at the height of their powers, a team that would beat prime LeBron James and the Heatles in the Finals one year later.
It’s no surprise that, especially given last season’s performance, people want to see the Warriors. The high-octane offense and disciplined, electric defense that define the Dubs’ identity over the past few years is considered by a great many as basketball at a peak. It’s also no surprise, as a result, that the team will be nationally televised through various methods for 46(!!!) of their 82 games this season, booking 25 national TV games on ESPN, TNT and ABC, 12 games on featured NBA TV, and 5 ESPN’s flagship radio station. The Warriors will play a myriad of those games against top-tier Western Conference opponents – namely the Lakers on Opening Night, the Clippers in their home opener later that week, and the reigning-WCF champs Phoenix on Christmas Day – throughout the season, although will only play 3 marquee matchups against Damian Lillard and the Portland Trailblazers.
The Warriors schedule includes a number of what could be competitive Western Conference seeding games after the All-Star Break in February, facing the Lakers and Mavericks twice, as well as the Suns, Jazz and Clippers once. Post All-Star Break is expected to be the team’s benchmark of success, as Klay Thompson is slated for a return in December and will likely need time to reintegrate fully to the team – two months should suffice for Klay to catch the hot hand, making the home stretch of the season that much more important.
Considering the second half of the team’s season (emphasizing Steph’s ballistic 24-game, 38ppg stretch) in 2020-2021, the Warriors are poised to be very competitive with wins over the reigning champions in the Bucks, as well as the Jazz and the Suns who were the top-2 seeds in the West, with a team that would be considered sparse by most NBA standards. Curry, no matter who he plays, will continue to warp defenses, but a volatile threat in Klay Thompson to tack on to Wiggins’ career-best season and Draymond Green’s alleged improved shooting will add a layer to the offense that could very-well catch the West’s top teams off-guard in spite of only a two-year hiatus from the lethal motion playbook that Steve Kerr has become infamous for.
Overall, the Warriors will be a puzzle to solve amongst the league’s elite defenses and offenses after a noticeable lacking of Klay for two full seasons. Most teams will need time to mesh together given their changes, which is why the post All-Star Break is the best indicator of how the team will perform in the playoffs. The Lakers making major additions, plus shorthanded successes against the best in the West, will make the extent of that puzzle harder to measure until that last stretch of the season. The only indications currently in play are that the Dubs are still considered a powerhouse at +1200 (ahead of the Suns and Jazz, notably) to win the title this season.