How Warriors’ playoff seed ambitions have changed amid hot streak

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How Warriors’ playoff seed ambitions have changed amid hot streak originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors entered NBA trade deadline season desperate to return not to contention, but simply to competitiveness. And Golden State certainly has emerged as a competitive contender after trading for six-time NBA All-Star Jimmy Butler on the eve of the Feb. 6 deadline.

The Warriors (34-28) have won nine of their first 10 games with Butler and, after Tuesday night’s 114-102 win over the New York Knicks, held onto the Western Conference’s highly sought-after No. 6 seed from the tumbling Los Angeles Clippers.

With radiant energy throughout the organization and profound on-court momentum heading into the final 20 games of the 2024-25 NBA season, the Warriors are going for more than just making the playoffs as a lower seed. Second-year Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski and 11th-year coach Steve Kerr told 95.7 The Game’s “Steiny and Guru” and “Willard and Dibs,” respectively, about Golden State’s newfound playoff-seeding ambitions on Wednesday.

“I think the sixth seed was the bare-minimum expectation; from the staff, from us, after the trade deadline,” Podziemski told Evan Giddings and Guru Johnson. “And obviously we’re here [sixth seed] now, we’re like three games behind the [Houston] Rockets for the five spot. The three seed is only [5.5 games] away.

“We got the whole month of March and a little bit of April left … easy-strength schedule in the Western Conference left and the teams above us got to play each other a couple times, so someone’s going to lose. Thankfully, Houston, we have the tiebreaker with them, we [have the] Memphis [Grizzlies] tiebreaker. We’re just trying to get as high as we can. The higher we can get, the more home games we can get in the playoffs. That’s the goal.”

The Warriors aren’t content with barely avoiding the NBA play-in tournament; they’re aiming for a spot in the West’s top half.

As Podziemski mentioned, Golden State very well can pass the Grizzlies (38-23, No. 4 seed) and the Rockets (37-25, No. 5 seed). For what it’s worth, Memphis is…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/article/warriors-playoff-seed-ambitions-changed-185553671.html

Author : NBC Sports BayArea

Publish date : 2025-03-05 18:55:00

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