Warriors’ road success offers optimism for season’s final stretch

Warriors’ road success offers optimism for season’s final stretch originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

The Warriors picked up another crucial victory Sunday with their 117-113 win over the San Antonio Spurs, capping a very successful road trip that bodes well for Golden State the rest of the way.

“Fantastic trip. That’s a sign of their competitiveness and grit,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr told reporters at Frost Bank Center. “To be on the road for eight days and do what we just did, that’s a sign of a really good team.”

The win against the Spurs is Golden State’s 22^nd road victory of the 2023-24 NBA season, matching the Western Conference-leading Oklahoma City Thunder and the defending-champion Denver Nuggets for fifth most in the conference.

That’s not too surprising, either. Golden State now has won in its last six trips to San Antonio.

And it’s not just in San Antonio where things have been going well for the team.

The Warriors have been red-hot away from home over the past seven weeks. They’ve won 14 of their last 17 games on the road and lead the NBA in road victories since Feb. 5.

No matter how the rest of the season goes, the Warriors have assured themselves a winning record on the road for the eighth time in the last 11 years.

It has been a different story at home.

The Warriors are 18-19 at Chase Center heading into Tuesday’s home game against the Dallas Mavericks. The 18 home wins are the fourth fewest in the West and 10^th fewest overall in the NBA.

With eight games remaining, the Warriors are clinging to a two-game lead over the Houston Rockets for the West’s final NBA play-in tournament spot. Houston had been the NBA’s hottest team until losing to the Dallas Mavericks earlier Sunday.

Calling them the Road Warriors might be cliché, but it definitely has been appropriate this season.

“We started off with that game in Minnesota where we kind of led the whole way and let the game slip away at the end, but we picked it right back up from there,” Draymond Green said. “We went to Miami and got a win, [then] went to Orlando and got a win in spite of me being kicked out of the game. Our guys held it down.

“[A] 4-1 road trip at this point in the year, any point of the year, you take it. We need it right now.”

Four of Golden State’s final seven regular-season games will be away from home, including the April 4 clash with the Rockets in Houston.

The way the Warriors played on the road trip that they just completed – winning their last four games after a blown-lead loss in Minnesota – should give Dub Nation plenty of reason for optimism heading down the stretch,

Before heading out on the five-game road trip, the Warriors had lost four of six at Chase Center. Coupled with Houston’s surge, what seemed to be a comfortable lead for the No. 10 spot in the West quickly shrank to razor-thin.

And although the Warriors will have their hands full trying to hold off the Rockets, Kerr is still hopeful of his team making a move up in the standings.

“We have eight games left and a lot can happen,” Kerr said. “Our focus is just keep winning, We’re not just looking at the team below us. We’re looking at the teams above of us. We’re hoping we can keep pushing ahead and get the most favorable seed we can.”

In addition to playing the Rockets, the Warriors also have games in Dallas, Los Angeles to play the Lakers and in Portland. Golden State already has won on three of those courts during the 2023-24 season, the lone exception being a 109-99 loss in Dallas on March 13.

Of course, picking up a few wins at home would make things a lot easier.

“We did what we had to do,” Stephen Curry said. “No style points really for any of it, but to get out of here with four wins and keep the momentum rolling [is big]. We have a tough task ahead of us, so we needed these.”

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