The Western Conference playoffs are expected to be brutal this year, and the three-time defending conference champs won’t enter the postseason this year with their star player. Ever since suffering a knee sprain in March, Steph Curry has been on the sidelines, and it’s not clear if he’s going to be able to suit up for the first round of action.
Since Curry’s been out, the Warriors have looked rather vulnerable. He went down on March 23, and since then, Golden State has gone 4-6, including a 40-point loss to the Utah Jazz on Tuesday night. As ESPN’s Zach Lowe tells it, things have gotten so bizarre that the teams in the Western Conference playoff picture below them aren’t afraid of the defensing champs.
Lowe shared this bit of information on the latest episode of The Lowe Post podcast, telling ESPN’s Kevin Arnovitz that there are rumblings that teams aren’t worried about facing the Warriors so long as Curry is out.
“I was talking with several coaches and execs from teams in the West morass from three to eight, nine,” Lowe said. “The fear factor for the Warriors without Curry does not exist. There are people who will say, ‘I’d rather play the Warriors right now in the first round than the Thunder or the Jazz.’ Right now, in this state in which they are 7-10 in their last 17 games and Curry’s hurt and they just lost by a thousand points last night, these are G-chats and texts that are happening last night during the Jazz complete destruction of a team that clearly doesn’t care very much.”
The Houston Rockets have been pretty open that they believe they’re built to beat the Warriors, but for everyone else to say they’d rather face the Curry-less champs over other squads in the conference is something else.
Of course, having to beat a team that has Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green four times in seven games won’t be easy, and we have enough evidence to say that going “we want to play the Warriors” is a bad idea. Still, Golden State might want to hope that when Curry gets his knee evaluated later this week, everything looks good and he’s able to play soon.
(Via SLAM)
