SAN FRANCISCO – Draymond Green, a man known for speaking his mind at every opportunity, was uncharacteristically melancholy after the Warriors blew a 12-point lead and fell to 114-111 to the visiting Spurs on Wednesday night.
The 35-year-old forward sat pensive and unambiguously peeved by what he saw as a lack of defensive intensity, a malaise that led to Golden State (47-33) falling from the sixth seed to No. 7 in the Western Conference standings, and into the dreaded play-in spot.
He knew what the loss meant for an older team that could use the break during the play-in schedule.
“We know what it takes, and we don’t need to beat a dead horse,” Green said. “We messed around with this game and we lost.”
After former Warrior Harrison Barnes beat his old team at the buzzer, Golden State suddenly faced a grim – but not set in stone – reality.
The No. 4 Nuggets and No. 5 Clippers are 48-32, a full game up on the Warriors. The No. 6 seed Grizzlies are 47-32.
Golden State ended its season in the play-in last year, losing to the Kings in Sacramento.
In order to guarantee avoiding the play-in for the second year in a row, the Warriors need to defeat the Trailblazers in Portland on Friday, and then take down the No. 5 seeded Clippers on Sunday in the season finale.
But that alone would not be enough to guarantee a top-six spot in the playoffs.
The Warriors also need Memphis to lose a game and enter into a tie with Golden State, who owns the tiebreaker over the Grizzlies.
“We still have two games we’ve got to win, both of them, and see what happens,” Steph Curry said. “We just made it a little harder on ourselves.”
If the Warriors win out, they could still rise higher than the No. 6 seed depending on what happens in the other games.
Here is where the other teams in the Western Conference finish the season.
The third-seeded Lakers could wrap up that slot with a victory over Houston or Portland.
No. 4 Denver still plays No. 6 Memphis and then the second-seeded Rockets, who rested most of their starting lineup against the Clippers on Wednesday.
Those Clippers, seeded fifth, play the ninth-seeded Kings before taking on the Warriors at Chase Center.
Memphis faces a gauntlet down the stretch, playing the eight-seeded Wolves, Nuggets and 10th seed Mavericks to end the regular season.
Lastly, the eighth-seeded Timberwolves play No. 6 Memphis before playing two tanking teams in the Nets and the lowly Jazz.
Having to rely on other teams is not a position Green and the Warriors wanted to be in.
“I don’t sit and look at the standings and wish for other teams to lose,” Green said. “You take care of what you’re supposed to take care of, and everything else takes care of itself. I don’t sit, and build myself up with optimism.”
But that is their reality, and Kerr believed that his team is ready to put the loss behind them as they prepare for the most important 96 minutes of the Warriors’ season.
“The only thing you can do is pick up your chin off the floor and get back at it the next day,” Kerr said. “We have a huge game in Portland, and we’ll get these guys ready and get right back at it.”