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Brian Windhorst Explains Why 'Flawed' Warriors' Could Lose Energy

Hard push for playoff seeding could zap their energy.

Kyle Koster

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) catches his breathe against the San Antonio Spurs in the fourth quarter at Chase Center.
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) catches his breathe against the San Antonio Spurs in the fourth quarter at Chase Center. / David Gonzales-Imagn Images
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On any given night the Golden State Warriors can beat the elite teams in the NBA—the existence of Stephen Curry should strike fear into the hearts of any potential opponent.

At the same time, the Warriors are now seventh in the Western Conference after dropping a game to the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, and must now hope they can move into a position where they can avoid the play-in tournament.

The good news is that they are only a game out of the fourth position which would afford them homecourt advantage in the first round. The bad news, as Brian Windhorst explained on First Take Thursday, is that the long-term plan involves going small. Very small.

"Clearly the Warriors are flawed, look what happened last night," Windhorst said after agreeing that seeds 2 through 8 in the West will all have their warts. "But the way the Warriors are going to try to pull this off, they're going to try to play with a very small lineup. And I just think what you're going to ask this team to do to make a long playoff run ... what you're going to ask Draymond Green to do—guard bigger players, play with a lot of energy—I think it's going to be energy-sapping for them."

Windhorst suggested that Golden State should be doing the opposite and taking the load off those veteran players instead, but that is not really a viable option right now as their seeding is still very much up in the air.

The Warriors' situation is not much different than the Los Angeles Lakers—another team full of aging stars—but the difference is that L.A. has been winning and shoring up their position in the playoff hunt, and now sit comfortably in the No. 3 seed.

Fair points for sure. Then again, the moment Curry starts draining threes, a lot of conventional wisdom goes out the window.

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Kyle Koster
KYLE KOSTER

Kyle Koster is an assistant managing editor at Sports Illustrated covering the intersection of sports and media. He was formerly the editor in chief of The Big Lead, where he worked from 2011 to '24. Koster also did turns at the Chicago Sun-Times, where he created the Sports Pros(e) blog, and at Woven Digital.

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