Getty Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins of the Golden State Warriors.
As the Golden State Warriors work to secure a playoff sport, they’ll have to pass one final test, a five-game road trip.
Road games have been the defending champions’ kryptonite all season. Golden state has a horrendous 7-26 record away from home. The only teams who are worse are the Detroit Pistons, San Antonio Spurs, and Houston Rockets. To put that in perspective, the Warriors have a comparable road record to teams competing for the No. 1 overall pick.
The difference between the team’s performance while playing at home vs. on the road is wid.
Bleacher Report’s Andy Bailey dissected Golden State’s issues away from home, and pinpointed three major factors.
In his March 15 article, Bailey placed some of the blame on Stephen Curry and Andrew Wiggins. More specifically, their large number of absences in those games.
He prefaced his point by saying the numbers don’t exactly back the sentiment, saying, “Based on nothing but wins and losses, the availability (or lack thereof) of Curry and Wiggins hasn’t made a huge difference on the road.”
“The Warriors are 2-9 (.182 winning percentage) in away games without Curry and 5-17 (.227) in away games with him. For Wiggins, they’re 5-13 (.278) with him on the road and 2-13 (.133) without him on the road.”
Bailey then swung things to a more logical point of view, pointing out that the team would likely perform better with their two starters suiting up.
“But it’s hard to imagine all these away numbers would be quite as bad if Curry and Wiggins had generally been available throughout the season,” he hypothesized. “Golden State is still very much in the black (plus-8.6 points per 100 possessions) when the starters are on the floor in road games. And that lineup obviously can’t play if one or both of Curry and Wiggins is out. The former’s absences have been the result of seemingly random injuries, but he is 35, so it’s not like you can simply count those out. The latter remains away from the team with a personal issue, and there’s no timeline for his return. Every title run requires at least a little good luck, and it’s starting to feel like the 2022-23 Warriors’ is running out.”
Stephen Curry Doesn’t Consider Grizzlies-Warriors a Rivalry
The third matchup of Golden State’s upcoming road trip will be against the Memphis Grizzlies. Memphis is not a team that Curry considers to be a rival, despite last season’s second-round playoff meeting.
“I don’t want to be short, but no,” Curry said after Golden State’s 123-112 victory over the Phoenix Suns, via the Golden State Warriors YouTube channel, when asked if he considers the Grizzlies to be a rival. “It’s just a team that is tough to beat, they’re really talented… It’s more so just a team you know you need to play well to beat, but the history isn’t there really yet, so we just block that out and play basketball.”
Draymond Green Downplays Warriors-Grizzlies Rivalary
Golden State lost their most recent meeting with Memphis on March 9. After the game, Draymond Green shared a similar message to the one Curry shared days later, stating that the two teams are not rivals.
“No, it’s expected,” Green said of the fire between the two teams when they play each other via NBA Interviews. “Teams have been getting up for us for years and talk like they can beat you, and then not. That doesn’t create a rivalry. Rivalries are created by, you win, I win. And clearly, we’ve won four times, and I think their organization has zero championships. So I can’t consider that a rivalry.”