The new schedule has arrived.
The Golden State Warriors did a whole lot of losing on Tuesday night. They lost an actual game, falling 124-123 to the Sacramento Kings. They lost a pair of key players, with Gary Payton II and Chris Paul leaving the game with injuries. They lost a fair amount of dignity, blowing a 24-point lead in fairly embarrassing fashion. They lost a chance to build momentum after playing some of the best basketball they’ve shown all year.
And they lost a chance to advance in the inaugural in-season tournament. The Dubs needed to win the game by at least 12 points to advance to the knockout stage of the tournament, and while they put themselves in prime position to do that, they artistically squandered that chance.
As a result, we get some new regular season games for the Dubs. The NBA kept next week’s schedule open to facilitate the tournament. Now that the bracket for the knockout stage has been determined, the league is filling in the schedule, to make sure that all teams end up with 82 games.
That means giving the Warriors two opponents for next week, and the league announced those games on Tuesday night: Golden State will host the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday, and visit the Oklahoma City Thunder on Friday. The home game is at 7:00 p.m. PT, while the road game is at 5:00 p.m. PT; neither game is nationally televised.
The Dubs will take these schedule additions. The Blazers are just 5-12, sit 13th in the Western Conference standings, and have the fifth-worst garbage time adjusted net rating in the NBA. Golden State hasn’t played Portland yet, but now gets four games on the schedule against one of the worst squads in the league.
OKC is on the other end of the spectrum, with an 11-6 record and the fourth-best garbage time adjusted net rating in the league. But the Warriors have played the Thunder fairly well in their three early-season matchups. The Dubs won the first game, which was on the road, before dropping a doubleheader at Chase Center ... but Draymond Green didn’t play in those games, Steph Curry only played in one of them, and the Thunder needed a ludicrous shot from Chet Holmgren to save themselves in the final matchup. The Warriors will feel like they should beat OKC, even though it won’t be easy.
Mark your calendars, Dub Nation. There are finally 82 games on the schedule, for better or for worse.
