Can the Golden State Warriors save their season after the Dallas Mavericks end their winning streak?

The Warriors and their fans are likely scratching their heads today after a defeat on Friday that appears to have been snatched from the jaws of victory. At this point, the team is running out of ways to turn things around with the postseason looming.

The Warriors failed in Dallas

The Golden State Warriors are currently four games behind the sixth-place Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference with five games remaining in the regular season. Friday’s game against the 5th-placed Dallas Mavericks was supposed to be the team’s seventh consecutive win and one that would have put them within touching distance of that coveted sixth seed. Indeed, with a two-point lead at halftime and seemingly playing the better ball, it looked as though the Dubs were on their way to doing just that, something that guard Brandin Podziemski seemed to imply during his halftime interview.

“We’re just playing with desperation,” Podziemski said. “We know our season is on the line. We’re trying to get up to that six seed, being only three games back.” To be fair, sitting in 10th place coming into the game and back in defensive flow as seen by how they overturned a 16-point deficit early in the contest, it really did look as though the Warriors would be good for the win. Sadly, it was not meant to be. As time went on, the defense started to fail, Draymond Green’s massive work rate started to fade, and Steph Curry began to look mortal as the Mavs’ defense took its toll. In the end, the Warriors went down 108-106. What that means, is barring a miracle, automatic qualification for the playoffs won’t be achieved this season.

So, where do the Warriors go from here?

As stated before, Friday’s game was supposed to be a win for the Warriors. Now, that is not to say that the game against the Mavericks was any different from each of the games they have left i.e., essentially a final, but it’s got to be said that the circumstances in which the team lost were particularly painful. Consider for a moment that with 13 seconds on the clock and the score tied at 106-106, the Mavs called a timeout to set up their play. This, just moments after Steph Curry had drained a step-back jumper to tie the score. The momentum was with the Warriors.

Yet, the Mavs - without star and talisman Luka Dončić - inbounded the ball to Kyrie Irving - yes Dallas has that guy too - who then evaded the immediate double team to pass the ball to Tim Hardaway Jr. who then ghosted Klay Thompson. As you can probably imagine, Thompson’s failure resulted in the defense having to compensate, namely Trayce Jackson-Davis who left P.J. Washington. At that point, Hardaway lofted a pass to his teammate, and Washington obliged by providing the game-winning layup with 4.5 seconds left. Thompson did try to make amends with what would have been a game-winning shot at the buzzer, but the look wasn’t clean and that was that.

Truthfully, it was one of those knife-edge moments that could have gone either way, something that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr spoke to following the game. “I liked our defensive possession,” Kerr said postgame. “Getting the ball out of Kyrie’s hands, we had the possession and a decent place. And Tim Hardaway made a hell of a pass, just getting it over the outstretched hands of a couple guys. Trayce was there first and then Draymond was right behind it. He was probably an inch away from deflecting the pass out of bounds.”

Of course, it would be remiss to say that the game was lost on that one play. Indeed, it remains clear that as much as the Warriors have improved on defense, the team’s late-game rotations need to do so as well. It should be said that part of the issue is injuries with both Jonathan Kuminga (knee) and Andrew Wiggins (ankle) out, which in turn has forced a greater dependence on Draymond Green. On the other hand, Gary Payton II. had a somewhat more frank take on the reason for the team’s disappointing outing. “Probably just came down to more possessions,” Payton said in summary. “We’ve got to get to some 50-50 balls. That’s probably what it is. Came down to possessions. Just got to get stops.” At this point, it will take something special for the Warriors to secure the No. 6 seed which means they are likely looking at a spot in the Play-In Tournament. Not ideal, but no worse that what the team’s play seems to warrant.