Why the Warriors’ late season wobble could be worse than people think

The Golden State Warriors missed out on the perfect opportunity to finish in a playoff spot in the Western Conference with a loss to the LA Clippers, sending them down a place in the division and into the play-in tournament.

A final quarter collapse in the game saw them implode and finish with a scoreline of 124-119 at Chase Center; they will now play against the Memphis Grizzlies to fight to stay alive.

After the game, fans were fuming, with performances lacking from their key stars in high-stakes moments, and ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith had his say on the situation, describing how the loss could see their season “derailed”.

‘It denies Warriors the additional rest’

“When you’re talking about the play-in, it denies [the Warriors] the opportunity of the additional rest that they were looking for, that’s the big thing for me”, Smith added.

On the specific injuries for the team, Smith said that “I can’t imagine Butler will be 100%, but we’ll see; then you’ve got Steph Curry with the thumb issue”, before explaining more about the potential opponents on the way: "winning buys you the whole week of rest before Memphis, who are a physical team.

“If you win, you’re going up against Houston, they’ve got athletes and they can score. They have that size."

However, overall, Smith wasn’t positive about the situation that the Warriors find themselves in: “I don’t like this at all. I’d like to see Steph Curry for as long as we can but I look at the loss and the extra load it’s going to put on them and I think it’s something that’s going to derail the Golden State Warriors sooner or later.”

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