After a breakthrough season in 2013, including winning a playoff series and pushing the Spurs to six games in the second round, it looked as if this might be the Warriors’ big year – even in the loaded Western Conference.
After adding Andre Iguodala in the offseason to a core of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, David Lee and Andrew Bogut, the Warriors resembled serious contenders.
Though the Warriors have played well to reach 36-24, they also are in sixth in the West once again, a half-game ahead of the Suns and Mavericks, who are tied for seventh, and two games ahead of ninth-place Memphis.
That isn’t the kind of season Warriors owner Joe Lacob expected, which prompted him to tell the San Jose Mercury News recently of Jackson, “Maybe he is feeling [pressure] a little, and he should be feeling pressure. That’s a good thing. I feel the pressure for this team to perform. We’ve invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of thinking, a lot of effort, and we’re going to continue to do so.”
Not exactly an endorsement of Jackson there by the owner, and things aren’t likely to get any easier for Golden State if it remains so perilously close to the edge of the playoff picture out West. It could wind up being a lot more active offseason in the Bay Area than anyone would have predicted a year ago, or even earlier this season when the Warriors were touted as a dark horse title contender.
(Last week’s rankings in parentheses)
1. Heat (1): With seven wins in a row and nine of their past 10, the Heat are rounding into form at the right time, and sit one back in the loss column of Indiana for the East’s top seed.
2. Pacers (4): With Evan Turner working his way into the mix, the Pacers now are just waiting for the eventual introduction of Andrew Bynum to see how they’ll look in May and June.
3. Rockets (2): With wins in eight of their past 10 games, the Rockets remain the hottest of all of the contenders out West – and still are tied for fourth, 4.5 games behind the Thunder and three behind the Spurs.
4. Spurs (6): Perhaps no stretch better sums up San Antonio than these first two weeks after the All-Star Break. The Spurs sat Tony Parker for the first five games after the break and picked up four wins, including victories at the Clippers and Blazers at the end of their annual rodeo trip.
5. Bulls (13): Joakim Noah is a top-five MVP candidate right now with the way he’s playing for Chicago. The Bulls have won nine of 10 and are the favorites to wind up as the three seed in the East after trading away Luol Deng. Remarkable.
6. Clippers (7): They’ve won four in a row, added buyout casualties Glen Davis and Danny Granger and Blake Griffin is playing better than ever.
7. Trail Blazers (11): Portland looked to be in trouble when LaMarcus Aldridge went down with a groin injury, but the Blazers have rattled off five wins a row and now have their star power forward back in the lineup.
8. Thunder (3): They still have the West’s best record, but haven’t looked very good since Russell Westbrook returned from his latest knee surgery. Still, expect them to improve quickly as he gets acclimated to playing again.
9. Wizards (15): Washington has rattled off six in a row to sit comfortably in the middle of the Eastern Conference playoff race. The Wizards could prove to be a tough out thanks to their dynamic backcourt of John Wall and Bradley Beal.
10. Raptors (12): Toronto keeps rolling along atop the Atlantic Division, continuing to get great play from its backcourt of Kyle Lowry and DeMar DeRozan. With a four-game lead over Brooklyn, the division is the Raptors’ for the taking.
11. Grizzlies (10): The Grizzlies continue to creep back toward the top eight spots in the West, but still trail the Suns and Mavericks by 1.5 games for the last two spots.
12. Suns (8): With Eric Bledsoe still on the mend, can the surprising Suns hold on to one of the final playoff spots in the West until he returns?
13. Mavericks (5): Behind brilliant play from Dirk Nowitzki – including his ridiculous game-winner against the Knicks last Monday – the Mavs remain in the playoff picture.
14. Nets (14): After finishing 4-2 on their two-week circus trip, the Nets return home for four of their next five games, including crucial Eastern Conference matchups with the Bulls and Raptors.
15. Warriors (9): It is possible the Warriors could miss the playoffs in the Western Conference, unthinkable given all of the talent Golden State possesses, even in the stacked West.
16. Bobcats (16): Adding Gary Neal and Luke Ridnour at the trade deadline should give Charlotte some needed scoring punch, and waiving Ben Gordon could be addition by subtraction.
17. Cavaliers (18): Because of the complete collapse of the Hawks, Cleveland is now just 3.5 games out of the playoffs. Perhaps Dan Gilbert’s decree the Cavs won’t be back in the lottery will work out after all.
18. Timberwolves (19): Now 5.5 games out (though just four in the loss column) of the final playoff spots in the Western Conference with 24 games to go, Minnesota is running out of time to make its move.
19. Jazz (26): The Jazz have two clear building blocks in Trey Burke and Derrick Favors. The question now: Will Gordon Hayward become a third when he hits restricted free agency this summer?
20. Magic (22): With Glen Davis now playing elsewhere, the Magic are basically only playing young guys for the next few weeks. It will be valuable experience for a core that, after the Magic get one more high pick this summer, will be expected to start picking up some wins.
21. Lakers (28): Los Angeles moves up by default, given some of the horrific performances of other teams. But there isn’t going to be much to play for in Lakerland besides better lottery positioning.
22. Pistons (17): With four straight losses, the good vibes that existed after the firing of Maurice Cheeks and replacing him with John Loyer have gone away, and the chances of Detroit making the playoffs are fading with them.
23. Celtics (25): Gerald Wallace is now out for the season after undergoing knee and ankle surgery. Wallace, now 31, is owed two more years and $20 million total from the contract he signed with the Nets before last season.
24. Kings (23): With Isaiah Thomas, Rudy Gay and DeMarcus Cousins, as one scout said recently, the Kings have “three guys capable of putting up 30 every night.” There’s still work to be done in Sacramento, but that’s not a bad start.
25. Nuggets (24): With five losses in a row and nine in their past 10, things are going from bad to worse for Denver. The biggest winner will be Orlando: The Magic will get the worse of the Knicks’ and Nuggets’ picks – which currently are seventh and 12th, respectively.
26. Pelicans (20): With losses in nine of their past 10 games, the Pelicans are angling to lose enough to get into the top five of the draft and keep their pick from going to the Sixers as part of last summer’s Jrue Holiday trade.
27. Hawks (21): The bottom has truly fallen out in Atlanta, where the Hawks have lost nine of their past 10 – with the only win coming against the Knicks. It seems inevitable they’ll fall out of the playoffs after being one of the surprise stories of the first half.
28. Bucks (29): Removing Gary Neal from the locker room after his spat with Larry Sanders was a positive, but this team is still all about the draft lottery this summer, and finding another young star to pair with Giannis Antetokounmpo.
29. Knicks (27): The Knicks completed the national television blowout hat trick this week, getting blown out by the Heat on TNT, the Warriors on ESPN and the Bulls on ABC. With seven straight games against teams at or below .500 – and 11 of the next 12 – this is their final shot to salvage their season.
30. 76ers (30): The Allen Iverson tribute and jersey retirement Saturday was a celebration fitting of one of his generation’s most iconic players. It also might be the final positive moment in Philadelphia basketball until the draft lottery.