Warriors have plenty to prove during upcoming daunting six-game road trip

SAN FRANCISCO – The first two-plus weeks of the 2025-26 NBA regular season has been an obstacle course of a schedule for the Warriors to navigate, trying their damnedest to make it through rough waters to not swim upstream months from now. What they’re about to face next is getting off a plane to a path of fiery coals, only to see a brick wall at the end. In less than three weeks, the Warriors already have played 11 games, including three back-to-backs. They’ve boarded a flight for the second night of a back-to-back, hopped on a bus for one and been able to sleep in their own beds only once for a home back-to-back. Their toughest test yet comes Tuesday night against the defending champions before another flight to play the gargantuan future of basketball the next night. The Warriors have played six road games thus far, with two being one-offs and the other four coming from two separate two-game road trips, going 1-5. This six-game road trip that features a back-to-back at the front and the end has stops in Oklahoma City, San Antonio (for two games), New Orleans, Orlando and Miami over 10 days for their longest span away from home.These are trips no team looks forward to. These also are the kind of challenges championship contenders can learn plenty from this early into a season.Jimmy Butler’s one-word description of the trip is “exciting.” “We play some really good teams on the road. But you gotta win some of these to show that you can compete with the best of them,” Butler said. “Obviously if we got 30 (Stephen Curry) our chances of winning goes up drastically. But even if he isn’t ready to go we still got to go out there and we got to compete because it’s very possible that we can win.”Curry on Sunday night missed his third straight game because of an illness. The Warriors went 1-2 in those games with two consecutive road losses against the Sacramento Kings and Denver Nuggets prior to beating the Indiana Pacers 114-83 back at Chase Center. The 31-point win was the Warriors’ largest margin of victory without Curry since he came into the league.But it also was against a Pacers team down 10 players, and the game looked like it could be the worst loss of the Warriors’ season until they took the lead late in the third quarter and never looked back. The good news for them is coach Steve Kerr after the win said he expects Curry to play Tuesday night in Oklahoma City. Curry went through an intense workout Sunday night on the Warriors’ practice court, and another Monday morning. He was on the bench in street clothes Sunday cheering his teammates on after not traveling to Sacramento or Denver. “Yeah, I hope so,” Al Horford said regarding Curry’s impending return. “It changes completely. It changes completely. It’s a privilege, a luxury – whatever you want to call it – but it’s that big of a difference when he’s not in. I know that it’s the NBA and we have to find ways, but we can’t wait for him to get back out there, and hopefully it’s Tuesday.” Horford is coming off his best game with the Warriors. He credited Butler for feeding him open passes and pushing him to shoot past any previous struggles, scoring 12 points on four 3-pointers, while also having four rebounds and three blocked shots. The 19-year veteran in his first season as a Warrior understands the gauntlet in front of them, and what it would mean to come out the other side proving themselves as a true threat. “I mean, I think it’s significant,” Horford said. “I know it’s still November, but it’s a big challenge for our group and the way to address it, and I know that we will. We’ll take it a game at a time, and we can’t overlook anyone. You know, all I’m thinking about is OKC. They’re playing at home, they play really well, defending champs. “So we can’t even think about the rest of it, just have to focus on that first one. That’s going to be great to see kind of where we’re at as a group.”Though Horford says he doesn’t know which night of the back-to-back in Oklahoma City and San Antonio he’ll play, facing the 10-1 Thunder as close to full strength as possible would be beneficial to everybody. The Warriors felt like they had a real shot against the Thunder last season in the playoffs if they were to make it to the Western Conference Finals and went 2-1 against them in the regular season. None of those games were after the Warriors acquired Butler, and Horford, of course, still was on the Boston Celtics. There also is a guarantee Horford will miss at least two of the Warriors’ six games on the road since they have two back-to-backs. Curry, Butler and Draymond Green missing at least one game also is a strong possibility. Younger players like Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga will have to be to hold the line and push the Warriors forward. The 6-5 Warriors enter Monday 19th in offensive rating (114.0) and seventh in defensive rating (111.4), making them 11th in net rating (2.6). Statement wins have been celebrated, and letdown losses have been scrutinized for a team that will have played five back-to-backs in 17 games at the end of the upcoming road trip when no other team will have played more than three by then. “Overall, we haven’t played real well. But I’m very confident in this team,” Kerr said. “It’s going to be a tough trip, two back-to-backs. We kind of felt like getting through this early part of the schedule, in one piece, and if we’re healthy and win our share of games, it sets up the rest of the season well for us. Obviously, we gave a couple of games away, but all in all, we’re pretty healthy, we’re going to get there. “I can picture the team, I can see what kind of team we’re going to be, but we don’t really have our identity yet.”What will amount to a successful road trip? 5-1? 4-2? Splitting the six games? The level of focus, fire and purpose as a product the Warriors bring to five different arenas in building the identity they want to become will prove as much to themselves and the outside than the record they come home with.Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

Warriors have plenty to prove during upcoming daunting six-game road trip

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