What Warriors face in final 10-game sprint to end calamitous 2025-26 NBA season

For nearly two months the Warriors have been hugging their cramped seats and glancing toward the heavens, pleading for mercy as their bullet train keeps jumping the tracks while accelerating toward the offseason.It’s only natural, then, that many of those observing their serial misfortune are screaming a word saved for emergencies:Mayday&excl;Some feel the Warriors should give up on the 2025-26 NBA season and ask Stephen Curry to sign off until training camp, thereby banishing any probability of a playoff series.Others want Curry back, hoping his brilliance can inject swift recovery into a season in grave condition. They’d like meaningful games deep into April, and Steph makes it conceivable.Please understand the despair consuming Dub Nation. These folks have witnessed three stages this season – early mediocrity, midseason revival, late-season deterioration – and concluded there no longer is a goal for which the Warriors should strive.But there is, even as the Warriors (34-38) are four games below .500 and 10th in the Western Conference standings.Ten games remain on Golden State’s regular-season schedule, and there’s not the slightest thought of a forfeit. Moreover, those games still could have significant impact on this season and surely will have relevance on how the front office proceeds in the offseason.Here is a look at the remaining 10 games, which will determine the Warriors’ status in the NBA play-in tournament:March 25 vs. Brooklyn NetsThe Nets are embracing their ride to the May 10 NBA Draft Lottery. They’ve lost eight straight games and 18 of their last 20. Long eliminated from the Eastern Conference play-in tournament race, Brooklyn is playing not to win but to assess their current roster and improve its chances in the lottery.Count this as a W for Golden State.March 27 vs. Washington WizardsBrooklyn looks forward to the lottery, but the Wizards are obsessed with it. Since winning their first two games out of the NBA All-Star break, they have lost 16 in a row. Their best player, Anthony Davis, is out for the season. Their No. 2, Trae Young, has appeared in five games since the calendar flipped to 2026, and there is no date for his return.Golden State rises to two games under .500 with a W.March 29 at Denver NuggetsHoo boy. Steph or no Steph, prevailing in Ball Arena will be a gargantuan task for the Warriors. The Nuggets are fighting to stay among the top four in the West, assuring homecourt advantage in the first round. As good as they are, losing at Memphis last week proves they are fallible. This smells like an LApril 1 vs. San Antonio SpursThis follows two off days and is the first of five consecutive games at Chase Center. Then, too, the Warriors dropped the Spurs twice in in San Antonio. That was in November, long before the Flying Wembanyamas shifted into overdrive. The Spurs are 22-2 since January.Smells like another L.April 2 vs. Cleveland CavaliersThe Cavaliers are a quality team that, on paper, should be elite. Something is missing, though, and acquiring James Harden never seems to fill any team’s missing element. Since winning the first two games after the All-Star break, the Cavs are 8-6. They’re beatable.If Kristaps Porziis and Curry are healthy and play this side of the back-to-back set, there is a path to a W.April 5 vs. Houston RocketsThough some consider the Rockets underachievers, it’s apparent they’re missing an important ingredient to success. They have no effective point guard. They look good getting off the bus, but their disorganized offense leads to more turnovers than, drum roll, the Warriors.Houston can be had, and the Warriors need this W.April 7 vs. Sacramento KingsThe Kings have been able to sneak in the occasional victory, but they haven’t taken down a winning team since Jan. 14. Their injury reports are longer than those of the Warriors, so instead of sprinting toward the lottery, they’re plodding along.This is a Golden State W.April 9 vs. Los Angeles LakersThe third-place Lakers are eight games behind the second-place Spurs, so they’re not climbing higher than third. But they’re only two games up on the Nuggets and Minnesota Timberwolves, so this game likely will matter as much to LA as it does to Golden State.This looks like an L for the Warriors, who have beaten the Lakers only twice since April 2024.April 10 at Sacramento KingsSee above. Kings fans, frustrated with the franchise’s affinity for jogging backward, might be throwing wooden beams at their team by then. Neither DeMarcus Cousins nor De’Aaron Fox will be walking onto the Golden 1 court.If this isn’t a W for the Warriors, they should forfeit the next game.April 12 at Los Angeles ClippersThere is a reasonable chance that play-in tournament seeding will be at stake, which is not necessarily good for the Warriors. When these teams met last season with such stakes, the Clippers rolled into Chase and won in OT. The Warriors have lost nine of the last 10 against LA.This smells like an L, if only because ownership of this series has passed from the Warriors to the Clips.If the Warriors go 6-4 over the final 10, as projected here, they likely stay in 10th place. Losing the play-in opener would end their season. Winning it would mean a second victory is needed to reach the playoffs.Odds are long that an elderly team without rest will succeed in the playoffs. It’s tough to see the Warriors even reaching the playoffs unless they win the games within their reach and pull off a couple upsets between now and April 13.Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast

What Warriors face in final 10-game sprint to end calamitous 2025-26 NBA season

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