If you thought the start of this Warriors road trip was a threshold event for the franchise and its coach, you were not nearly alone.
Warriors co-owner Joe Lacob thought so, too, and what he thinks carries some amount of weight in this whole process.
Or almost all of the weight.
If you thought Sunday’s trip-opening 30-point victory in Houston was enormous and important proof that Mark Jackson’s message was still resonating with the team, you were almost certainly right.
“I told Mark it was his most important coaching victory to date,” Lacob said via email Monday morning of the Houston victory.
“Most importantly, the way we won was important. Now need to follow through (against New Orleans).”
The Warriors won with defense, with aggression, with some attitude, and won in a way that solidified their hold on a Western conference playoff spot with only a handful of weeks left in the regular season.
And then they followed it up Monday night with a pull-away 93-72 victory in New Orleans.
This moment, by the way, comes as the front office is analyzing its roster for the stretch run and — you would have to assume — beginning to judge its long-term coaching future.
Jackson has done strong work with the Warriors since his arrival in 2011, and the Warriors are on track to make the playoffs for the first time since 2007.
But things have slipped since the Warriors’ 30-17 start, culminating in a horrendous home loss to Chicago last Friday.
Jackson has had to re-integrate Andrew Bogut, re-calibrate when Bogut went out again, then put Bogut back out there one more time, while juggling several defensive liabilities in his main core.
Some games Bogut has been tremendous and lively (as he was while shutting down Houston’s inside game on Monday) and sometimes he has been less so (as he was Friday against Chicago).
Through the recent struggles, Jackson has kept to his upbeat, stay-the-course rhetorical style and hasn’t drastically altered his playing rotations.
That’s his approach and that’s what his players have loved about playing for Jackson. But would they respond to it with a final kick?
With one more year left on his contract, did Jackson have to make the playoffs to guarantee coming back as coach next season? Or what else could be the measuring stick?
These were fair questions, amid some rocky times lately, after the Warriors had lost nine of their previous 10 road games and had been dominated by Houston three previous meetings.
Then came the 30-point triumph on Sunday, followed by the squashing of New Orleans on Monday.
So I asked Lacob: Can you say that Jackson definitely will be the coach next season or that you’re contemplating an extension offer past next season?
“Honestly, we will not even discuss this until after the season,” Lacob said in the email, adding that all focus is on making the playoffs this season.
“We are clearly better now than a year ago. That matters.”
It does matter. And it’s fair for Lacob and the Warriors brass to defer on any public statement on Jackson or anybody else until after the season.
But read between the lines: The start of this trip was a landmark period for this team and this coach; getting the ship headed back the right way was the only thing that mattered.
Everything else flows from there — making the playoffs, playing credibly once they’re there, ensuring Jackson is the coach next season.
There are clearer answers now, because of what the Warriors have just done, and it will get clearer and clearer if they continue to do it.
Read Tim Kawakami’s Talking Points blog at blogs.mercurynews.com/kawakami. Contact him at tkawakami@mercurynews.com.
