Breaking Down The Golden State Warriors' Most Brutal Stretch In The 2011-12 NBA Schedule

by Nate Parham on Dec 19, 2011 11:00 AM PST in News

Obviously every NBA team is going to face some scheduling adversity this season.

To help us sort out just how brutal the schedule is to some teams, Tom Ziller has polled the SB Nation NBA network to get people's takes on the most brutal stretch of their team's lockout-compressed schedule.

Overall, when you compare the Golden State Warriors' most brutal stretch(es) in the schedule to the hand that other teams have been dealt, it's not that bad.

There are obviously lots of "brutal" stretches that you could pick for any given team (and please note: this poll was taken in the days immediately after the schedule was released, meaning that no free agent transactions or trades had taken place yet), but for the Golden State Warriors the most brutal stretches probably have to do more with travel itineraries than strength of opponents:

There's an extended rough patch of 11 games from March 21 (at New Orleans) - April 4 (at Minnesota).
They finish the season with their three games in three nights stretch from April 20-22 (at Dallas - at Houston - at Minnesota).

Brutal Stretch 1	Brutal Stretch 2
Wed 21 @ New Orleans 5:00pm Thu 22 @ Houston 5:00pm Sat 24 vs Sacramento 7:30pm Sun 25 @ Portland 6:00pm Tue 27 vs LA Lakers 7:30pm Wed 28 vs New Orleans 7:30pm Fri 30 vs New Jersey 7:30pm April Opponent Time Sun 01 @ LA Lakers 6:30pm Tue 03 @ Memphis 5:00pm Wed 04 @ Minnesota 5:00pm	Wed 18 vs LA Lakers 7:30pm Fri 20 @ Dallas 5:30pm Sat 21 @ Houston 5:00pm Sun 22 @ Minnesota 4:00pm Tue 24 vs New Orleans 7:30pm Thu 26 vs San Antonio 7:30pm

Granted, there is one stretch missing from this list: from February 22 through March 13, the Warriors play 8 of 10 games on the road with the home respite being games against Memphis and Dallas. But with a 6-day (February 22-28) and 3-day (March 7-10) break in there and a few of those games being against less than elite opponents, that stretch almost has to be considered a "rest" relative to the rest of the schedule.

For the complete list of "the most brutal schedule quirks in the NBA", visit Ziller's article at SB Nation.com.

Poll

On a scale of 1 (lowest) - 5 (highest), how would you rank the difficulty of the Golden State Warriors schedule relative to the rest of league?

5 - Very difficult

82 votes

4

119 votes

3 - Average

233 votes

2

72 votes

1 - Easy

38 votes

Unsure

37 votes

581 votes | Poll has closed

Tweet Comment 18 comments | 0 recs |

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Comments

If we are going to be a playoff team schedule should not matter.

Everything is RACIST.

by Anonymous1337 on Dec 19, 2011 11:13 AM PST reply actions

we need a good

start before we reach the brutal schedule specially towards March and April

Win Or Lose Warriors For Life.........

mykelala01 is like the bouncer with the red rope for GSOM. You’re good to come in now.

by TheSoundOfHockey on Apr 24, 2011 9:24 PM PDT

by mykelala01 on Dec 19, 2011 10:58 PM PST up reply actions

It’s hard to grasp the difficulty of everyone else’s schedule from that article…

"Whoever said WAR is HELL must have been talking about Aaron Rowand" - McCoven faithful

by shahbazi3 on Dec 19, 2011 11:24 AM PST reply actions

the eight day stretch listed as 'brutal' between 25 Mar and 1 Apr

isn’t much different than parts of a regular 82 game season. Por – Oak – LA are pretty quick travel hops. back to back Hou to Min with just 23 hrs. between games is another matter. overall, the team got a pretty favorable schedule ; others fared considerably worse.

Music is the Healing Force of the Universe (a.ayler)

by the.monk on Dec 19, 2011 11:26 AM PST reply actions

Considering the short end of the stick the Warriors typically draw from the league's schedule makers

I’m relatively pleased with the Warriors schedule. Maybe the team’s rep in the league office is beginning to shift ever so slightly.

by eastbayglory on Dec 19, 2011 11:35 AM PST reply actions

I think brutal stretch #2 will be worse

most of those look like probable losses to me (maybe one or two wins)

stretch #1 looks bad, don’t get me wrong, but I could easily see our boys going something like 7-3 right there

Side note: are any mods planning a season preview?
I think I saw one from Zorgon earlier, but am interested in seeing it re-visited in light of our new roster (and other NBA moves)

"There’s no such thing as off the charts, just get a bigger piece of paper. If you can’t figure that out you shouldn’t be charting anything" - Skep

by Duby Dub Dubs on Dec 19, 2011 1:55 PM PST reply actions

"Side note: are any mods planning a season preview?"

Yes…stay tuned.

Twitter: @NateP_SBN.

by Nate Parham on Dec 19, 2011 4:20 PM PST up reply actions

sweet!!

I knew you guys would have something for us!!

"There’s no such thing as off the charts, just get a bigger piece of paper. If you can’t figure that out you shouldn’t be charting anything" - Skep

by Duby Dub Dubs on Dec 19, 2011 5:04 PM PST up reply actions

Season preview

Here’s one I just saw: http://www.carbonated.tv/sports/golden-state-warriors-season-preview

I don’t know who these people are saying the Warriors have an extremely difficult schedule…they start off with four games @ home and don’t have to play any of the eastern powerhouses on the road. That’s a pretty damn easy schedule if u ask me

by Cmeeze on Dec 19, 2011 3:01 PM PST reply actions