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The Consensus has Golden State dropping a bit, though holding onto a top-10 ranking. Given the results so far this month, the perception could have been much, much worse. What could have been a slide down a slippery slope hasn't materialized - yet.
It's a rough stretch for the Warriors. Between ankles and opponents, Golden State has appeared out of sync more often than not since the first of the year. The good news is that they've still pulled off the wins they are "supposed" to have won, and haven't gone into complete freefall at the first sign of adversity since mid-November. It's also good news that Stephen Curry's latest ankle tweak was just that - a tweak. And the knee tweak. Hopefully, David Lee's ankle tweak is also just a tweak.
The bad news is that the schedule doesn't get a lot easier. Nine of the next 14 games are on the road, and the home games are include Houston and OKC. The road games also include Houston and OKC, as well as Memphis and the Bulls. It's a brutal stretch leading up to the All-Star break, and will challenge the Dubs at least as much as January already has.
Still, the Warriors are well into the playoff mix with almost half the season gone. It's been a good run so far, and we can look forward to more excellent basketball in the Bay Area .
[<a href="//storify.com/SFSportsball/warriors-power-rankings-review-1-21-2013" mce_href="//storify.com/SFSportsball/warriors-power-rankings-review-1-21-2013" target="_blank">View the story "Warriors Power Rankings Review - 1/21/2013" on Storify</a>]<h1>Warriors Power Rankings Review - 1/21/2013</h1> <h2></h2> <p>Storified by <a href="http://storify.com/SFSportsball" mce_href="http://storify.com/SFSportsball">SF Sportsball</a>· Mon, Jan 21 2013 10:30:01</p> <div>Still a lot of sixes and sevens in here. Some of that is the persistence of story lines, some of it may be faith in the team. Faith that the Dubs are better than they've looked for the last couple of weeks, anyway.</div> <div>6. GOLDEN STATE (24-15)     Team policy of muffling injured players has Lane Kiffin’s seal of approval. (6)latimes.com</div> <div>6 Golden State Warriors 24-15 7 W: @NOH; L: MIA, @SAS Golden State of Mind The lesson this week is that Stephen Curry really needs to stay healthy. Even accounting for tough opponents, the offense turned pretty sour without him.sbnation.com</div> <div>7 Golden State Warriors 23-13 1 6/20 David Lee has a shot at ending their long run without an All-Starusatoday.com</div> <div>7 Warriors 24-15 - 7/21 Seems like rest of the league is waiting for Warriors to just fade. Warriors, meanwhile, waiting to see how long it takes coaches to select Stephen Curry to All-Star Game.msn.foxsports.com</div> <div>Yep, we're still in the mid of Horrendous Schedule Month. The good news is that other teams have the same issue, and that Golden State is part of their horrendous schedules. All in all, eighth looks like a pretty fair position for the Warriors.</div> <div>8 Golden State 23-13 4 Last Week: 4 The Warriors' postseason dreams might very well hinge on the 11 road dates in a span of 17 games that began with Sunday's loss at Denver. If they can hang in there until March, 16 of the final 22 games are at home for the Dubs to try to lock up playoff berth No. 2 in the past 19 seasons.espn.go.com</div> <div>8 Golden State (24-15) Pace: 96.3 (7), OffRtg: 103.9 (10), DefRtg: 101.6 (12), NetRtg: +2.3 (10) Last week brought another scary Stephen Curry ankle injury, but he did return for Saturday's win in New Orleans (though he shot just 5-for-17) after missing losses to the Heat and Spurs. With the Warriors defense continuing to regress (108 points allowed per 100 possessions over the last seven games), we have to wonder when (or if) Andrew Bogut will return from his ankle injury.nba.com</div> <div>8 Golden State (24-15) 103.0 3-6 4-3 5-0 2 24 8teamrankings.com</div> <div>A lot of rankings at ninth this week. Losing a few more than you have been will do that.</div> <div>9 WARRIORS (23-13) Heat check: Warriors aren’t or likely to be soon. Just lost three of four after 22-10 start, with next six games vs. Heat, at SA, at NO, vs. Clippers, vs. OKC, at Chicago.sheridanhoops.com</div> <div>9 Stephen Curry could shoot the eyelids off a horsefly with a basketball.cbssports.com</div> <div>9 (7) Golden State Warriors 24-15 3-5 in January and all five losses have come against playoff-caliber teams (Nuggets, Clippers, Heat, Spurs, Grizzlies). They’re close, but I’m not ready to say they can truly contend for the Western Conference title. Kind of on their own level in the West.clnsradio.com</div> <div>9 Last Week: 6 Since: 1-2 Golden State Warriors (23-14) Few things are as disheartening in the Bay Area as a Stephen Curry ankle flare-up. The star point guard tweaked the ankle during a recent shootaround, and is expected to be sidelined indefinitely. Curry has battled issues with his right ankle for the last three seasons and always seems to be a bad twist or unlucky landing away from being injured. His career year is a big reason for Golden State's surge this season, and the team's future hinges on Curry's iffy joint.sportsillustrated.cnn.com</div> <div>Hollinger's system still hates us, coming in at 11th for the second week in a row. But not as much as the adjusted ratings at Basketball-reference.com . Bear in mind the playoff probability report there has us projected at sixth in the west.</div> <div>RAT REC MAR SOS REC (L10) MAR (L10) SOS (L10) STRK H/A DIV CONF PREV RK PREV RAT 11   101.446 24-15 +1.13 .510 5-5 -1.20 .608 Won 1 18/21 2nd 5th 11 101.453 Last Game: @NO, W 116-112 | Next 2: LAC (Mon), OKC (Wed)espn.go.com</div> <div>12 Golden State Warriors W P 24 15 .615 1.10 106.78 105.54 1.24 1.40 106.68 105.15 1.53basketball-reference.com</div>
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