Will Golden State show up against Orlando?

Game Information

Golden State Warriors (53-14) vs. Orlando Magic (24-44)

How to watch

Date: Thursday March 16, 2017

Time: 7:30pm PST

Location: Oracle Arena — Oakland, CA

TV: CSN Bay Area

Radio: 95.7 THE GAME

Team comparison

Injury report

Last updated 3/15/17

Warriors: Kevin Durant

Magic: No injured players

After a hard-fought win over the Philadelphia 76ers, the Golden State Warriors host another sub-.500 Eastern Conference Team, the Orlando Magic.

Triple-double threat

Considering how poorly the Magic have played, if you had to guess that someone in this match-up would be a triple-double threat, you’d probably go with a Warriors’ player.

But Elfrid Payton has logged three triple-doubles so far this month — most recently a 13 point, 13 assist and 10 rebound performance against the Sacramento Kings. Unfortunately for the Magic, they’ve failed to capitalize on Payton’s play as they’ve gone 1-5 in their last six games and enter tonight’s contest on a three game losing streak.

The Magic do not have a great scorer on their team and are led by Evan Fournier with 16.9 points-per-game. The Warriors would do well to lock down Fournier, keep Payton from adding to his triple-double total and force the other Magic...ians to make plays.

Trouble in paradise?

The last few weeks have been rocky, to say the least. The team was (is?) going through a significant shooting slump, Kevin Durant has been out with a scary injury, Andre Iguodala put reporters on edge with his cryptic comments and the joy the team exhibited the past two seasons seemed to be gone.

While everyone outside the Bay Area may relish seeing the Warriors struggle, for fans it has been a rough ride. We got a taste of that old fire during the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s match against Philadelphia, but Golden State definitely made that game much harder than it had to be.

What team will come out tonight? Did Stephen Curry shake off the rust for good in that fourth quarter or will he be chucking up air balls? Is there some unknown inner-turmoil going on with this squad?

With just a few weeks left in the regular season, Golden State will be working on righting the ship and building some steam into the playoffs. Tuesday’s win was a start, let’s hope they continue tonight.

Predictions

Earlier this week my wife looked me right in the eyes and said, “I’m good at this!” I’m losing the locker room.

Señor Lee (6.5 points)

Winner: Warriors by 11

High scorer: Stephen Curry

Señora Lee (9 points)

Winner: Warriors by 10

High scorer: Draymond Green