The Golden State Warriors will face the Phoenix Suns tonight with just 17 games left in the 2018-19 regular season.
They are currently first place in the Western Conference and two games ahead of the Denver Nuggets after a big win on Friday night at home. They are the top shooting team in the league as defined by effective field goal percentage, according to Basketball-Reference. The turnovers, while still an annoyance, are about as low as they’ve ever been in the entire Steve Kerr era, based on their turnover percentage. On top of all that, despite some bumps in the road, they’re still integrating DeMarcus Cousins and should have a more firm understanding of how he fits within the scheme of things once the playoffs roll around.
No, Cousins has not been perfect and the promise of his arrival probably exceeds the value of the actual results. Yes, their defense still needs work, as Kerr has said in advance of tonight’s game against the Suns. No, they have not brought consistent effort every night and that has hurt them.
But we’re in good shape right now and, given that, this next stretch before the playoffs should be seen as time to fine tune things and work out rotations instead of opportunities to evaluate the strength of the team overall.
Let’s just hope for a good game tonight in which nobody gets hurt.
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