SAN FRANCISCO — Coach Steve Kerr didn’t need to pin an indication on the Warriors’ bulletin board of their locker room or repeatedly circle Saturday’s sport in purple ink on a calendar.
Even when it wasn’t overtly mentioned between the coaches and gamers, Golden State knew simply how essential a win over the Utah Jazz this weekend could be.
“Oh yeah,” mentioned Kerr, beaming with a smile. “Properly conscious.
“We didn’t speak about it an entire lot as a staff however the guys know,” the coach continued Saturday night time after the Warriors’ 111-107 comeback victory. “I do know they had been speaking amongst themselves.”
Kerr advised his teaching employees that the sport in opposition to the Jazz was the “largest sport of the yr.” And the injured Stephen Curry echoed that sentiment to a few of his teammates.
A loss would have jeopardized the Warriors’ probabilities of having home-court benefit. Fortunately, Golden State doesn’t want to fret about that simply but after Klay Thompson and Jordan Poole led the staff to beat a 16-point deficit within the sport’s last eight minutes for the win in a efficiency that was nothing in need of superb.
The Warriors (49-29) have now secured a playoff spot for the primary time since 2019 and personal the tie-breaker in opposition to the Jazz. They'll end no decrease than sixth place within the Western Convention standings and are presently in sole possession of the No. 3 seed, sitting one sport forward of the Dallas Mavericks and a soft three video games in entrance of the Jazz and Denver Nuggets with simply 4 video games remaining within the common season.
After the sport, Poole mentioned the staff didn’t instantly focus on the sport’s implications, although it needed to have been behind their minds.
“We simply know we have to go on the market and win video games,” Poole mentioned. “Final sport [against the Phoenix Suns], we had a variety of power, a variety of optimistic issues and we simply tried to take that momentum and convey it over.”
The Warriors trailed by as many as 21 factors within the second quarter, however Poole saved them within the sport, scoring 14 of the Dubs’ 22 factors in that body.
Golden State defended the perimeter higher within the second half, limiting Utah to taking pictures 27.3% from past the arc, and made the Jazz pay for taking part in heart Rudy Gobert in drop protection.
Thompson, who completed with a game-high 36 factors, was particularly deadly from 3, changing on 4 of his seven makes an attempt from behind the 3-point line within the fourth quarter.
The high-intensity ending to Saturday’s sport ought to set the tone for the Warriors getting into the ultimate week of the season.
“It actually simply confirmed quite a bit about our staff and the fellows on our staff to have the ability to come again from the deficit. We had been in opposition to a very good staff, all video games are essential at this level,” Poole mentioned.
The Warriors will journey to Sacramento for Sunday’s sport in opposition to the Kings earlier than internet hosting the Los Angeles Lakers at Chase Middle Thursday. They’ll shut out the season with a set of back-to-backs on the street, stopping in San Antonio Saturday earlier than their regular-season finale in New Orleans April 10.
“We should always win these subsequent [four] video games if we play with the power we did tonight,” Thompson mentioned.
Poole hasn’t performed in a playoff sport but, however he bought a style of what that is likely to be like in entrance of Saturday’s raucous crowd at Chase Middle.
“You like to play in an surroundings like that, Chase is superb when all people’s on their ft,” he mentioned. “I do know it’s actually laborious to play [there] should you’re the opposing staff, and I simply hope we will preserve the power up as a result of after we really feel that, it’s nearly actually laborious to not wish to go on the market and play as laborious as we will.”