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OAKLAND — As they have navigated a regular-season fighting complacency, ailments and every opponent’s best effort, the Warriors have centered in on something that could help them feel motivated in games that do not take place in April, May and June.
When the Warriors (37-10) play the New York Knicks (21-25) on Tuesday at Oracle Center and then beyond, Warriors coach Steve Kerr cited securing home-court advantage throughout the 2018 NBA playoffs as “probably the number-one goal.”
“We always emphasize home court. We know how tough it is to win at Oracle for an opposing team,” Kerr said. “We know the importance of having a Game 7 at home. We talk about it every year.”
Yet, even if the Warriors talk about it every year, not everyone values home-court advantage equally.
Warriors forward Draymond Green argued that downplayed the issues, attaching more importance toward playing well on Tuesday and arguing that “home court will take care of itself down the road.” The Warriors also downplayed the implications surrounding their loss to Houston on Saturday. Though the Warriors still have a 3 ½ game lead over the Rockets (32-12) for the Western Conference’s best record, Houston holds the tie breaker over Golden State after winning two out of three regular-season matchups.
“The season starts over when you’re in the playoffs, anyway,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant. “You’re going to have to get to these teams to get to where you want to go. You got to play at home and on the road. It really don’t matter. We just want to be playing good basketball when it comes down to that point.”
Incidentally, the Warriors have been playing good basketball albeit away from the friendly confines of Oracle Arena. They had gone on a 14-game road-winning streak before losing to Saturday on Houston. The Warriors also have gone 16-6 at home, which fares worse than their home record in 2014-15 (39-2), 2015-16 (39-2) and 2016-17 (36-5). As Kerr joked, “Actually I feel better on the road than I do at home right now. But that’ll change.”
After all, the Warriors argue their No. 1 seed in the past three years both set themselves up for more favorable first-round round opponents. Golden State swept New Orleans in the first round of the 2015 NBA playoffs and beat Memphis in six games in the second round, while the third-seeded Los Angeles Clippers needed seven games to beat San Antonio in the first round and Houston overcame a 3-1 deficit to beat the Clippers in the second round. In the 2017 NBA playoffs, the Warriors swept every Western Conference opponent before beating Cleveland in five games in the Finals.
“It’s extremely important,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said of home-court advantage. “This game gives them the tie breaker. But we hopefully won’t be in that position down the stretch of the season. But we will continue to focus on building momentum toward the playoffs and continue to win games and give ourselves home-court advantage throughout. That’s important to us. We’re still in control of that. No panic on that front.”
