The Warriors’ last two games felt like a fever dream.
That, or it’s been so long since they last played that the memories are getting fuzzy.
Did we really see Pat Spencer turning into the second coming of Jeremy Lin? Did the Dubs really beat the Cleveland Cavaliers and then dismantle the Chicago Bulls?
Did they have swagger? Momentum?
This Spencsanity that’s sweeping through the Bay is clearly infectious and possibly dangerous.
Maybe we should take a breath.
Because if you look closely at what actually happened this past weekend, you realize two things:
1. The Warriors played well.
2. We still know absolutely nothing about this basketball team.
Let’s start with the Dubs’ victims: The Cleveland Cavaliers are swooning hard. They are a shell of last year’s team, a squad playing with all the cohesion of a middle school group project.
And the Bulls? The Bulls are doing that thing they do best: aiming for the bottom with the precision of a heat-seeking missile. Beating Chicago right now isn’t a statement; it’s a civic duty.
So, yes, the Warriors won. They entered this quasi-bye week — a scheduling quirk that feels like a gift from the heavens — feeling good, if a bit conflicted. But let’s be honest: Those wins don’t change anything. They’re just delicious, sugary, satisfying empty calories. They offer zero nutritional value for a team trying to figure out if it’s a contender or a pretender.
The actual test? That starts now.
The Warriors’ next five games leading into Christmas will tell us a lot.
No more tanking Bulls. No more crumbling Cavs. The upcoming slate features a gauntlet of teams sitting right there in the Warriors’ “corridor” of the Western Conference — the Timberwolves, Suns, Blazers and — sprinkled with an Eastern Conference playoff team — the Magic — that isn’t above resorting to pugilism to win.
This is the “put up or shut up” portion of the program for the Dubs. If the Warriors are actually turning a corner, this is where they prove it. If the swagger is real, it survives a Thursday night against a team desperate for playoff seeding, not just a Sunday stroll against a team whose success is determined by how many lottery balls they have at the end of the campaign.
The good news? Much-needed reinforcements are coming. Specifically, the reinforcement. Steph Curry is expected to be back for Friday’s game against the Timberwolves. He won’t solve all the Warriors’ problems, but he can cover up a great deal of them. He is still the deodorant for an organization that often carries a desperate scent.
With 30 back, anything is possible, even making sense of whatever this roster is.
But even Steph’s return can’t solve the Warriors’ biggest problem — the 6-foot-7 issue sitting on the end of the bench:
Against the Bulls, in a game where everyone ate, Kuminga starved. A ‘DNP-CD’ against a bottom-barrel team is not a “rest day.” It’s a message.
And for those of you hoping this was just a one-off—a little “tough love” motivational tactic—I wouldn’t hold your breath. Steve Kerr’s leash isn’t just short with JK right now; it’s non-existent.
He’s done to the point where he didn’t even try to sugarcoat things on his weekly flagship radio hit:
“He has not played well lately, that’s why I went away from him in the last game,” Kerr said Tuesday on 95.7 The Game (KBMZ-FM). “It’s no different than any other player on the team — other than the obvious: Steph, Jimmy, Draymond, those guys are going to play no matter what because… I know what I’m going to get from them every night.”
That’s Kerr making it clear: Stars get star treatment — and you, Jonathan Kuminga, are no star.
“He’s obviously a guy with a lot of ambition, which I love. He wants to be a star. He’s got the ability that gives him that hope and gives us that hope. But there has to be a consistent level of play in order to achieve that,” Kerr said. “The potential is there.”
“It has been a discussion for many years,” Kerr added. “His play tailed off… It is what it is.”
Kerr has always valued process over potential, execution over athleticism. Right now, Kuminga is offering buckets of the latter and thimbles of the former.
And after how many years of this back-and-forth, Kerr is ready to move forward. Jan. 15 — the first day the Warriors can trade Kuminga — can’t come soon enough.
But where will the Warriors stand then?
Can the “Pat Spencer Era” endure, or will it quickly be relegated to the “remember that?” category?
Can Curry get back in the lineup and take an operation that’s showing signs of cohesion to that next level?
Can this team get out of its own way for a couple of weeks?
It truly is never dull in the Bay. But don’t let that nice weekend getaway fool you — the Warriors are a long way from figuring this thing out, and real tests are coming.
Dieter Kurtenbach
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