The Warriors have a clear path back to the NBA playoffs, but it's not without its obstacles.
Golden State (34-28) is the Western Conference's No. 6 seed with 20 games remaining in the 2024-25 regular season, and has surged up the conference standings since its blockbuster trade for star forward Jimmy Butler.
The Warriors, who finished each of the previous two regular seasons as an NBA Play-In Tournament team, have their sights set on one of the conference's top-six seeds, a goal that general manager Mike Dunleavy shared with NBC Sports Bay Area's Monte Poole and Bonta Hill on the latest "Dubs Talk" is attainable, but not without its challenges.
"We love the ambition, to go from where we're at now to where we want to go," Dunleavy told Poole and Hill. "I think our biggest challenge is the West is really good, all these teams are really fighting for that. We're a little bit down in the tie-breaker stuff, we've got it against Minnesota, but you look at the other teams like the Clippers, the Lakers, Sacramento. Some of these teams we really don't have an edge on tie-breaker-wise, so it makes it a little harder. On the whole, the biggest thing for this group is to be playing confidently and to be healthy. If we can do that, let's just get in and see what we can do."
Dunleavy remains optimistic about the team's playoff chances, but because of the tie-breaking challenges they face, he believes the team cannot look too far into the future and must focus on one game at a time.
"I think having been the last couple years in situations where we've put ourselves in a good spot, the year Chris Paul came in, which was last year, made the trade in the summer, we start off 5-1. This season, we start off 12-3. Here we are with Jimmy [Butler], [we] win our first five, six games out of seven out of the gate," Dunleavy explained.
"I'm cautiously optimistic, but I know the task at hand is we've got to win each game. Take it game-by-game and chip away at this thing and like I said, see where we land heading into the postseason. Obviously being in the top-six versus the play-in is an easier path. But I think that's the way we're looking at it expectation-wise for us. We literally, because of some of the missteps we had earlier this season, we can't look too far ahead."
Golden State Warriors
Next up on the schedule is the (WARRIORS NEXT OPPONENT) (DATE/PLACE).
Each game, regardless of the opponent, is important from here on out. And if the Warriors continue to take care of business, they could find themselves in a favorable position at the end of the regular season.
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