Golden State Warriors: Playoff Team?

The Golden State Warriors have waited an awful long time to taste the playoffs. Since 2002, the highest the Warriors have finished in their conference has been eleventh. Now, with only ten games left in the season, Golden State is ninth in the Western Conference and can practically smell a post-season berth. To do so, however, they will have to fight great odds and show they belong among the top-half of the league.

The Warriors are already in a two-game deficit for the final playoff spot in the West. The Los Angeles Clippers are the team in front of them. Right behind Golden State is the feisty New Orleans/Oklahoma City Hornets. With an extra game left to play this season, the Hornets are only a half-game behind the Warriors.

In addition, Golden State has the toughest schedule of the three teams in the playoff race. The top five teams in the West are Dallas, San Antonio, Phoenix, Utah and Houston. Golden State has to play all five of those teams. Compare that to the Clippers and Hornets who only have three games against top competition left. As they are playing from behind in the standings, the Warriors would seemingly need to finish with seven, or at very least six, wins down the stretch and hope for their competition to lose.

Golden State has the talent to do it. Baron Davis, Jason Richardson and Monta Ellis are all dynamic scorers from the guard positions. Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington both have terrific toughness and intensity. And Andris Biedrins has emerged as a double-double threat in his first year of consistent playing time. All six of these players, plus a couple of role players off the bench, create a formidable offensive team that can win on any night.

So this is Golden State's chance. The team shouldn't take it for granted. Playoff berths are never guaranteed for any team. The Houston Rockets had to fight all season long through injuries to prove they were as good as they were a couple seasons ago. The Utah Jazz spent three seasons wondering if they would ever return to May basketball.

Ten games. Not the nine-hundred and fifty-two the team struggled through since 1994. Not even the eighty-two games of a long NBA season. Ten games is all that stands between the Golden State Warriors and the playoffs. It is right there.

All Golden State has to do is push themselves a little harder and take it.