Golden State Warriors

Golden State Warriors

SAN FRANCISCO With back-to-back away losses behind them and a brutal six-game road trip lying ahead, the Warriors took advantage of the team's only home game in a 16-day stretch on Sunday evening. Golden State won 114-83 in what was, mostly, a rock-fight of a basketball game until late in the third quarter. Jimmy Butler led the team with 21 points, while Moses Moody scored 13, Brandin Podziemski had 14 and Quinten Post scored 14.

He was ruled out two hours prior to their Sunday night home matchup with the Indiana Pacers. Curry came down with the illness after their recent road trip to Indianapolis and Milwaukee. He played through it in a Tuesday night home win over the Phoenix Suns, but said his gas tank was on empty in the second half. Curry stayed home during the Warriors' two road losses in Sacramento and Denver.

DENVER Effort. There is no stat to measure it. It cannot be felt, moved or heard. But it can be seen. And it certainly can be noticed, both in its abundance, and in the case of the Warriors' 129-104 shellacking on Friday night at the hands of the Nuggets in an Emirates Cup group stage matchup, in its absence.

SACRAMENTO Stephen Curry did not accompany the Warriors on their 90-minute bus ride here late Tuesday night, and by the time Golden State tipped off Wednesday against the Kings, Draymond Green and Jimmy Butler had also been ruled out. Without any of the team's top three players, coach Steve Kerr opted to insert rookie guard Will Richard, second-year center Quentin Post and shooting guard Moses Moody into the starting lineup alongside Brandin Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga.

A substantial number of the Milwaukee faithful attended Thursday night's game at Fiserv Forum dressed in colorful Halloween costumes. But nothing in the stands were as frightening as Milwaukee's offense in the Warriors 120-110 loss. Even without superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo, a late scratch with a left knee injury, the Bucks got whatever shot they wanted. And it was a long-forgotten Golden State castoff who led the way.

When you're a kid, when you'd watch it, you'd definitely want to be in it, Podziemski said before Thursday's game against his hometown Bucks. I had that dream for sure.

So, during a timeout, assistants Terry Stotts and Chris DeMarco made a suggestion. Butler subbed in for Will Richard at the 4:21 mark of the fourth quarter, Green took the place of Brandin Podziemski with 3:50 to play, and besides a few seconds on the final possession of regulation, the five-man lineup closed out the final 8 minutes, 50 seconds of what turned into a 137-131 overtime win.

Aaron Gordon's 10th and final made 3 on Thursday night at Chase Center felt like the final dagger. It came with 26 seconds left in regulation, putting the visiting Denver Nuggets up by three and punctuating a career night for the 12th-year forward. But the biggest perimeter fireworks show in Gordon's life happened to come against the greatest shooter of all-time.

LOS ANGELES The Warriors begin the 2025-26 season in Los Angeles with the same, identical goal that every other Golden State iteration has: to win a championship. Although the ultimate goal remains unchanged, the possibilities that exist between Tuesday's regular-season opener and a hypothetical fifth title of the Steph Curry and Steve Kerr era are almost limitless. With the season beginning, here are five predictions for the Warriors' season between now and then.

Guard is the Warriors' biggest strength and arguably their largest question mark. Depth abounds in the backcourt. Megastar Steph Curry is aging as gracefully as a bottle of his Gentleman's Cut bourbon and is still one of the game's elite players. But the shooting guard spot is unsettled. While the team potentially has five different players who could realistically start games at the spot this season, each comes with their own strengths and weaknesses.

With one deft change to the starting lineup, Warriors coach Steve Kerr demonstrated the biggest difference between this season's roster and this year's iteration. Out went the returning 6-foot-4, 205-pound Brandin Podziemski, and in went the 6-9, 260lb newcomer Al Horford. The new lineup saw Moses Moody and Jimmy Butler moved to guard and wing respectively, and Draymond Green shifted to his more natural power forward position and away from guarding 7-0 giant Donovan Clingan.

Great spacing is more than just having all five players dotted a couple feet outside the 3-point line, though. Sometimes it means there's a big in the dunker spot, and sometimes it means you have a guy in the corner and the other three guys are all around the three-point line and nobody is in the paint, Kerr said after Tuesday's practice. There's all these things that are possibilities, and we have to adjust and react to what the circumstances are.

Golden State had the first-round draft capital -- the Warriors can trade up to the maximum four first-round picks and also swap in the next seven years -- to make a significant trade during the season. But, unlike the sizable contracts available in the Jimmy Butler trade last February ( Andrew Wiggins, Dennis Schroder, Kyle Anderson), that did not exist this season. Curry, Butler and Draymond Green combine to earn

Stanford Blood Center is partnering with the Golden State Warriors to give donors a chance to win four tickets to the Warriors vs. Dallas Mavericks game on Christmas Day, Dec. 25, at 2 p.m. at Chase Center in San Francisco. All donors who give blood at a Stanford Blood Center, including the South Bay Donor Center in Campbell, during the month of October will be automatically entered into the drawing.