Golden State Warriors

Golden State Warriors

We set (the tone) really on the defensive end to start the game, Podziemski said, not wanting to discuss his own big stat line. Just set a tone, got some easy ones. The crowd was slow to fill out FedEx Forum on Wednesday evening, an unsurprising development considering the two players whose jersey dotted the stands Steph Curry and Ja Morant were both inactive.

The Warriors played the game with a skeleton crew. Steph Curry (runner's knee) and Kristaps Porzingis (illness) were both ruled out. The frontcourt got even thinner as Draymond Green was scratched five minutes before tipoff with lower back soreness. Horford took his place and drew the unenviable assignment of guarding Jokic. But riding an electric finish by Brandin Podziemski, the Warriors notched a spirited 128-117 win.

"My heart starts to beat really fast when we're in that tunnel,"

It's 3:30 p.m. on a Monday, and a group of 16 senior dancers are grooving on the court at Chase Center. They throw their arms up and down, give a high kick, bend over low, draw a half circle with their hips, pop up and snap their necks back and forth, their grey and white hair glistening under the giant spotlights usually reserved for Steph Curry and Draymond Green.

Despite the beautiful arena and the constant development around it, the Golden State Warriors have officially moved into basketball's worst neighborhood. The Celtics strolled in and methodically dismantled the Dubs. Even with a little garbage-time hustle, the Steph-less Warriors looked exactly like what they are right now: a team walking slowly toward a dead end. This isn't hell. NBA hell comes with lottery ping-pong balls and a shiny new 19-year-old savior to sell the fanbase.

Seth Curry, the younger brother of Warriors superstar Steph, still has a ways to go before he returns to the Golden State rotation. Seth Curry has missed the past 24 games with sciatica, and the Warriors announced on Wednesday that he will be re-evaluated in two weeks. The re-evaluation indicated that Curry continues to make good progress, the press release read. He will begin to intensify his on-court workouts this week, including live play.

The NBA has thrown the kitchen sink at its tanking problem over the years. They flattened the lottery odds. They invented a tournament to incentivize regular-season games. They've levied fines, tried public shaming, and probably discussed relegation in a dark room in Secaucus, New Jersey. (Okay, maybe not that last one, but they should.) None of it has worked.

Golden State announced it was signing Jeenathan Nate Williams, 27, on Tuesday morning. With Pat Spencer now on a standard contract, the Warriors had space to sign Williams to a contract that will likely see him spend most of his time with Santa Cruz's G-League SeaDubs. He spent his senior year of high school at Prolific Prep, then located in Napa, where Williams averaged 15.8 points per game. He then went on to play at Buffalo.

The American white ibis struts along the Florida coast and the Everglades like they own the region and rightly so. You can see these proud and very territorial birds defending their nests and display sites with an intensity that suits them, lunging their long orange beaks at all intruders, foreign and domestic to the area. They snap bills, lunge, grab and bite their opponents' wings and heads.

The Golden State Warriors have spent the better part of this season searching for an identity. Are they contenders? Are they pretenders? Are they a localized art installation dedicated to the concept of the turnover? Heading into the All-Star break at 29-26, they seem to have finally stumbled upon a guiding philosophy, one as chaotic as it is strangely comforting: They're just making this up as they go along. And I think that's just great.

The Warriors were without most of their top players. Steph Curry (knee inflammation) and Draymond Green (back) were held out after being questionable earlier in the day. Without their best players and several others the Warriors fell to the Timberwolves 108-83 while suiting up only 10 players. Gui Santos had his first career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds, and Brandin Podziemski had 12 points and seven rebounds.

We take for granted that the Golden State Warriors have one of the 15 greatest coaches in NBA history in Steve Kerr. Kerr's Warriors have spoiled us with four NBA championships (three in his first four seasons as coach), and five consecutive NBA Finals appearances. And he's the perfect Bay Area coach, as he stridently criticizes Donald Trump, routinely decries gun violence, and most importantly, expertly manages a difficult set of egos to keep the Dubs' championship dynasty running smoothly.