With the NBA regular season drawing to a close this week, the Warriors finally are playing their best basketball of the season.
After sweeping a back-to-back against the Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns -- the Western Conference's top two teams -- the Warriors are riding a four-game winning streak and are looking like a team that would be a hard out in the playoffs.
The Warriors will enter the play-in tournament and, should they advance, the playoffs in a role they have not occupied for quite some time. That of the underdog.
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But that's OK with Draymond Green.
"For a second there we were the hunters, then we turned into the hunted for five, six years. And now, we’re hunting again," Green said. "That's always a fun position to be in when you're hunting going after everyone else. Obviously, we have experience with both but I love hunting. It's fun."
The Warriors now sit at 37-33 and in eighth place in the Western Conference, just a half-game ahead of the ninth-place Memphis Grizzlies who the Warriors will play in the season finale.
As of right now, the Warriors would face the Los Angeles Lakers in the first play-in game. With a win, they would earn the No. 7 seed in the playoffs and a right to face the No. 2 seed, which likely will be the Suns.
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Should the Warriors earn the No. 8 seed but lose their first play-in game, they then would have to play the winner of the No. 9 vs. No. 10 matchup, with the winner earning the No. 8 seed in the first round and a date with the expected top-seeded Jazz.
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The last time the Warriors were in the playoffs, they were the NBA's greatest collection of talent running on fumes trying to finish off a three-peat. Injuries and exhaustion led to their demise in the 2019 NBA Finals and a gap year followed.
Now, the Warriors are set to return to the playoffs in a different role. One that suits Green, Steph Curry and these underdog Warriors just fine.
