The Golden State Warriors return from the All-Star break on Thursday night when they host the Los Angeles Clippers hoping that the break gave them new life.
Golden State lost four of their last eight games before the break, causing them to relinquish the best record in the league to the Houston Rockets.
What's the feeling of the team now that the regular season's home stretch is finally here?
"I feel like we’re definitely anxious," center JaVale McGee told Vice. "I feel like everybody’s going through the season like "Playoffs. Hurry. Up." Because it’s a whole different atmosphere. People think that because we went 16-1 last year, like it was easy. It wasn’t easy. Those teams were playing hard. We were just, everybody was just so in sync and we were all in playoff mode. It was just amazing like, everybody was like "Yo, we’re in the playoffs, like, it’s time." The regular season wasn’t anything. When the playoffs come around it doesn’t matter what your record is, and that’s the thing that I admire about the guys. They don’t care what the record is. They don’t care if we went undefeated. We just know that in the playoffs you definitely have to step it up."
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As for only having the second-best record in the West...the Warriors aren't concerned about that, either.
“I don’t even look at the standings,” Draymond Green said. “We haven’t even talked about it.”
“Best record?” Kevin Durant said. “That’s not even a thing. It’s about playing good basketball every night. If we don’t play good basketball, we’ll lose.”
Golden State went 44-14 before the All-Star break, putting them only a half game behind the Rockets at the top of the Western Conference. The two teams won't meet again this season with Houston winning to two of the three regular-season meetings.
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