The Golden State Warriors’ 129-101 loss to the Los Angeles Lakers tonight was a rough awakening for the Dubs. It didn’t just sting in the moment; it highlighted the larger reality the team faces as the regular season winds down: every loss now carries much heavier consequences, especially in the tightly packed Western Conference. After the game, head coach Steve Kerr weighed in.

“It’s a lot to make up with 22 games left,” Kerr told reporters when asked if the #6 seed was a realistic goal for the Warriors. “We don’t even talk about it. It’s not anything that is worth discussing because we just have to try to go out and win and see what happens.”

This is a rough evaluation, but Kerr isn’t wrong. The Warriors are currently 31-29 for the #8 seed, firmly in the Play-In range, with several teams ahead of them. The Lakers, who are currently the #6 seed, are 4.5 games ahead of the Warriors, with the Phoenix Suns sitting right ahead of them. With 22 games left, Golden State has almost no time left to make up that difference, which means that they need to play nearly perfectly.

That margin for error is going to be a lot thinner considering that Stephen Curry and Kristaps Porzingis are still out, with no clear return date for either in mind. The Warriors started a lineup of Brandin Podziemski, De’Anthony Melton, Draymond Green, Gui Santos, and Moses Moody, which is hardly a contending level squad. Now add that they have no reliable offensive engine without Curry, and things begin to look bleak.

To make matters worse, the Portland Trail Blazers and the LA Clippers aren’t far behind, and LA is likely to add guard Darius Garland in just a few days, which poses yet another threat for Steve Kerr’s Warriors.

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For now, they just need to prevent blowouts like tonight.

Warriors Run Into Luka Doncic Buzzsaw as Lakers Cruise to Blowout Win

Saturday night quickly spiraled out of reach for Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors. What started as a competitive first few minutes quickly turned into a one-sided affair as the Lakers took control early and never let go.

The biggest problem for the Warriors was Luka Doncic, who celebrated his 27th birthday by giving the Warriors 26 points, eight assists, and six rebounds, stretching the defense with threes and pinpoint passes.

The Warriors showed some fight early in the second, trimming a 23-point lead to 12 behind a Gary Payton II-led 15-2 run, but the momentum was short-lived. Doncic poured in 16 points in the third quarter to push the lead out of reach, with five Lakers recording double digits. The Warriors, despite the best efforts of newly-extended forward Gui Santos, who led the team in scoring, the Warriors simply couldn’t compete with the star power that the Lakers had.

For now, all they can hope is that Stephen Curry and Kristaps Porzingis can return soon. Their next game is against the LA Clippers on Monday.