With one week to go in the NBA regular season, our Sunday Surmising today revisits our most recent NBA Tuesday piece from last week: the Golden State Warriors trying to make one more postseason run with superstar Stephen Curry. Just five days ago, this is what we observed: the team was 43-31 then, and now with three consecutive wins over playoff-bound teams under their belts, the Warriors are set up nicely.

The team hosts the Houston Rockets tonight, and then it closes with three winnable games before a potentially huge finale at home against the Los Angeles Clippers. So these five games will decide the team’s postseason fate, snd as we said previously, the Warriors needed to split their next four games to have a shot at 50 victories and a high(er) seed in the very combative Western Conference. They got three wins already.

Even the team loses tonight to Houston, it can run the table to 50 wins. That’s where Golden State needs to be for a Top-4 seed and home-court advantage in the first round without having to go through the play-in process. The Warriors really need that kind of seeding edge if they want to take advantage of the postseason opportunity in front of them (as we outlined awhile ago). If they are anywhere lower, it’s tough.

The game against the Rockets tonight should go the GSW way, since Houston is pretty much locked in to the second seed and can get some extra rest for its no-name roster before the playoffs. This is a franchise that posted just a 59-177 record from 2020-2023. Yes, the Rockets obviously are better now, but the team lacks true star power required for them to make a deep run in the NBA postseason, where as Golden State … yes.

With its top trio very well known, the Warriors can win against Houston tonight, on the road in Phoenix Tuesday, back at home on Wednesday against the lowly and injured San Antonio Spurs, and on the road again Friday against the Portland Trail Blazers. This latter trio of games all feature players and teams making summertime plans already. If Golden State can win all four? Well, the game against the Clippers …

Might not even matter. The lesser L.A. team has won four straight, currently, and it does have its own star power. The Warriors, despite being at home for that Game 82 next Sunday, would like to have it all sewn up by then, so they too can rest a bit. Golden State’s power trio—Curry, Jimmy Butler, and Draymond Green—all are in their mid-30s with a lot of playoff mileage, and they’ve all been playing too many minutes, too.

Any rest is good rest. And when the Warriors can get some, they’ll be that much more dangerous in May.