The Warriors' Nightmare Season Ended in the Play-In, and Now the Real Questions Start

It was April 12 at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, and Stephen Curry was doing what he does best during warmups. The dribbling. The ridiculous shooting antics. The earbuds in. Longtime assistant coach Bruce Fraser running him through the routine that has entertained crowds for years. But this time, something felt different. Curry was just a week back from missing 27 games with knee pain that lingered far longer than anyone, including him, had expected. And as he launched moon shots and 30-footers, the kind that used to energize the entire building, they seemed to be doing the opposite instead.

The Golden State Warriors were already locked into 10th place in the Western Conference. This final regular season game against the Los Angeles Clippers was meaningless. The season itself, it turned out, was nearly over.

A Season That Unraveled in Real Time

Curry paused during his warmup routine, breathing hard, wiping sweat from his brow. He needed a giant heating pack just to get through games. Then he broke into a quick dance outside the right elbow, smiled, and spotted injured forward Jimmy Butler walking to the court. Curry zipped the ball over to him. Butler's right knee was still wrapped tightly in a brace after ACL surgery in early February. He caught the pass out by the 3-point line. The shot looked good. The arc was perfect. For half a second, it seemed like it might fall. But it didn't. Air ball. Curry and Butler doubled over in laughter. It was all they could do.

A 37-win season. Season-ending injuries to Butler and Moses Moody. A team that somehow still clawed its way into a play-in tournament berth. Then on Friday night, the Phoenix Suns ended it all. The Warriors' punishment was complete.

What Comes Next for Golden State

Draymond Green summed it up with brutal honesty after everything fell apart: "Everything that could go wrong has gone wrong this year. And yet we still have a chance ... Because when you have a leader like Steve Kerr, who always knows the right thing to say, and a leader like Steph Curry, that you can always rally around ... anything is possible."

But that optimism comes with a massive asterisk. This decade-long dynastic run might finally be over. The Warriors front office faces a summer of massive uncertainty. Blockbuster trade? New coach? Hard reset? None of those questions have answers yet. All we know is that a season that went wrong in almost every conceivable way has ended, and the reckoning is about to begin.

This article was created with AI assistance and reviewed by Seattle On Tap editorial staff. Always verify information with official team sources.