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Warriors star Stephen Curry

Clearing a few bills from the table to make room for Thanksgiving…

Even some around the Warriors are a little surprised. After all, this is a team that finished 10th in the Western Conference before Sacramento beat it by 24 in the play-in game.

“I think there was a sense of trying to hold on to what we had rather than turning a corner,” a source close to the situation told Heavy Sports. “With Buddy (Hield) and now playing a deeper rotation, there is a freshness.

“It will always be Steph (Curry)’s team as long as he is here, but there are more people contributing.”

Things quickly got tough for Golden State just months after they won the 2022 championship. Jordan Poole beeped at Draymond Green during a practice, and Green punched him in the face. Poole was traded to Washington this offseason, but a Warrior source told us, “There were trust issues after the incident. Guys said the right things most of the time, but you wondered what some people were thinking when it went quiet. It just felt uncomfortable sometimes, and it bled over.

After winning 44 games that year, the Dubs won two more in 2023-24, but the season was a nightmare. The collapse and death of assistant coach Dejan Milojevic during a team dinner cast a cloud over the club. Things just weren’t good on the field.

“You had Klay (Thompson) still coming back from injury, and it was tough,” the source said. “He was trying to do things to get himself going and show that he could still be who he was, and that seemed to get in the way.

“You could understand a lot about it. Klay was such a big part of the success and everyone wanted him to get it all back. It had to be mentally tough for him. He tried so hard, but when things go like this, it becomes difficult to play with that easy flow.”

The Warriors have fared more smoothly this year, coming off a very nice win in Boston and hanging on to second place in the West as the holidays approached.

“The key,” said a rival assistant coach, “is whether they can play against so many people and play the same style when the play-offs come around and every minute is magnified. Will Steve (Kerr) continue to spread out the minutes, or should he rely heavily on a top eight, for example?

Payton Pritchard has earned his place

Payton Pritchard was happy to hear that some high school and even college coaches have chimed in to say they used the recent story about him here to point out the work ethic needed to help their players grow.

But it was an NBA coach who said, “I wish you would have talked to me for that story.” I would have given you a damn comment.

And?

“You’re playing the Celtics and no one has that much time to prepare for one game in the regular season,” he said. “So obviously during shootarounds and before the game you focus on (Jaylen) Brown and (Jayson) Tatum.

“Then,” he added with a laugh, “this little (expletive) comes into play and starts to cheer us up.” That (expletive) is not fair.”

Speaking of Pritchard’s preparation, we joked with his training man, Celtic assistant Craig Luschenat, that it must be hard on his self-esteem to score so much in drills. But he said he’s getting all the therapy he needs for his “wounds” from seeing Pritchard bury shots during the games.

Larry Bird still hates the Lakers

Great story from eight-year NBA veteran Jim Petersen, who was in Boston on Sunday as the Timberwolves announcer.

The former Rocket, King and Warrior were at the recent Hall of Fame festivities in Springfield and recalled a scene from the hotel lobby.

“There were a lot of Lakers there because Michael Cooper got in, and some of them were standing around,” Petersen said. “Then (Larry) Bird walked by, and he didn’t even look at them. These players are all friends today, but Larry wanted nothing to do with those guys. It was beautiful.”

Steve Bulpett has covered the NBA since 1985, the first 35 of those years as a beat writer/columnist for the Boston Herald. During that time, he has achieved APSE National Top 10 honors as a columnist, beat reporter and feature writer. Since 2014, he has served as vice president of the Professional Basketball Writers Association. More about Steve Bulpett