While the Golden State Warriors still remain a favorite to win the NBA Championship this season, the team has struggled as of late, losing five of their last eight games. It's fairly out of character for this team to struggle in such a way, especially when many of those losses come at home. The team recently lost by 33 points at home to the Boston Celtics, which has led head coach Steve Kerr to say that the team needs to do better in front of the home fans.
Next season, the Warriors will be moving out of Oracle Arena in Oakland and moving to Chase Center in San Francisco. For Kerr, it's important to give back to the Oracle Arena supporters by putting on a good show and playing high-level basketball.
Per ESPN:
"We talked about this being our last season at Oracle, in Oakland, the very first night that we met back in September. Our team dinner that we do every year before camp starts. It's a big part of our theme. And we've let our fans down many times this year at home, particularly on nights that are big ones, against great teams, national TV [games]. So something we've discussed the last two days: What's our purpose? Why are we doing this? I think we owe it to ourselves, we owe it to our fans, and particularly to our fans in Oakland, to give them our best stuff for the coming months. That's been lacking and it's disappointing, but we got a great opportunity ahead of us to close the season strong and to play well and deep into the playoffs, and it's all right there for us."
The Warriors are currently first in the Western Conference with a record of 44-20.