The Golden State Warriors will kick off this season's playoffs when they play Game 1 of their first-round series against the San Antonio Spurs at the Oracle Arena in Oakland. 

The Warriors won't be at full strength though, as their star player in Steph Curry will still be out of action as he is still recovering from his grade two MCL sprain which he suffered back in March. He's not expected to return until the second round of the postseason.

Golden State has struggled without their point guard in their lineup though, as they have gone 4-6 in the past 10 games despite still having appearances from the likes of Kevin Durant, Draymond Green, and Klay Thompson.

It's surprising to see the Warriors performing so poorly ahead of the playoffs despite having one of the best teams in the entire NBA, and the team's head coach, Steve Kerr, believes the reason for this is due to a lack of meaningful games recently for his team. 

Kerr said to ESPN's The Jump: "I think part of the problem the last month is we've been locked into the two seed. Obviously, we've had a lot of injuries, but the games have not been meaningful, and our play and our focus reflected that.

"The games are about to get extremely meaningful, as we know. I know our guys. I know how competitive they are. I know how talented they are. So I expect things to turn around pretty quickly for us in the first round."

Despite the lack of defense over the past month, Kerr believes his side will show up against the Spurs later today because his team will respect what they're able to do in crunch time on the court and react accordingly.

He said: "The last month, our defense has really suffered. We just have not been intense enough, and we've been lazy on our rotations, and that has to change, and we know the Spurs are going to make us do that.

"They bring the best out of you because they're going to expose every weakness you have. I think it's a great first-round matchup for us. It's either going to bring the best of us and remind us of how hard we have to play or totally expose us and prove we're not ready for it. We've got to find out, one way or the other."

The Warriors are naturally good when it comes to attacking, but it's their defense that has been lacking over the past month. If they're able to change this fact against the Spurs, they should be able to advance to the next round of the playoffs and improve even further with the return of Curry.

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