Trending in the NBA: Warriors’ rebound and talk of a female coach among this week’s topics

What’s trending in the NBA: Warriors return to strength, talk of a female head coach and the Milwaukee Bucks’ rule of thumb among this week’s topics.

Still the Dubs

Golden State’s vulnerability was as fleeting and precarious as a floating bubble.

It burst after a fatigued team lost three games in a row, only for the Warriors to respond with a dominant run of wins and the anticipation of Kevin Durant’s imminent return.

Suddenly, Golden State went from its first three-game losing streak since November 2013 to finishing one of the NBA’s greatest seasons and likely securing the Western Conference’s No. 1 seed. The Warriors might post the rare .800 winning season or even win out to reach 68 wins, which would tie for the sixth-most victories in NBA history.

Golden State was most impressive Tuesday and Wednesday with back-to-back road wins against the Western Conference’s No. 2 and No. 3 teams, San Antonio and Houston. The Warriors trailed the Spurs, 29-7, at San Antonio before rallying to win a night after a wire-to-wire win in Houston. They have rallied to win six games this season after trailing by 16 points or more.

The Warriors already have reached NBA rare air, becoming the only team to win 30 road games in consecutive seasons besides Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls (1995-97). And they have achieved all of these feats while Durant, their top player this season, has missed 17 games.

Female head coach?

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver told ESPN that the NBA “definitely” will have its first female head coach and he feels obligated to see it happen.

The sentiment is similar to previous Silver statements but this one came with a more feasible path in place. Becky Hammon (San Antonio) and Nancy Lieberman (Sacramento) are NBA assistant coaches and Natalie Nakase (Clippers) is an assistant video coordinator, a position that is a modern breeding ground for coaches.

Some shoot down Hammon’s and Lieberman’s chances because they are back-row assistants, but Phoenix head coach Earl Watson started last season as a rookie NBA assistant on the Suns’ back row and became interim head coach by February.

Hammon was the head coach of an NBA Summer League championship team and Lieberman was the head coach for a D-League team. Hammon also has a progressive boss, Gregg Popovich, who created a role that made her pass on the University of Florida’s head coach offer. She is ahead of college candidates for having paid dues on an NBA bench.

The path still is clearly difficult. Even half of WNBA coaches are men. And Lauren Holtkamp is the only active female NBA referee.

Rule of thumb

A thumb down for Milwaukee’s John Henson could prove costly.

Henson has been out since March 21 with a sprained left thumb. That could be important to the Bucks’ playoff positioning and Henson’s bank account.

Yahoo reported that Henson is due a $200,000 bonus if he appears in 60 games this season. He has played 56 games with six regular-season games remaining, starting with Sunday’s home game against Dallas.

Yahoo also reported that Portland’s Maurice Harkless will receive a $500,000 bonus if he shoots better than 35%. His percentage dipped below 35.0 for the season when he missed eight consecutive three-point attempts over six games until connecting on one Thursday night.

Blazin’ hot

The only thing better than how Portland has played lately is the fashion in which it passed Denver on Tuesday.

The Trail Blazers, winners of eight of their last nine games entering Saturday night, made a February trade with the Nuggets that haunted Denver on Tuesday. Former Nuggets center Jusuf Nurkic, 22, posted 33 points and 16 rebounds for Portland against his old team.

In his CSN Northwest walkoff interview, Nurkic said, “I came here and I said that we want to be a playoff team, so we’re going to be out there and so now we’re right now there and I wish those guys [the Nuggets,] ‘Happy summer.’”

Portland’s run started with successive road wins at San Antonio, Atlanta and Miami. The Blazers also won the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Nuggets by taking the season series, 3-1. While Denver is amid a closing stretch with seven of nine games on the road, Portland will play its final four games at home starting Thursday.

LOOKING AHEAD

Cleveland at Boston

When: Wednesday at 5 p.m. PDT. TV: ESPN.

The Cavaliers had one three-game losing streak during their championship season of a year ago. It came when Kyrie Irving missed all three games and LeBron James missed one. Cleveland posted three-game losing streaks twice last month and slipped behind Boston atop the East. The Cavaliers still hold a 2-1 series edge on Boston and a better conference record for tiebreakers but this game remains critical for the teams’ top-seed hopes. The Celtics will be at home and playing after two days of rest while Cleveland will be on the tail end of a back-to-back set.