Warriors’ next playoff test figures to be tougher

What’s in the Warriors’ immediate future?

Lots of rest, a little Memphis Grizzlies reconnaissance, and maybe some retooling after the Warriors’ finished their impressive but occasionally chaotic four-game sweep of the New Orleans Pelicans on Saturday.

What’s in the Warriors’ midrange future? Almost certainly a Round 2 meeting with big and methodical Memphis, which is up 3-0 and can finish a sweep of Portland today.

What’s in the Warriors’ ultimate future this season? We can all figure that they’re about to get to the very hard part, which, if they’re good enough and lucky enough, will last many, many grueling weeks.

No doubt, New Orleans tested the Warriors’ mettle and moxie throughout that series. But the Warriors’ top-level talent was just too much for the Pelicans, which Stephen Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and Andrew Bogut proved in all four games.

If and when Memphis arrives at Oracle Arena for Game 1 of the next series, the Warriors almost certainly will have to go deeper into their roster and more creatively into their playbook.

Which, I presume, coach Steve Kerr and his staff are more than ready and eager to do.

The Warriors took Sunday off, will practice today and Tuesday, then will take Wednesday off and will deal with the rest of the schedule when they get word on Game 1.

The earliest the series can start is Saturday, depending on the length of the Memphis-Portland series and the status of the other first-round series.

So that’s six days off, at minimum.

Will all that down time be good or bad? Green and Curry could use the rest after heavy duty in Round 1, but the Warriors could lose a little of their offensive flow during such a long break.

It’s probably a push, and the Warriors can’t do anything about it now, anyway. All they can do is prepare for the series to come.

Here are key issues that probably will set the framework for a presumed Warriors-Memphis series:

Will Memphis be at full strength once it gets past Portland?

The Grizzlies have announced that point guard Mike Conley, who was hit in the face in Game 3, won’t play in Game 4 today; his status into the future is uncertain. And backup point guard Beno Udrih, who has hurt the Warriors in the past, has an ankle injury that forced him to miss Game 3; he said Sunday that he will play today.

Simple summary: If you’re about to play the Warriors and Curry, you really don’t want to be missing your best point guard.

How will the Warriors match up with the Grizzlies’ front line of Zach Randolph and Marc Gasol?

The Warriors - mostly Bogut and Green - did just fine in their two regular-season victories against Memphis; the Warriors’ one loss to Memphis came when Bogut was out with a knee issue.

Figure that Marreese Speights and Festus Ezeli will get more minutes in this series than in the previous one, and that David Lee, who missed the series because of back soreness, will get some important time backing up Green. All three big men had roles in the regular season against the Grizzlies.

But the Warriors beat Memphis twice by outmaneuvering and outflanking the Grizzlies, not by trying to go bulk vs. bulk.

Can the Warriors bench put up more scoring than it did against the Pelicans?

Speights was invisible (except for that offensive rebound and assist to Curry to save Game 3), Shaun Livingston was up and down, and Andre Iguodala couldn’t make a jump shot.

The Warriors could live with that against New Orleans, because Curry, Green and Thompson played extended minutes and were incredible, particularly at the end of games. But it’s hard to see the Warriors winning back-to-back series with limited bench production. They will need key minutes and points from some combination of Lee, Iguodala, Speights, Livingston and Leandro Barbosa.

In Memphis’ regular-season victory, it was the Grizzlies bench that went on a 20-0 run to start the second quarter against Thompson and four reserves.

Kerr’s adjustment: He now rarely goes any significant time with Curry and Green both out of the game.

By the way, Curry was plus-50 in the plus/minus for the New Orleans series; Green was a monster plus-77.

Many more issues will develop and many more questions will be asked - the Warriors aren’t even officially matched against Memphis yet.

But they know what’s coming, they know it won’t be easy, and they know the last round was just the first taste of it.