PHILADELPHIA — The Warriors upcoming road trip reads five games. But the team is referring to it as an eight-gamer “with one of those stops being in Oracle,” Steve Kerr said.

It starts with a back-to-back in Philadelphia and Washington D.C. on Monday and Tuesday. Then a Thursday night game in Chicago. Then a Sunday, Monday back-to-back in New York and Atlanta. Nothing abnormal to this point. Just a grueling but common midseason Eastern swing for a Western team.

But this is where it gets strange. The Warriors then take the five-hour, 2,500-mile flight from Atlanta back to the Bay Area for a quick game against the visiting Celtics, then immediately reroute another direction for a nearly four-hour, 2,000-mile flight northeast to Minnesota. Then the next night, after a 1,500-mile flight south, they finish up the gauntlet in San Antonio. Thirteen days, nine flights, eight games, three back-to-backs.

“The most insane schedule I’ve ever seen in all my years in the NBA,” Kerr said. “Here you go, Golden State, here’s your marquee game against the Spurs on a Saturday night on ABC and it’ll be your eighth game in (13) days with 10,000 miles (in between) — like, it’s insane.”

Which brings up the obvious question: How will the Warriors combat this physical test? It’s a team that, all season — dating back to media day, when it was their main talking point — has promised it would navigate the regular season much more cautiously than the season before, when it chased 73 wins and puttered out right before the postseason finish line.

Saturday night was an example of that. Kevin Durant was experiencing a little swelling in his left pinky. So Kerr and the Warriors opted to sit him, though in a dire situation they could’ve pushed him. But there was no need.

“Anything that pops up like KD’s hand being sore, we’ll automatically give a guy a rest if he’s banged up (on this road trip),” Kerr said.

But it’s more than the physical toll. It’s the mental fatigue. Extended NBA road trips tend to wear you down and twist your brain and body into a tired state. Examples of that: Kerr, Draymond Green and JaVale McGee all mentioned a tendency to forget the day of the week, the city they’re in and their hotel room number.

“Plenty of times I’ve went to the same room (number) as the night before, the city before and realized I’m on a whole different floor, whole different room,” McGee said.

“Every day is Wednesday,” Kerr said, quoting former Phoenix Suns executive Lon Babby.

There have been plenty of studies over the past few years concluding that an 82-game NBA schedule places an unreasonable physical burden on the human body. Injuries are more common when fatigue sets in. Kerr is aware, commonly mentioning that he likes to get a player a day off when he can sense a guy is “fried.”

“I’ve got to be very, very careful about our players’ welfare,” Kerr said. “Make sure they’re fresh and not too fatigued, because we know that can lead to injury.”

But the Warriors are net yet secure enough to just give games away. Their stated goal for this regular season is to gain home court throughout the playoffs. Golden State has lost nine games. Everyone in the East has already lost at least 17 games.

So home court in the Finals is basically locked up. But it isn’t in the West Finals. The Spurs, quietly as always, are sitting at 45-13, just four games back of the Warriors. They already beat Golden State in the season opener and face them two more times — both in San Antonio, both on the second night of a back-to-back for the Warriors. With just one win in those two advantageous matchups, they will gain the seeding tiebreaker should it come to that.

“You got to lock that (top seed) down,” Green said. “Four games behind isn’t a lot. Especially when we go there twice. Two tough games. Those games alone can cause huge swings. So we have to take care of business and then if you create separation, (resting) is a conversation you have.”

The NBA schedule, of course, has a way of leveling itself out. The Warriors will get rewarded on the back-end. Six of their last seven games of the season are at home and the only road game comes on a back-to-back in Phoenix on April 5.

If the Warriors can clinch by then, they could opt to leave their stars at home for that Suns game. In doing so, that would allow them to remain in the Bay Area from March 30th (their second to last road game) through the first two games of the playoffs (around April 19th), accumulating rest and relaxation before the real season starts.

Steve Kerr says he must monitor minutes well coming out of the break because Warriors have "most insane" schedule he's ever seen pic.twitter.com/mbsbGSzUvf — Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) February 24, 2017