Welcome to February Daily Topics at Golden State of Mind. A question (almost) every day this month to give the community a prompt to talk about!
There are still 25 games left for the Golden State Warriors to play. We have no idea how those 25 games will go. Yet despite that, we can feel fairly confident that the Dubs will end up in the play-in tournament.
After Sunday’s shocking win over the Denver Nuggets, the Warriors are 30-27, and sit in eighth place in the Western Conference. All four of the play-in seeds are potential landing spots for Golden State: they’re just 2.5 games behind the seventh-place Phoenix Suns, just 2.5 games ahead of the ninth-place Portland Trail Blazers, and a mere three games atop the 10th-place Los Angeles Clippers.
It seems highly unlikely that the Warriors rise out of the play-in seeding: both the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves sit 4.5 games ahead of the Dubs. And it’s even less likely that the Warriors fall out of the play-in seeding, as they’re a full eight games ahead of the tanking Memphis Grizzlies, who are the first team out.
So it’s almost certainly the play-in for the Warriors.
But how things shake out once in the play-in is subject to change. Those four teams could end up in any order, or the Suns could jump into the top six, while the Lakers or Timberwolves (or possibly even the Nuggets or Houston Rockets) could slip to the seventh spot.
As a reminder, the No. 7 team hosts the No. 8 team in the play-in tournament, while No. 9 hosts No. 10. The winner of that 7/8 matchup makes the playoffs as the seventh seed, while the loser hosts the 9/10 winner, with the eighth seed on the line.
So who would you like the Warriors to face, with a spot in the playoffs on the line? Among the current play-in teams, the Warriors are 3-1 against the Suns, 1-3 against the Blazers, and 1-1 against the Clippers. They’re 1-1 against the Lakers, and 1-2 against the Wolves.
It feels to me like Portland should be the easiest matchup, but their athleticism gives Golden State fits. The Clippers have been gutted with the James Harden and Ivica Zubac trades, but they’re always a tough out for the Dubs, and Kawhi Leonard is on a serious heater. The Suns seem to be the best of those other play-in teams, yet I also trust the Warriors against them. So that’s my pick. What’s yours?
Bonus question: if the Warriors make it out of the play-in tournament, would you rather they have a first-round matchup with the Oklahoma City Thunder or the San Antonio Spurs?