Warriors Lock in Play-In Spot
SAN FRANCISCO — The Warriors are set for the play-in tournament after clinching the last slot in the Western Conference, thanks to Tuesday night’s outcomes.
“It’s not funny,” Draymond Green said, expressing his feelings bluntly.
This wasn’t really surprising for a team that had a good grasp of their position throughout much of the season. There was a small chance the Clippers could leap to the ninth seed with a win, but their loss to the Mavericks dashed that hope.
This marks the fourth time in seven years that the Warriors have found themselves in the play-in situation. To move on to the first round, they’ll need to win two road games against either the Clippers, Trail Blazers, or Suns, for a shot at facing the Thunder or Spurs.
“I’m a competitor, so I’ll do whatever it takes to win, but it’s not particularly thrilling,” Green added. “As a competitor, you want to rise to the challenge, but you can’t go to bed tonight thinking, ‘Next week is the play-in.'”
The expanded postseason format introduced a couple of seasons ago is the reason the Warriors are still in contention, having managed a 9-18 record in the last 27 games without Stephen Curry. Green commented, “It’s not working.” The goal was to motivate more teams to keep competitive until the end of the regular season.
“I think it worked well initially,” Green observed. “But it’s not effective in keeping teams from 10th place. We could have lost our last fifteen games and still been stuck at 10th. The play-in concept could lead to a team being as low as 12th or 13th. They can’t stay in that position this season. They’ve slowed down a bit and hit the brakes,” he indicated.
He spent considerable time pondering the advantages and disadvantages of the play-in format while also analyzing the details of Golden State’s tight 110-105 victory over the Kings. After all, the teams trailing the Warriors didn’t seem very motivated to pursue that No. 10 seed.
In the game, the Kings made a strategic foul on Seth Curry, who was at 86.4 percent from the free-throw line, while trailing by three points with just over a minute left.
When asked how to tackle the NBA’s issue of teams “tanking,” Green paused before suggesting stricter penalties, similar to fines the league had recently imposed—$500,000 on the Jazz and $100,000 on the Pacers—for their actions earlier in the season.
“If a team does something wrong, they should face fines. If it’s a player, they’re quick to take money away; the same should apply to teams,” Green remarked. “I’ve seen only two fines, and everyone is clearly tanking, yet it’s overlooked.”
The league seems divided into two categories: those looking to win and those looking to lose. The Warriors have generally leaned toward the former category for much of the past couple of months, leaving Tuesday’s results feeling rather insignificant.
There was a reason they cared about the on-court performance in the past few games. This period is crucial for Curry and other injured players to readjust before the stakes get higher.
Curry, back after a knee injury, contributed 17 points in 25 minutes but was mostly quiet during the second half. Head Coach Steve Kerr mentioned that he appeared “a little rusty” and took responsibility for three of the Warriors’ 11 turnovers in the third quarter.
“Steph had some rough moments… He knows it wasn’t his best game ball-handling,” Kerr said. “Returning for the second game is often tougher than the first. The adrenaline of the first game can be overwhelming. I think we played well last night, but tonight there seemed to be some disappointment from the team.”
The Warriors missed another chance to see how Curry could mesh with Kristaps Porzingis, who was sidelined with a knee injury, along with other players. The new addition, brought in at the trade deadline, fouled out during Curry’s return, limiting the duo’s court time together to just eight minutes.
Perhaps the bright spot for the Warriors in this win was De’Anthony Melton’s renewed confidence. He scored 21 points in 29 minutes, marking his best performance since mid-March.
“I just wanted to find a way to break out of this slump,” Melton said after the game. It had been a tough stretch for him, missing two out of ten games and averaging only 8 points per game, far below his usual standards.
Curry’s presence noticeably opens up the floor for his teammates. Melton mentioned that he’s feeling better after dealing with a thumb injury that affected his gameplay in recent weeks.
“That was significant,” he noted. “It took longer to heal than I wanted, and that impacted my confidence a bit. Now, I’m starting to feel much more like myself.”
