About playoff seeding that is. In terms of outcomes, Sunday went pretty much as expected--all the teams that needed to win did win, including the Warriors. And did they. With the most points in the first quarter in NBA history (55) on the way to a 157-101 pounding of the JV version of Portland. Klay Thompson needed five threes to reach 300 for the year, which he accomplished in that first quarter. He ended with 6, and ended the regular season with the most 3 pointers in the league. Only two other players (including Steph of course) have ever made 300 in a season.
So now we can catch our breaths for a week, until the Warriors face the Sacramento Kings in a first round series starting April 15. Pundits of course will be fulminating the entire time, and several of those already on record predict the Warriors to go deep in the playoffs. Steph Curry expressed his confidence that the Warriors can win the West.
With a week to work Andrew Wiggins back into the flow, and time for some nagging injuries to heal, the Warriors have what it takes to win it--despite less than stellar play at times, they have momentum, they are (we hope) healthy, and so far they're lucky: because the Clippers were playing at the same time, the Clips had to win their game, even though they would have made the sixth seed if they hadn't. As it is, the Clippers have to face Kevin Durant in the first round. Sacramento is widely considered a weaker team, challenged on defense. The question will be whether they face the playoff Warriors or the regular season Warriors. This is where experience gets added to the Dubs' advantage.
Another great plus of the Portland game was game experience for the bench. The Dubs bench played the entire fourth and handily outscored Portland, 39 to 28. Moses Moody actually wound up the second highest scorer with 25. Everybody played at least 10 minutes, everyone scored. Throughout the game Gary Payton II had steals and disrupted the Portland offense. He's already sharp--another good sign.
The official NBA cutdown of the game usually includes the home team announcers, as this one did. So the play by play was pretty surreal, as the home announcers tried to talk about the Portland team on the court but kept getting interrupted by Warrior 3 pointers and JK dunks. I don't think the cut actually included every Warrior basket. By the fourth quarter the announcers were ignoring the game entirely and chatting about what they are going to do on their long vacations until next season.
However, it looked like a sizable part of the crowd stuck around. As in Sacramento, there were lots of Dub fans. How else to account for the fact that even though Portland was sitting its starters plus half the bench for the past several games, for this early afternoon game the place was sold out.
