The entire Golden State Warriors season comes down to the 82nd and final game. If they defeat the Los Angeles Clippers at home on Sunday they will at worst take the last playoff spot. If they lose they will be the top play-in team.
Often it's a matter of when you play a team, and unfortunately for the Warriors, the Clippers are the hottest team in the NBA, with a seven game winning streak. The Clippers are healthy, and the Warriors are banged up, with Steph Curry aggravating his thumb injury in the Dubs victory in Portland. Though in prior games this season both teams lacked key players that will play Sunday, the Clippers won all three.
The Warriors are in this precarious position partly because they lost two of their past four games--honorably to a Houston team that played a near perfect game, and shockingly to a San Antonio team lacking its best players and losing regularly.
More than the Warriors fate will be decided in the last game of the season. The last games will determine where five teams behind OKC and Houston land finally in the standings--which will be in the playoffs, and who will play who.
The stakes for the Warriors are high. They need the week's rest that comes with a 7 game playoff spot. If they are relegated to the play-in--where in past years they did not win a single game--they have one day off.
So the early Sunday game will be a fitting test of their playoff potential--if they can defeat a team as good as the Clippers they prove they can cause trouble and even contend.
Meanwhile in baseball, the San Francisco Giants are off to a pretty good start, stealing some thunder from the royalty of the league, the Los Angeles Dodgers, their division rival. The Dodgers are loaded for the long season, but for the moment the Giants are bringing fun baseball back to the Bay.
