How Warriors can keep top-six playoff seed hopes alive on Tuesday originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Warriors’ final shot at clinching one of the top six NBA playoff seeds in the Western Conference could be determined Tuesday night.
They already clinched at least a trip to the NBA Play-In Tournament, but their hopes of securing a first-round playoff series lie on their matchup with the Lakers (45-34) in Los Angeles on Tuesday night, along with a couple of other outcomes.
If Golden State (43-35) falls to Los Angeles, it would be locked to a play-in game. The same can happen if the New Orleans Pelicans defeat the lowly Portland Trail Blazers and either the Phoenix Suns beat the Los Angeles Clippers or the Sacramento Kings beat the Oklahoma City Thunder.
So, basically, the Warriors must handle business in SoCal and need some help from the Trail Blazers, along with the Clippers or Thunder.
The Warriors lost their first matchup of the 2023-24 season with the Lakers back in January but won the next two. The two teams are familiar with one another not just because of their Western Conference rivalry, but also because of the storied rivalry between Steph Curry and LeBron James dating back to the Warriors-Cleveland Cavaliers NBA Final feuds.
Now with James on a different team on a different coast, the rivalry between the two has only intensified, regardless of the well-known respect both superstars have for one another.
But with the stakes never higher, no one has time to play Mr. Nice Guy inside Crypto.com Arena on Tuesday, as both teams fight for postseason positioning with just a handful of regular-season games remaining.
Source Agencies
