With the Grizzlies‘ 123-98 loss to the Spurs tonight, Memphis has officially been eliminated from playoff contention, while the Warriors have been locked into a top-10 seed. The Pelicans had their playoff possibilities officially extinguished by virtue of their 121-116 loss to the Knicks on Tuesday.
That means that the top 10 teams in the West, and therefore the playoff/play-in pool, have been finalized: the Thunder, Spurs, Lakers, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Rockets, Suns, Clippers, Trail Blazers, and Warriors will all be participating in the postseason, though there is still plenty of room for the seeding to change over the last few weeks of the season.
Wednesday night was a big night for the Western Conference playoff race, as the Nuggets, Rockets, Warriors, Clippers, Blazers, and Lakers were all in action. Coming into the night, three games separated the No. 6 Rockets from the No. 3 Lakers, and the No. 10 Warriors were just two games behind the No. 8 Clippers.
While no team is likely to catch the Spurs in second place, San Antonio is just two games behind the top-seeded Thunder, who had their 12-game winning streak snapped on Wednesday.
Spurs coach Mitch Johnson spoke about the team clinching home court advantage in the first round tonight. “I would expect it to be loud with a lot of excitement, enthusiasm,” he said, per Tom Orsborn of the San Antonio Express-News (Twitter link). “But it’s still a little bit away, so hopefully we can continue to get better and make some improvements in a lot of areas.”
On the other end of the postseason picture, the Warriors technically haven’t been eliminated from contention for a top-six seed, but they trail No. 6 Houston by 8.5 games and both teams have just nine left to play, so that will likely happen at some point in the coming days.
Will the Warriors have enough healthy players to suit when playin time comes.
Hopefully not lol
I’m guessing it’ll be the Spencer, Santos and the Yurtseven show.
The great tank continues.
The play in is so ridiculous. Any team with Steph Curry on it should never be below the 2026 version of the Portland Trail Blazers in the standings. Yet they are, and they get a chance at the playoffs, that they don’t deserve. If Portland drops them in the play in opener,then the Warriors won’t be a threat again for a long long time.
pffft…as if you know
What do you know about “Larry Brown’s crank”?
Yeah watch them land a solid draft position in the lottery, swing a trade for a big time player, and be right back in the thick of things in the 3-6 seed next year.
ndividual event.iCurry been out over 20 games. Butler been out almost half the games. Now Moody their 3rd best player is out for a year. You do know basketball is a team game not a individual event.
What a sniveling, pathetic comment “I dont like Curry so he shouldnt be allowed to play in the play-in”? Is that what you are saying? “Dont deserve?” But they won more games? They literally deserve the 10th seed?
If the Blazers drop them in the play-in, GSW will be better next season. Do you not understand GSW is easily a top 4 team if they have zero injuries? They are 100% right up there with the best this season. They beat Wemby in a back to back. They likely will reconfigure the roster and still contend next season. What a cope of the century by this poster.
I hope hater comments like this spur the Dubs fan posters on here back into defending them more. It’s gross how so many of you folded like a stack of cards in the wind, when a healthy Curry = GSW is winning. It still is true. The Warriors are never rebuilding or tanking.
I like Curry a lot. That’s why I think he should go to Charlotte since they’re an up and coming contender, and run from the sinking ship in Golden State. Pay homeage to his old man.
They literally deserve the 10 seed, as you said. However, they do NOT deserve an opportunity to make the playoffs for being the 10th best team in their conference. My gripe is with the new play in system, not the Warriors specifically. This just happens to be a Warriors thread.
The West is too strong for the Warriors. They literally can’t compete with the teams at the top of the conference. The younger, faster, more athletic teams. GSW is DECLINING.
Sorry, Davey. Nobody can defend a false narrative that GSW is “on the rise”. Just you.
Guilderc Did you really say curry doesn’t deserve to be in the playoffs because his team is in 10th place and then in the same breath say he should go Charlotte, a team also tied for 10th place?
Also, Charlotte is not a contender and Won’t be a contender next year either.
Notice how you conveniently left out the fact I described Charlotte as an “up and coming contender”. While describing GSW as “DECLINING”. Nearly the same place in standings but in different situations as teams.
Also, Charlotte is 39-34 and GSW is 35-38, the standings/seedings are a bit misleading of their records.
Up and coming and contending are entirely different.
Contending implies they are capable of winning a championship.
The warriors are more capable of that then the hornets are. This year and the next 2-3 years.
So the Warriors with Steph Curry is more competitive the next 2-3 years than the Hornets with Steph Curry would be? That’s an awful take.
Hornets are legit 2 games out from the 5 seed in the East, lol.
Hornets are legit the 9th seed, have never won more than like 51 games in a season or been past the second round. Hell they’ve only been to the second round of the playoffs like twice lol
They’re the definition of a poverty franchise. They’re not going to do anything except fumble whatever talent they’ve found.
Enough already.
They are currently 8th in the east on a 5-game win streak that includes double digit wins over the Knicks, Magic, and Heat.
The times are changing in Charlotte.
I know they’ve been playing well the last few weeks but that doesn’t erase decades of mediocrity. They won’t make it out of the playin.
They have started to figure out how good they are, and have the best record since the ASB of the 4 teams currently in the play-in.
I wouldn’t be that surprised if they ended up 6thwith the Hawks and 76ers dropping, despite their tough schedule at the end.
But IMO they’ll definitely make the playoffs.
The 9th seed, but 2 games out from the 5th seed. Have you watched a Hornets game with the young talent they have put together this season? Obviously not.
Which means:
1. You don’t watch ball.
2. You’re pretending to not see the upcoming young talent Charlotte has
3. You’re bias towards GSW.
Either way, you sound ridiculous.
I’m not bias towards GSW at all. If you think I’m a GSW fan you’re far off.
I enjoy Lamelo’s game. It’s like watching school yard ball but he’s doing it against pros. Very often it makes me laugh(not at him, just at it working so well).
They have some exceptional young talent but I have ZERO faith in that franchise’s ability to steer the ship the way it needs to go.
Sorry if I was coming off as rude earlier.
I’ve been sick with a cold and haven’t been able to smoke my PTSD medicine for a few days. No excuse though – so like I said, sorry!
It’s hard to know what adding Curry would do as far as whose minutes he takes away.
But as far as a chance to win in the next couple of years, I have to agree that it would be slightly more possible in Charlotte.
That said, I really doubt that Curry will look elsewhere.
Even if he was trying to leave to go there, they’d have to send out significant salary talent and draft capital to make that happen. I don’t see them even wanting to do that with Lamelo and Kon being on the other side of 30. It just wouldn’t be worth it?
I also think Curry stays put. Why would he leave the house he built?
10th place now lol
@TunaNoCrust
They really are not falling off anytime soon. The roster has to be reconfigured but Steph has proven over and over he can drag a roster of mid to the chip (2022).
I’m more curious about GSW getting an injury exemption next season, because aintnoway Moody plays next season. That’s an 18+ month injury. He should be ready by opening night 2028-29 (he will be a free agent and might be on another team, exactly what happened with Kelenna when he went to the Mavs after his injury to play 18 mins then call his career. Kelenna got hurt in 2009 and came back in 2012).
If they score a top 8 pick they are golden!
Top 10-14 is looking pretty good tbh
Next year the top 30 is looking amazing though lol
Hard to believe the Warriors won again last night !! what are they thinking?
I guess they’re a lot smarter than I am because I thought there was a chance the Bucks and bulls could catch them so Golden State would have a chance at the #9 pick.
But it looks like the Bucks and the Bulls are not as dumb as I look lol
Ok, Fine.
So the Warriors will get the # 11 pick when they PURPOSELY lose that first play-in game and go home with their scouting caps firmly in place for the end of June.
I don’t think they have to lose on purpose, they do plenty of losing when they’re trying their best.
They’re almost .500 and that’s in the west. As the number 10 seed currently they’ve done plenty of winning too. Enough that I’m concerned that the play-in game could be close and they go from the 11th pick to the 13th pick lol.
But yes, thumbs up, the Warriors do plenty of losing on their own. That’s definitely true !!
They could certainly beat Portland. Suns or Clippers seems pretty difficult though. One off game though, maybe Steph has 40 in him night.
They are 1-3 vs Portland, and the win was at home. Steph played in all 4 games, scoring 48, 38 and 35 in the 3 losses.. That evidence indicates a Blazers win at home.
Quick question that’s probably going to get laughed out of the room….
Will the NBA respect what Steph Curry has done for the league the last 15 years and gift the Warriors a top four legacy pick this year as a thank you?
I say this because I think Steph has helped propagate the popularity of the league and helped with the global footprint?
Yes, a crazy thought but just thought I would throw it out there? Don’t be too hard on me guys.
I was actually thinking the same thing last night – that they would land a really solid draft pick so that the end of Curry’s career has meaning.
They did it for Bron they can do it for Steph.
Given his popularity, they should. There certainly was no reason for the Mavs to have gotten the #1 pick with a mere 1.8% chance.
“There certainly was no reason for the Mavs to have gotten the #1 pick with a mere 1.8% chance”
No reason? There was 1.8% reason. That doesn’t equal zero.
I think Steph and his legacy are better off treated like an anomaly rather than some subsection of the greater Warriors franchise success. He won’t be appreciated as he should if the Warriors just move onto the next superstar.
Steph is already going to have to fight off Durant’s accomplishments and Klay Thompson’s accomplishments for historical recognition. The Senator and Iggy still ahead of Draymond for championship contributions…
I am tired of the media pushing they must win for Curry. I can name many top 20 players that didn’t win in their final years. Its more the media is upset that their ratings goes down when curry is not in the finals.
Idk man KD or no KD curry is the greatest shooter in NBA history.
Curry allowed KD to get the stats. Even KD said that he told Curry to take shots instead of looking for him all the time.
> Steph is already going to have to fight off Durant’s and Klay
> Thompson’s accomplishments for historical recognition
The truth is that it always works the opposite way with retired superstars — the media gives the biggest names more recognition than they deserve, and minimizes the contributions of their teammates.
Media, like human memory, prefers a simpler story over a complex one. It’s more compelling to say “Steph won four rings” than to talk about Klay’s game 6 heroics or KD’s 2 Finals MVP awards.
Kobe was a distant second to Shaq on the first 3 Lakers’ championship teams. Shaq won the in-season MVP’s and Finals MVP’s, but the media never mentions that anymore.
I hate to break it to you, but KD is going to be forever rated above Steph as an individual basketball player. Maybe in Northern California he won’t, but the stats aren’t lying here. Durant spent 3 years in GS and won 2 championships? I don’t see how he can be 4th all time in points and also “Steph allowed him to score”. Not sure Steph’s assist number were any better during the durant years.
No one that knows basketball agrees with you.
Best stats do not equal best player.
Don’t do Davey arguments, you can disagree that’s fine but engage instead of blandly and boringly dismiss. KD is taller and a better defender. Equally as good as a passer, rebounding isn’t really applicable because of the positional difference, but you know it’s heavily slanted KD. I’ll take Curry off the bounce shooting wise, but vs someone with a hand in your face I’ll take KD all day. I think Curry has to work harder and be more creative to get his looks rather than KD who can sometimes just be tall, but when they are on fire shooting both are equal threats. It may come down to championships or playoff success for you, which is definitely a Steph advantage, but impossible to disentangle half his championships from literal peak Durant. Steph would almost never be on the court without Thompson, while Durant was constantly running with Livingston and the other leftovers.
> I hate to break it to you, but KD is going to
> be forever rated above Steph as an individual
>. basketball player.
We already have plenty of All-Time greatest lists, and Steph is ahead of KD on every single one.
That ship has already sailed.
Curry changed the game made shooting 3 point shots a things so he will be remebered more than KD. KD will have more reords by playing more games but certain players you remember more for how they changed the game. Dr J for his dunks, Magic for being a big man with the most skills, Kobe for his highlights, and Curry for making the 3 point a thing. KD will be remebered for his beautiful shots and one on one baskets.
I think this is a valid argument for being memorable arc, but starting a team and you get one players career to play for your franchise, in a basketball only sense, not ticket sales or shaping the game or whatever but just straight basketball, KD is the correct pick as a larger impact on the game in between the lines. Shooting defense rebound etc.
It would be a hard decision to make if you can only pick 1 player. If Curry or KD never had injuries they would have better career numbers than Lebron.
Durant’s and Klay’s accomplishments?
Both only won due to Steph’s gravity.
Klay is a decent argument, KD definitely not. Klay was only successful with Steph, KD is grown NBA man and probably ultimately made Curry better than the other way around
Weird.
At least as far as playoff success goes, KD was only successful with Steph, while Steph won 2 rings without KD (who only got out off the 1st rd once, and lost a home game 7 in OT scoring 0 pts on 0-6 bricking when it mattered most.
KD needs to win another trophy to be even up with Curry. I don’t see it happening.
I understand your championships argument, but then you would have to say Kobe and Duncan are better than LBJ and they clearly aren’t. We can leave MJ and Bill Russell to the side for this discussion.
There is a reason I do not believe in GOAT status because eevry decade is a different type of basketball is being played. Players now days with medical advancement can play better and longer.
And yet they play less often now with all that medical advancement. Lol
Nba tried that. They drafted wiseman lol.
If they do it, it’s for Lacob’s contribution.