Heading into the final day of the regular season, the Golden State Warriors were locked into the No. 10 seed. That was always where they were going to sit. But their opponent wasn’t set in stone. It was going to either be the Portland Trail Blazers ot the LA Clippers, and it ended up being the Clippers. That is certainly the less favorable matchup for Golden State.
The Blazers are no slouch. They can play. But the Clippers aren’t a typical No. 9 seed. They got off to a terrible start to the year but have been rapidly climbing up the standings ever since, making them one of the hottest teams in the spot. That doesn’t bode well for the Warriors, who have not been playing well lately.
Golden State should have wanted to see anyone but the Clippers in the Play-In game.
Kawhi Leonard is nightmare Play-In opponent for Warriors
Don’t get it twisted: Anything can happen in the Play-In. It’s a one-game series. The Warriors could end up beating the Clippers by 30 points, make it to the 7-8 game, and win that one, too.
With Stephen Curry back in the lineup, theoretically, anything can happen. But having to take on Kawhi Leonard’s Clippers in the Play-In makes that dream much harder to attain.
Leonard has not only been playing great basketball this season, but he’s also one of the greatest playoff risers in the NBA. In fact, he may be one of the best playoff performers in the history of basketball.
So, the fact that the Warriors, who, again, have struggled lately, now have to put their playoff lives on the line against Leonard doesn’t exactly bode well for them.
Having Curry on their side makes anything possible. To the point where it’s not unfathomable to imagine the Warriors going on a miracle playoff run and making it out of the Play-In, perhaps even taking a game off the Oklahoma City Thunder.
But now that Leonard is standing in their way instead of Donovan Clingan and Shaedon Sharpe, that dream now looks more like a nightmare.
Curry’s final years in the NBA are imminent. In fact, the Warriors almost certainly just wasted one this season (though bad injury luck certainly didn’t help).
But now that the playoffs are here, it seems like any hope of a fun playoff run is gone. And Leonard’s Clippers are going to be a huge part of that.
Golden State’s playoff run might end before it even starts.
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