© Kyle Terada | 2019 Apr 7
OAKLAND — The Warriors played their final regular season game ever at Oracle Arena on Sunday, smashing the Los Angeles Clippers 131-104 to clinch the top seed in the Western Conference. Here are three takeaways:
Warriors rock “We Believe” uniforms, win final regular season game at Oracle
For the last ever regular season game at Oracle Arena, it seemed like a missed opportunity for the Warriors not to wear their “We Believe” throwback jerseys. It seemed that way until right before tip-off, that is, when the Warriors players took off their warmups to reveal those very uniforms. The sellout crowd, and Stephen Curry, promptly went nuts.
Steph and Oracle Arena both HYPE while unveiling the We Believe jerseys ??? pic.twitter.com/S0wxt3bMUB
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) April 8, 2019
You know we couldn’t celebrate 47 seasons at Oracle without bringing these back ? pic.twitter.com/WsxL1Efojt
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 8, 2019
The Warriors wore Sunday’s uniforms from 1997-2010, recording only two winning seasons during that span. One of those was the 2006-07 season, when the Warriors’ “We Believe” squad beat the No. 1 seeded Dallas Mavericks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
Curry is the only member of the Warriors to have worn the uniforms until Sunday, rocking them during his rookie season.
Golden State rose to the occasion on Sunday, tuning up the intensity to 11 in the third quarter to knock the LA out of striking distance. The Warriors outscored the Clippers 42-18 in the quarter, and capped it off with an incredible Curry 30-foot, step-back 3-pointer.
Buckets pic.twitter.com/0nfJTFRC2u
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 8, 2019
The shot followed what would’ve been Curry’s greatest dunk of his career. The play unfortunately didn’t count due to a foul called seconds before.
Didn’t count BUT ? pic.twitter.com/dvVc17uSk4
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 8, 2019
While the Warriors will be back at Oracle next week for the first round of the Western Conference playoffs, Sunday’s game put the cap on the arena as the team’s consistant regular season home since 1971. Sunday was the 1,936th regular season game played at Oracle. The team finishes with a record of 1,165-770 (.602). Both the first game played on Oct. 24, 1967, and the last game were Warriors wins.
Golden State won four NBA championships while playing in the building (1975, 2015, 2017, 2018), with the opportunity to win a fifth this year. The Warriors went 78-4 in the building from 2014-2016 in the regular season.
Warriors clinch one-seed
Speaking of winning another championship, the road to doing so got easier with Sunday’s win, as it clinched the first seed in the Western Conference Playoffs, giving Golden State home court advantage until the Finals. The Warriors would not have home court if they faced the Bucks in the Finals, as Milwaukee has already clinched the best record in the NBA. The Raptors are one win, or one Warriors loss, away from guaranteeing they also finish with a better record.
This is the fourth time in five years the Warriors will enter the playoffs with the best record in the Western Conference. In the previous three instances, they also had the best record in the NBA.
Who the Warriors will play in the first round is still up in the air, considering the Clippers, Spurs, and Thunder are all within a half-game of each other at the time of this writing.
Bogut and Draymond turn up the defense
Sunday’s game featured All-Defensive performances from two players who have made careers dominating on that end. Draymond Green had perhaps his best overall game of the season, finishing with a near triple-double of 10 points, 10 rebounds, and nine assists, while also adding five steals and three blocks. A steal-to-dunk play at the beginning of the third quarter summed up his night.
Draymond turning defense into offense ? pic.twitter.com/6qOUyyN5XT
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) April 8, 2019
Andrew Bogut had also maybe his best game as a Warrior this year, closing off the paint with stellar rim protection, going +13 in just eight minutes. Bogut has been even better than expected since returning on March 18, and has almost certainly played his way into Kerr’s playoff rotation.
“I think everything’s on the table, that’s how the playoffs go,” Kerr said pregame. “You just do whatever it takes to win each game and that means making adjustments during the game, lineup changes between games, whatever. Bogut is a hell of a player, an unbelievable pick up for us. I just feel really comfortable knowing that we have that insurance behind DeMarcus (Cousins) and also that depth in our front court. And if a matchup calls for it he’s going to play.”