On paper, the Golden State Warriors’ final regular season game, one in Salt Lake City against the Jazz, looked like it could be competitive. The Jazz needed a win to secure favorable seeding in the postseason. The Warriors wanted a win to regain some sort of momentum heading into their defense of the NBA Championship.
Apparently a ‘need’ is greater than a ‘want.’
The Jazz smashed the Warriors 119-79, and it wasn’t ever close. Golden State only mustered 16 points in the first quarter, and 17 in the second quarter against Utah’s smothering defense, and the game was out of hand before it ever really got started.
So what does that mean for the NBA playoff picture? The full playoff seeding isn’t set just quite yet, but Utah’s win Tuesday night over Golden State clears up the picture a tiny bit.
Utah’s win eliminates it from landing in the 7th seed. The Warriors will not face the Jazz in the first round of the playoffs. There was a slight chance that the Warriors could match up with the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs, but with Tuesday’s loss in Utah, this is no longer a possibility.
The only possible teams the Warriors could now face in the first round are the San Antonio Spurs, New Orleans Pelicans, Denver Nuggets, or Minnesota Timberwolves. Other than that, not much else is clear as of now.
With five relevant games left, here is an extensive chart to follow via the @NBA to figure out who the Warriors will play in the 2-7 matchup pic.twitter.com/hgbBjd2Ham
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) April 10, 2018
There are 16 possible eventualities after Tuesday’s games for final Western Conference seeding. Four of them see the Warriors playing the San Antonio Spurs. Four of them have the Warriors playing the Pelicans. Four for the Nuggets matchup. And – you guessed it – four scenarios against the Timberwolves.
The biggest unknown remaining is who the eighth Western Conference playoff team will be. Wednesday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves play the Denver Nuggets in a virtual NBA Playoff play-in game. If the Nuggets win, they’re in. If the Timberwolves win, they’re in.
Tomorrow night’s slate has the Spurs playing the Pelicans, and the Grizzlies traveling to Oklahoma City to play the Thunder. Those three games will decide the fate of the 7-seed, along with the team the Warriors will face in the first round of the playoffs.
Like we previously noted, Utah’s win on Tuesday precludes them from playing the Warriors in the first round of the playoffs – and that might be a good thing for Golden State.
The Jazz absolutely clobbered the Warriors from the opening jump. Klay Thompson led the Warriors with 23 points, but ended the game with a +/- number of negative 40. No one else on the Golden State roster had a +/- that low, but no one else scored more than 13 points.
Utah was firing on all cylinders Tuesday. The Jazz had six players finish in double digits, led by rising star Donovan Mitchell’s 22 points and 16 points from big man Derrick Favors.
The Warriors beat the Jazz in the pair’s first meeting on the year, but since then, Utah has beaten the Warriors three times in a row.
Tuesday’s loss had some historical significance attached to it. Golden State’s 40-point defeat was one of its 20 worst losses in franchise history. It was also the worst loss that Steve Kerr has endured in his tenure as the Warriors head coach.
Up next for the Warriors? A night glued to the TV for Wednesday’s slate of action…like the rest of us.