Golden State Warriors Suffer Crushing Defeat

On Wednesday, the Golden State Warriors faced off against the injury-riddled San Antonio Spurs. After opening as -15.5 point favorites, they ended up losing a crucial game amidst a tight playoff race in the Western Conference. Can they recover?

What This Loss Means for the Golden State Warriors

The Western Conference is potentially seeing its most competitive final stretch of all time. With 5 teams still in the race to find positioning in the postseason, this loss means everything for the Warriors.

As the Conference stands right now, the Warriors would be hosting a play-in game against the Minnesota Timberwolves as the 7th seed. Before yesterday, Golden State sat in 6th place and had what was assumed to be a breeze of a game against the crippled Spurs. They lost 114-111 on a Harrison Barnes buzzer-beater. Despite a pair of good games from Jimmy Butler III (28 points and 7 assists) and Stephen Curry (30 points and 8 rebounds), the Warriors could not get it done at the Bay.

The Los Angeles Lakers clinched the 3rd seed last night with a win against the Dallas Mavericks. Both the Nuggets and Clippers got things done yesterday, putting themselves ahead of the 3 remaining teams still searching for their placement by half a game. One of those teams is the Warriors.

Golden State’s Chances In the Conference

The Golden State Warriors still have a great chance to avoid the play-in. They face a Trail Blazers team coming off a horrendous overtime defeat against the Utah Jazz on Friday and finish things up at home against the smoking-hot Los Angeles Clippers.

While they are guaranteed a shot at making the postseason, they could easily find themselves back in the 6th seed or even potentially hosting a first-round series. The Memphis Grizzlies have two of their remaining three games against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Denver Nuggets. These games have quite an implication on the seeding for the Warriors.

If the Grizzlies are to win tonight at home against the Timberwolves, the standings stay as is. But if the Timberwolves are to defeat Memphis, the Warriors move up to 6th as they have the regular season tie-breaker against Minnesota. It is worth noting that in the event of a three-way tie between these teams, the Golden State Warriors will get the higher seeding since they won both season series against the Grizzlies and Timberwolves.

While the odds for moving up to the 4th or 5th seed are very unlikely, they are possible. Playoff Status indicates the Warriors have the lowest remaining odds to clinch the 4th seed with a 4% chance and a 15% chance to clinch the 5th seed.

Final Thoughts

Needless to say, the Golden State Warriors made their competitors sit in a much more comfortable position due to their defeat Wednesday against a team they had no reason to lose to. It is an utterly embarrassing loss and slapped the Warriors out of a good chance of clinching the 4th seed.