Sunday marked the final day of the NBA regular season, and many teams across the basketball landscape entered it unsure of what their playoff futures might hold.
A full slate of Sunday games had major impacts for all of California’s NBA teams.
The defending champion Golden State Warriors defeated the empty husk of the Portland Trail Blazers by a score of 157 to 101. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson led the starters with 26 and 20 points, respectively. Thompson became only the third person in NBA history to make 300 three-pointers in an NBA season, a milestone shared with Sixers guard James Harden and his backcourt teammate, Curry — who has accomplished the feat on four separate occasions.
With Golden State’s win against the Blazers, the defending champions secured the 6th seed in the NBA’s Western Conference playoffs.
It will be a short drive for the Warriors in the playoffs as they open up their postseason against the 3rd-seeded Sacramento Kings.
The upstart Kings won 48 games to secure their first playoff appearance in 16 seasons, beating all of their California rivals to win the Pacific Division — an unexpected and remarkable upset for a team that shares a division with Curry, LeBron James and (now) Kevin Durant.
The Kings will host the Warriors at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento on Saturday, April 15 at 5:30 p.m. That game will be broadcast on ABC.
While there will be a Northern California battle in the first round of the NBA Playoffs, their Southern California counterparts will have to take a different route in their pursuit of the Larry O’Brien trophy.
Despite a dustup on the bench, the Los Angeles Clippers defeated a resting Phoenix Suns team on Sunday, securing the 5th seed in the Western Conference Playoffs. Their 119-114 win over Phoenix assured the Clippers a spot in the upper-half of the playoff bracket, saving them from an unwanted stretch of games in the NBA’s Play-In tournament.
For a team missing one of their two best players in swingman Paul George, each extra day of rest will be critical in the team’s pursuit of a championship. George has been out several weeks with a right knee injury and was set to be re-evaluated around the time of the end of the regular season, but it remains unclear if he’ll be good to go against Phoenix when that series begins.
The Clippers will have a tall task as they take on the new-look Suns, who will have home court advantage throughout the series. The Suns have yet to lose a game (8-0) in which Durant plays.
Game 1 of the Clippers-Suns series will begin Sunday, April 16, although a time has not yet been announced by the NBA.
While the Clippers avoided the NBA’s Play-In Tournament, the cross-arena rival Los Angeles Lakers were not as lucky.
The Lakers defeated the Utah Jazz on Sunday, locking in the 7th seed in the NBA’s Western Conference playoffs and guaranteeing them a date in the NBA’s Play-In Tournament — which can be both physically taxing for players, and a bit confusing for viewers.
Here’s how the NBA Play-In Tournament works:
The Lakers will open with a Tuesday night date with the 8th-seeded Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lakers will host that game in Los Angeles, and if they win, they will advance to the playoffs as the 7th seed. If they lose, the Wolves will be awarded the 7th seed and the Lakers will have to play the winner of a game between the 9-10 seeds. If the Lakers win that game, they’ll be the 8th seed in the playoffs — if they lose, their season is done.
The Lakers will have the luxury of hosting both possible games in the Play-In.
“It’s been in Ohio as early as the mid-1850s at least, brought in as an ornamental plant because of its unique foliage and white flowers,” Gardner said. “It was actually planted in people’s landscaping, and it has been spreading.”
The outcome of the tournament will determine if the Lakers and NBA all-time leading scorer LeBron James face the No. 1 seed Denver Nuggets or the No. 2 seed Memphis Grizzlies. If the Lakers advance to the playoffs, they’ll open their series against either team on Sunday, April 16.
Despite their struggles throughout the first two-thirds of the season, the Lakers won the most games in the Western Conference following NBA All Star weekend, despite James missing 11 games during that span.
With two players listed on the NBA’s 75th Anniversary Team, the Lakers lurk as a wildcard at the bottom of the NBA playoff bracket, a team no one is particularly excited to see once the playoffs begin in earnest.