After the Trail Blazers took care of business against the Kings on the final day of the NBA season, the No. 10 seed Warriors will play the No. 9 Clippers in their first play-in game.
The matchup was all but certain entering Sunday: A Portland team with real stakes on the line would have had to lose to a Sacramento squad trying to improve its lottery odds.
The bottom play-in game — set for 7 p.m. Wednesday — will be a rematch of the teams’ regular-season finale. Knowing the strong possibility of facing off again three days later, both teams rested players and generally played their cards close to the vest in a 115-110 Clippers victory.
In the words of Warriors coach Steve Kerr, “Wednesday will be much different, for sure.”
The loser’s season will come to an end. The winner will face a second play-in game Friday night on the road against whoever prevails between the No. 8 Blazers and No. 7 Suns on Tuesday.
Sixth man: F Al Horford: 8.3 ppg, 5.0 reb, 1.2 blk
F Derrick Jones Jr.: 10.3 ppg, 3.4 reb, 50.1 fg%
Sixth man: F John Collins: 13.7 ppg, 5.3 reb, 41.2 3pt%
Offensive rating: Clippers 117.2 (11th), Warriors 115.0 (19th),
Defensive rating: Clippers 116.1 (18th), Warriors 115.5 (15th)
Heading into Sunday’s season finale, the Clippers had beaten the Warriors the past eight times the teams met in Southern California. It is Golden State’s single longest losing streak on the road against any opponent since Kerr became the head coach in 2014. Overall, the Clippers have won nine of the past 10 meetings between the teams in any venue.
The last time the Warriors and Clippers were on the same court in the postseason, Kevin Durant scored 50 points, Draymond Green had a triple-double and Golden State wrapped up the 2019 first-round series in six games on its way to a third championship in four years.
The Clippers prevailed in seven games in the teams’ only other postseason series, eliminating Curry, Kerr and Co. in the first round in 2014 — the last time the Warriors’ season would end before the NBA finals for another six years.
