The Clippers’ postseason positioning rests with one game, one last chance, one final opportunity to land a coveted top-six seed.
And if they miss, if they lose their regular-season finale on Sunday, the Clippers would likely – but not definitely – be staring at a spot in the Play-In Tournament, where the Nos. 7-10 teams battle for the final two seeds in the Western Conference playoff bracket.
All that stands in their way are the Golden State Warriors.
“High stakes, huh?” Clippers center Ivica Zubac said to reporters after Friday’s one-point victory against the Sacramento Kings.
“It’s been like that forever. Imagine if we didn’t win all these games.”
The Clippers and Warriors will take the court for Sunday’s matinee matchup at the Chase Center as two of the four teams vying for the final three top-six seeds available. The Clippers (49-32) are tied with Denver (49-32) for the fourth-best record in the West but will enter Sunday’s games in the No. 5 slot, one game ahead of the Warriors (48-33), who have the same record as current No. 7 seed Minnesota (48-33).
“When you win 49 games and don’t win Sunday … we just got to keep competing, one game at a time,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “It is what it is. You never think you are going to win 49 games and still be in the Play-In, but you know, that’s what it is.”
A Clippers win on Sunday would guarantee them no worse than the No. 5 seed in the West. They can only vault to the No. 4 seed if the Nuggets lose in Houston, where the Rockets are likely to rest many of their rotation players as they have been since they clinched the No. 2 seed. There is no scenario in which the Clippers can finish as the No. 6 seed, so any potential Lakers-Clippers playoff series would have to occur in a later round (only in the conference finals if the Clippers end up as the No. 4 or 5 seed).
The Steph Curry-led Warriors would secure the No. 6 seed and a best-of-seven first-round series against the third-seeded Lakers with a win. A loss to the Clippers, combined with a victory by Minnesota (which hosts last-place Utah) would drop the Warriors to No. 7 and a home Play-In game against likely No. 8 seed Memphis (47-34) on Tuesday night. The 7-8 Play-In game loser would then host the winner of the 9-10 game (Sacramento vs. Dallas) on Friday night for a chance to be the No. 8 seed.
In the unlikely event of wins by both the Rockets and Jazz on Sunday, the Clippers could still be the No. 4 seed with a loss to Golden State. The Warriors could still be the No. 6 seed despite a loss to the Clippers, but they would need Minnesota to lose to Utah at home.
Minnesota clinches a top-six seed with a win and can actually ascend to the No. 4 seed if both Denver and the Clippers lose on Sunday (because the Timberwolves own season sweeps over the Nuggets and Clippers). If Golden State and Minnesota win Sunday, the Wolves would finish fifth, the Warriors sixth and the Clippers tumble to seventh, by virtue of head-to-head record between the three teams.
The Clippers have had the edge on the Warriors this season, winning all three of their previous matchups without Leonard in the lineup. Leonard missed the first 34 games because of lingering knee issues, and the teams played three times early in the season, before the Warriors traded for Jimmy Butler.
Since his return on Jan. 4, Leonard has looked like the Leonard of old. He is averaging 21.2 points, 5.9 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals. He is shooting 49.3% from the field and 40.0% from 3-point range.
Curry said he will be ready to go Sunday after a brief injury scare on Friday night. He aggravated a previous thumb injury in the first quarter of Friday’s victory against the Portland Trail Blazers. The team said the X-rays came back negative.
“It should be like a Game 7 kind of vibe,” Curry, the four-time NBA champion, said of Sunday’s 12:30 p.m. showdown against the Clippers. “You win and you control your destiny on a guaranteed playoff series. If you lose, you roll the dice.”
Leonard tempered the view of the crucial game.
“It’s basketball. The outcome is going to tell what happens,” Leonard said after winning game No. 81. “So, it’s just going out and playing, that’s all you can do. Play and have fun.
“Everybody wants to win coming down the stretch.”
CLIPPERS AT WARRIORS
When: Sunday, 12:30 p.m.
Where: Chase Center, San Francisco
TV/radio: ESPN, FDSN SoCal, 1150 AM
Originally Published:
