Warriors drop to ninth seed after loss to Jazz and Clippers’ win over Knicks

A loss to the actively tanking Utah Jazz is unhealthy information for the Golden State Warriors for a number of causes.

The primary motive is clear: the Jazz have been deliberately attempting to lose in an effort to land a excessive lottery decide, in an upcoming draft class that stands to be filled with blue-chip prospects. The Warriors, nonetheless, did a greater job of taking part in shedding basketball themselves, in a sport that noticed them try an astounding 52 threes whereas making solely 16 of them (30.8 p.c).

The second motive: the Los Angeles Clippers’ win over the New York Knicks tonight has resulted in a 32-32 impasse within the Western Convention standings with the Warriors. Nevertheless, by advantage of getting the tiebreaker, the Clippers have climbed as much as the eighth within the standings whereas the Warriors drop to ninth and into the decrease bracket of the play-in event.

There’s no query that the Warriors are locked into the play-in event regardless of how nicely they carry out the remainder of the common season; it merely turns into a matter of whether or not they’ll be within the higher bracket, the place one win will get them an outright playoff berth whereas giving them two probabilities to take action; or in the event that they fall to the decrease bracket and should win two-straight video games as a way to make it to the playoffs.

With out the companies of Steph Curry and Jimmy Butler III, the Warriors’ margin for error is considerably slim. In a winnable sport towards a bottom-dwelling staff trying to acquire a excessive draft decide, shedding will come again to chunk them.

Then once more, maybe the season was already just about misplaced when Butler went down with and ACL damage and Curry’s extended absence attributable to runner’s knee.