The Golden State Warriors’ hold on a spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament got very dicey in recent days with the hot streak the Houston Rockets went on. Houston got within one game of Golden State, which made Thursday night’s matchup a very important one.
The winner of that game would greatly improve their chances of advancing to the NBA Play-In Tournament with a chance to make the postseason. Knowing what was at stake, the veteran-laden Warriors made sure to show the upstart Rockets they still had some work to do before catching up to them.
Golden State handled business, blowing out Houston on their homecourt 133-110. It was an energetic crowd, as they were doing all they could to give their Rockets that little extra boost to help the team get a victory. Alas, it wasn’t enough to deter the Warriors, who have faced all kinds of adversity during their Big 3 era.
They even harkened back to the cult class movie, The Warriors, trying to stir things up. The crowd was changing ‘Warrrriors come out to play’ and one of the players, Tari Eason even wore a shirt with the famous line from the movie. In the end, it didn’t intimidate Golden State, instead potentially having the opposite effect.
“That’s pretty lame, especially if you’re not even playing,” Klay Thompson said. “It’s one thing if you are out there playing, out there competing and you can back it up. But you’re just going to be trolling from the sideline? What are you doing? The time we talk smack, we’re out there competing. That’s all I have to say about that.”
There isn’t anyone who enjoys jawing with opponents and taunting as much as Draymond Green. But Eason, who was shut down for the season because of an injury, being the player delivering the message from the bench just doesn’t hit the same.
Green spoke about Eason wearing the shirt after the game. While he appreciates what the young Rockets’ forward was attempting to do, he shared some of the same sentiment as Thompson that you need to back it up and be on the court for it to have any impact.
“I love it [but] if you’re going to say that, you got to play,” Green said. “You can’t come out and say that and not play. But I know what type of player he is. He welcomes all of that. He welcomes the challenge and welcomes the fight. … Hopefully next year he’ll say the same thing and we both won’t be fighting for the play-in, we’ll be fighting for the seeding.”
With the victory, the Warriors have essentially locked up a spot in the NBA Play-In Tournament and guaranteed the Rockets will be starting their offseason next week. Houston is now riding a three-game losing streak and is four games behind Golden State with six to play.
With the Warriors owning the tiebreaker, it essentially gives them a five-game lead. Something catastrophic would have to occur for them to miss the NBA Play-In Tournament at this point, but their opponent is far from decided. Five teams are separated by 2.5 games between the 5th and 9th seed, as the final days of the regular season are going to be wild in the Western Conference.
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