Potential First Round Opponents For The Back-To-Back Champs

The NBA playoffs are just a little over a week away and, despite the fact that the top eight Western Conference teams have already clinched their berths, the Warriors still have no idea who they’re going to play.

With their convincing win over the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday, the Warriors all but locked up the top seed in the West; the log jam at the bottom half of the playoff picture, on the other hand, has not cleared itself up yet.

The Utah Jazz, who currently sit in fifth place, and the eighth place Oklahoma City Thunder are separated by a mere 2.5 games in the standings. The Los Angeles Clippers and the San Antonio Spurs are the sixth and seventh seeds, respectively.

The Warriors will enter the postseason as the overwhelming favorites to represent the Western Conference in the Finals for the fifth consecutive season and won’t, necessarily, be concerned with any non-Houston Rockets matchup in their quest to return to the NBA Finals.

Still, some roads are more favorable than others. Who should the Warriors hope arises out of the dust following the final fight for seeding to play them in the first round?

I’m going to eliminate the Jazz right off the bat for this exercise. Their favorable remaining schedule should allow them to cushion their tiny-yet-significant lead over the other three teams.

That leaves us with the Thunder, Clippers, and Spurs.

For many, OKC was supposed to be the team that, along with Houston, would give the Warriors the most problems. For a good portion of the season, they lived up to that hype largely on the strength of Paul George’s season.

The Thunder have gone 8-13 since the All-Star break. Their offense has sputtered; George’s field goal percentage has dropped from 45.3 percent to 40 percent and his three-point shooting has fallen from 40 percent to a mere 33 percent in that span.

On March 16th, the Warriors went into the Chesapeake Energy Arena without Kevin Durant and walloped the Thunder 110-88, limiting Russell Westbrook—who has had a historically poor shooting season—to just two made field goals in nearly 32 minutes of action.

Though the Warriors would not be upset to draw the Thunder, Oklahoma City’s defensive versatility and high-energy playoff crowd should make them a competitive opponent until Golden State enacts the league-wide game plan for defeating OKC: let Westbrook beat himself.

Perhaps the Warriors would prefer the Clippers, one of the league’s more impressive teams this year, thanks to head coach Doc Rivers maximizing his roster without having any real star talent.

Golden State has taken two of three from the Clippers thus far and could even have a say in LA’s seeding as they fly to the Bay Area for their fourth and final regular season matchup this Sunday.

The Warriors’ only loss to the Clippers this year was, quite possibly, the most significant loss this team has experienced in the Steve Kerr era outside of Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals.

Though a random November loss doesn’t normally have longterm ramifications, especially for a back-to-back champion, that was the game in which Durant and Draymond Green aired out their frustrations with each other in that very tense and awkward exchange about the Finals MVP’s future.

It was a moment that could have (and, quite honestly, still could) ended this dynastic run because players are human and humans have pride.

But that blow-up had nothing to do with the Clippers other than the fact that they competed until the final buzzer and they forced Green into making a bad decision in the closing seconds of a tight game. It was an implosion that just happened to take place in LA; not a Clippers-caused chaos.

The NBA is run by stars. Those are the difference makers in the playoffs, the ones that win you a series. The Clippers don’t have any of those, especially after trading Tobias Harris to the Philadelphia 76ers. Though they have a top-10 offense, they’re not a threat to Golden State.

Still, the Warriors might not want to see the Clippers in the first round.

Patrick Beverly tries to gain advantages with physicality that, often, crosses over into dirty play. His battles with Westbrook—in which he sent the former-MVP into surgery with what could have been a career-altering knee injury after a senseless play and then pulled a similar stunt the next time they faced off—prove that.

Golden State feels that only health can stop them so playing a chippy team led by Beverly would not be in their best interest.

Now, lastly, that brings us to the Spurs, Gregg Popovich’s resilient bunch who might not ever miss the playoffs from now until the end of eternity.

The Warriors have dropped two of three games to the Spurs, most recently on March 18. DeMar DeRozan’s late-game brilliance and LaMarcus Aldridge’s unexciting consistency outlasted the DeMarcus Cousins-less Warriors at the AT&T Center.

The Spurs, as always, are disciplined and well-coached, with plenty of players who know their role and can collectively attack Golden State.

Guys like Jakob Poeltl and Davis Bertans are quintessential Spurs who play hard, stay within themselves, and make plays. Patty Mills and Rudy Gay—who has found new life in San Antonio—provide valuable veteran leadership. And, of course, their two stars who both have plenty of playoff experience and can control the tempo of a game might make them a tougher postseason opponent than the Clippers.

The Spurs are unarousing and could possibly lull the Warriors to sleep and steal a game away from an unfocused team looking to the second round before handling business in the first. This Golden State team has struggled with focus throughout the year and it’s not unbelievable to expect that San Antonio could harness that because there’s no bad blood or history that makes the Warriors want to rip their heart out through their chest.

The Warriors should be pleased to face off against the Spurs though it has the potential to be a grinding gentleman’s sweep.

Even though they are arguably the best team of the three and the most equipped to handle the Warriors, Golden State’s ideal first round matchup would be the OKC Thunder. 

While they should have no problem advancing against any team, a series with Oklahoma City would best prepare them for the ensuing rounds while, certainly, being the most entertaining of the three options. The Warriors don’t need to be told twice to bring the energy against Westbrook and co., who have played their poorest basketball at the worst possible time for them.

And let’s be real—Kevin Durant taking on his former team in the playoffs? Yes, please.