Despite an incredibly disappointing loss to the San Antonio Spurs on Wednesday night, fate is still in the Golden State Warriors hands after Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves landed them a favorable result on Thursday.
The Warriors entered Thursday’s slate as the seventh-seed in the Western Conference standings, but have now moved back to sixth after the Timberwolves beat the Memphis Grizzlies 141-125 at FedExForum .
The Warriors playoff path has become clearer with two games remaining
In a huge matchup with seeding implications, the Timberwolves trailed by five entering the second-half before producing an astonishing third-quarter display. The visitors outscored the Grizzlies 52-25 in a scorching period that broke the game open, much to the relief of Warrior fans who can now center their focus solely on their own team again.
Golden State may still be bitterly disappointed that they missed out on Edwards by a pick in the 2020 NBA Draft, but at least the young Timberwolves superstar did them a favor by eviscerating the Grizzlies with a monstrous 44-point performance on 13-of-19 shooting and 7-of-11 from 3-point range.
The result means the Warriors, Timberwolves and Grizzlies are all tied at a 47-33 record, but the former holds the season tiebreak over the other two. That means two wins over the Portland Trail Blazers and L.A. Clippers will secure Golden State a top six seed, though one loss would almost certainly condemn them to the Play-In Tournament given Minnesota have easy matchups against the Brooklyn Nets and Utah Jazz.
While the Timberwolves’ victory is a good thing for the Warriors, it does bring an extra element of pain given they no longer have the luxury of losing one of their last two. Had Golden State beaten San Antonio as expected on Wednesday, they could have clinched a top six berth on Friday against Portland without needing to beat the Clippers on Sunday.
Now that matchup is sure to mean everything, with the fifth-seed Clippers also fighting to secure a top six spot and potential home-court advantage in the first-round of the playoffs. There’s still an outside chance that the Warriors can reach the fourth or fifth-seed if they win out, and the Clippers and/or Nuggets lose both of their remaining games.
Golden State will enter Portland as heavy favorites on Friday, with the Trail Blazers set to be without a host of key veteran players, while Deni Avdija (doubtful) and Shaedon Sharpe (questionable) could also be absent at Moda Center.
