Playoff Positioning: Golden State Falls To Denver
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
Kenneth Faried’s game-winner on Thursday dropped the Golden State Warriors to 2.5 games behind the fifth place Trail Blazers.
The Warriors still have a chance to catch the Blazers in the standings but last night’s loss makes that much harder.
The magic number for the Blazers to clinch falling no lower than the fifth seed now stands at two. Any combination of Warriors losses that adds up to two will give the Blazers the fifth seed.
Current Western Conference Standings
The most possible wins that Golden State can now finish with stands at 52.
If the Blazers win tonight and the Warriors lose tonight to the Lakers in Los Angeles, they won’t fall any lower than the fifth spot. A loss tonight would put the Warriors even closer to the danger zone of missing the playoffs.
If the Blazers somehow manage to stumble tonight they can clinch fifth by beating the Warriors on Sunday.
For the Blazers to pass Houston and take homecourt advantage in the first round they must win their final three games and hope the Rockets drop at least three of their final four games.
The Rockets play tonight in Minnesota against the Timberwolves where they will once again be without point guard Patrick Beverley and All-Star center Dwight Howard.
Erik Gundersen
Erik Gundersen is the Trail Blazers beat reporter for The Columbian. He's a graduate of the Allen School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Oregon in addition earning a degree in Spanish. He's covered the NBA for four seasons. You can also occasionally find his work on ESPN.com's NBA section for their TrueCities series. He also fist-bumped with Kanye West once. Follow @BlazerBanter on twitter for more Blazers and NBA news.