NBA playoff picture: Warriors can clinch with win, Pelicans, Lakers losses
How Warriors can clinch a top-six playoff seed on Friday originally appeared on NBC Sports Bayarea
With two games remaining in the 2022-23 NBA regular season, the Warriors will do what they can to clinch a playoff berth and stay out of the NBA play-in tournament.
They can do so as soon as Friday, but they’ll need some help.
Aside from Golden State needing to handle business against its Northern California neighbors, the Sacramento Kings, on Friday night at Golden 1 Center, the New Orleans Pelicans must lose to the New York Knicks and the Los Angeles Lakers must lose to the Phoenix Suns.
If those three scenarios happen Friday night, the Warriors will lock in a top-six playoff spot.
Golden State's game starts at 7 p.m., while tip-off for the other two games is at 7:30 p.m.
Sunday is the final day of the regular season, but there still is so much that needs to be decided in the West given how tight the standings have been and continue to be.
Golden State (42-38) currently sits sixth in the West, with a tentative hold on the final playoff spot, but could fall as far as ninth, which would mean a trip to the play-in tournament that hasn't been friendly to the Warriors.
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The Los Angeles Clippers (No. 5 at 42-38), Lakers (No. 7 at 41-39), Pelicans (No. 8 at 41-39) and Minnesota Timberwolves (No. 9 at 40-40) also are all in the mix, with each team having two games to play.
It's been the wild, wild West all season, but the next few days will clear things up as the wild, wild NBA playoffs begin.
