Even though the Golden State Warriors are on a pace to set a single-season wins record, they still do that age-old human thing of looking at the standings behind them in order to see just where the opposition is sitting. We’ve all done it before. You know where your team is, but you still look at the others.
Courtesy of Kevin Jones of KNBR:
“I pay attention to it,” [Klay] Thompson said. “It’s got huge implications, obviously, from a travel standpoint. It’s something we all pay attention to. It’s fun to look at.”
It’s a natural thing to do and, as far as the Warriors are concerned, they’re still probably interested in who they’re going to play in the 1-8 first round matchup that’ll be awaiting them. They likely won’t know who the 8-seed will be until one of the final days of the season, but it’s nice to have an idea.
As it currently stands, the six through eight seeds in the West are all separated by one loss so it’s really too close to call at this juncture. The Warriors could play the Portland Trail Blazers, Dallas Mavericks, or Houston Rockets. There’s no clear cut opponent yet. Plus, there are the San Antonio Spurs lurking behind the Warriors in the standings.
Should anything unforeseen happen, Golden State could see themselves slide down to the two seed and have to worry about playing whoever the seven seed is. Then again, that’s extremely unlikely. As it stands, the Warriors have a 94 percent chance of being the top seed in the conference.