The Warriors have often been prone to slow first quarters this season. On Sunday, in a must-win, final regular season game against a threadbare Portland Trail Blazers team, they were adamant about starting fast.
So instead of their usual ambling, they went ahead and set the NBA record for points in a first quarter. They went on and rolled to an outrageous 157-101 win to punch an overdue playoff ticket.
Playoffs? Playoffs?!
At long last, the Golden State Warriors have secured a playoff berth.
While they kept it sketchy and less than convincing for most of this season, it is official. Now, it’s a matter of how they’ll work Andrew Wiggins back into the fray with a week off before the playoffs begin.
The last time they made the playoffs without being a top-three seed was in 2014-15, when they were knocked out in the first round by the Los Angeles Clippers.
Who will they play? Thanks to a skin-of-their teeth win from the Clippers over the Phoenix Suns, the Warriors will play the Sacramento Kings.
That means they’ll be on the other side of the playoff bracket from the Suns, and would likely have a conference semifinals rematch with the Memphis Grizzlies.
First, they’ll have to go up to Sacramento and beat a young Kings team that earned the third seed.
The Warriors, though, will like this road in both a literal and figurative sense. It means a bus ride up to Sacramento as opposed to extended travel.
The playoff berth comes at a time when Golden State has been playing perhaps its best basketball of the season.
The Warriors finished the season 8-2, their best stretch all year long, and with two — albeit against teams resting their starters — road wins. Those last two wins gave them a woeful 11-30 road record, the third-worst mark in the NBA.
Will they flip a switch in the playoffs? Will Wiggins make an impactful return? For the second-straight postseason, we have a lot of questions for these Warriors. It worked out pretty well last season, but last year’s team had proven more at this stage than this year’s squad.
Klay Thompson sets historic mark in historic first quarter
It’s hard to get jaded with Klay Thompson. His journey — losing two-straight seasons to injuries in the midst of his prime — has been well documented.
He’ll never be who he was before those injuries, and as Steve Kerr said when asked to compare 2019 Klay to him now, it’s not about comparisons. It’s about who Thompson is in this moment.
And in this moment, Thompson is very, very good.
He’s in a rhythm as a shooter and offering consistently solid work on the defensive end. He was the one to get Golden State off to a hot start, scoring 17 by the seven-minute mark, hitting five 3-pointers. He’s now made five-plus 3s in each of the last seven games, a career high.
In doing so, Thompson hit his 300th 3-pointer of the season, becoming just the third player in NBA history to do so, along with Stephen Curry and James Harden.
He led Golden State to a 55-point first quarter, the most in NBA history. That’s just three points shy of the record for points in any quarter. The previous record in a first quarter was 51 points.
He finished with 20 points (7-of-14, 6-of-11 from 3-pt), 5 rebounds, an assist and 3 turnovers in 22 minutes.
Those limited minutes, with none of the Warriors’ starters playing more than 22, were a vindication of Thompson’s early, outrageous start.
In addition to putting him in rarified air, it meant he secured the league lead for 3-pointers. Buddy Hield finished second with 283.
Oh, and it added another shooting for the Warriors as a unit.
Thompson (301), Curry (273) and Jordan Poole (214) re-set the record for the most 3-pointers hit by a trio in NBA history with 788.
The previous record holders?
Thompson, Curry and Draymond Green back in 2014-15, with 778.
Almost a decade later, this team can still shoot the ball.
Kevon Looney and all the other pieces
Thompson isn’t the only one who secured a league lead for the season.
Kevon Looney finished his second-straight season playing in every game and earned a well-deserved accolade to what has often been an under-appreciated career.
While he all but sealed it on Friday, he notched three more offensive boards on Sunday to make it 272 on the year. Clint Capela finished second, with 258 offensive rebounds on the year.
Looney has been outstanding this season, and he has been the understated leader of the Warriors’ group of non-core players.
There are myriad rotation questions for this team. Andrew Wiggins’ return and his conditioning heading into the playoffs is the most prominent.
But, especially with a week off before the grinder begins, this team is compelling. The trio of Curry, Thompson and Green are all playing at near-peak levels. Jordan Poole has played some non-maddening, mostly efficient basketball and scored consistently.
Looney is as reliable as it gets.
Jonathan Kuminga has proven that he deserves minutes in the playoffs with significant two-way improvement, and Moses Moody has at least shown a bit more confidence and the sort of proactive effort that could be helpful in spots.
The duo of Gary Payton II and Donte DiVincenzo gives Golden State a capability to switch on almost anyone defensively, and a relentlessness running the fast break that they didn’t have previously. The way those two have crashed the offensive glass has made it easier for Looney to grab offensive boards, too.
That is, again, without Wiggins. With him back, it’s hard to count this team out, regardless of who they face.