For the first time in franchise history, the Golden State Warriors have made the playoffs in the NBA’s in-season tournament. And now we know their schedule. Despite losing their final in-season tournament group stage game in Tuesday’s meltdown loss against the Denver Nuggets, the Dubs still won the West Group C, finishing ahead of the Nuggets, Memphis Grizzlies, and New Orleans Pelicans, and tying the Dallas Mavericks with matching 3-1 records, but advancing based on their win over Dallas a few weeks ago.
And so, with the group stage handled, we now move on to the actual Emirates NBA Cup, the second rendition of the annual in-season tournament. And now we have a schedule. The Dubs earned the third seed in the West’s four-team bracket, and they’ll travel to Texas to face the second-seeded Houston Rockets on Wednesday, December 11. That game, which takes place at 6:30 p.m. PT, will be televised nationally on TNT.
Should the Dubs win their quarterfinal matchup, they’ll move on to the semifinals, which take place in Las Vegas. They would face the winner of the Tuesday, December 10 matchup between the Mavericks and the Oklahoma City Thunder. The semifinals happen on Saturday, December 14, with the early game televised on TNT and the late game on ABC. The first semifinal game will be played at 1:30 p.m. PT and the second at 5:30 p.m. PT, though it’s not yet determined which game will go to the West semifinal and which will go to the East.
If the Warriors win that game, then they’ll advance to the NBA Cup championship, where they would face the winner of the East bracket (the four teams, in order of seeding: Milwaukee Bucks, New York Knicks, Atlanta Hawks, and Orlando Magic). That game takes place at 5:30 p.m. PT on Tuesday, December 17, in Las Vegas, and is televised on ABC. And if they win that game, they’ll be in-season tournament champions, collect some trophies, stack some cash, and hopefully not promptly fall apart like the Los Angeles Lakers did last year.
The in-season tournament also impacts the regular season schedule and standings. When the season begins, all teams are given 80 games on their schedule, instead of the normal 82. Teams who don’t make the tournament are then given an additional two games on their schedule, while teams eliminated in the quarterfinals get one additional game. There will be no surprises, though, since the Dubs made the tournament. The quarterfinal game against the Rockets constitutes their 81st game; if they win, their semifinal matchup will be the 82nd game, while if they lose, they’ll face the loser of the Thunder-Mavericks game to finish out their schedule. The championship game does not count towards regular season standings.
Golden State still has three more regularly-scheduled games before the tournament, including Thursday’s game against the Rockets, which will serve as a nice preview for next week. The Warriors beat the Rockets back on November 2, when they blew a 31-point lead but recovered to win in overtime. Encouragingly, the Warriors won that game despite the absence of Steph Curry. But, despite that win, the teams are moving in different directions at the moment. The Warriors have lost five consecutive games, while the Rockets, since that loss just over a month ago, have gone 12-4.
It should be a fun game, and hopefully a successful tournament for the Warriors.
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