Who do they match up well with?
The seeding in the NBA’s Western Conference is a chaotic and delightful mess. The Golden State Warriors did themselves no favors on Monday night by losing to a supremely short-handed Denver Nuggets squad, but the Dubs did manage to stay in the sixth seed, thanks to an equally surprising loss by the Minnesota Timberwolves.
So much will change over the next month but, if the season were to end today, the Warriors would face … well … the Nuggets in the first round of the playoffs. Hopefully that would go better than it went on Monday.
But it’s way too early to guess who the Warriors will face in the first round, assuming they make it there. It could be the Nuggets, or the Houston Rockets, Los Angeles Lakers, or Memphis Grizzlies. If either of them catch fire, they could even face the Timberwolves. And if they stumble into the play-in tournament and don’t perform well there, they could even face off against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
So which teams do you think are the best and worst playoff matchups for the Warriors?
In my eyes, the Rockets present the best matchup for Golden State. The Dubs have played Houston very well this year, and the Rockets just have a style and personnel that the Warriors can exploit, plus they’re lacking in playoff experience. Despite Monday’s loss, I still think the Warriors actually match up fairly well with the Nuggets, since Draymond Green is a very good defensive option against Nikola Jokić, and Golden State can get out and run against the slower center.
As for worst matchups … with all due respect to the Thunder, who have been the clear-cut best team in the West this year, the Lakers are the hardest matchup for the Warriors in my eyes. They’ve played Golden State so well this year, and that’s without Luka Dončić.