Yes, the Golden State Warriors would have preferred to avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament — it leaves them back-to-back losses away from not making the NBA’s official playoff bracket at all.
But there are some silver linings to find in Sunday’s overtime loss to the Clippers. And all of them have to do with matchups. In losing, they avoided the Lakers, who took a play-in game from Golden State in 2021 and destroyed the Dubs 4-2 in 2023 in a series that mostly wasn’t close. LA also took three of four games against Golden State this season.