SACRAMENTO — They’ve played 81 games and won 49 and yet the Clippers’ postseason place won’t be decided until their regular-season finale Sunday at Golden State. The Clippers have the eighth-best record in the NBA and are fifth in the uber-tough Western Conference.
So what comes next for the Clippers is quite straightforward.
Beat the Warriors and the Clippers are in the playoffs. Lose and they’re in danger of falling to the play-in.
“High stakes, huh?” Clippers center Ivica Zubac said Friday night while soaking his swollen right ankle in a bucket of ice after a 101-100 win over the Sacramento Kings at Golden 1 Center.
The Clippers nearly gave up all of their 10-point lead in the fourth quarter. Holding a one-point lead, James Harden turned over the ball trying to inbound it, with Keegan Murray getting the steal.
The Kings called a timeout with 2.2 seconds left. But DeMar DeRozan missed a runner while being defended by Derrick Jones Jr. and Zubac, allowing the Clippers to win their seventh consecutive game.
But because so many tiebreakers are not in the Clippers’ favor, they’ll have to win an eighth straight game to secure a playoff spot.
The Clippers and the Denver Nuggets have identical 49-32 records and split the season series 2-2. Denver is the fourth seed because it has the tiebreaker of a better conference record at 31-20 compared to L.A.’s 28-23.
If the Clippers lose to the Warriors and the Nuggets beat Houston and Minnesota beats Utah, L.A. would fall to seventh in the West and meet Memphis in a play-in game Tuesday night at the Intuit Dome.
“Imagine if we didn’t win all these games,” said Zubac, who had 17 points and 11 rebounds against the Kings. “We got a lot of wins but other teams did too. So, one game, playoffs or play-in. So, it’s going to be fun.”
Clippers forward Kawhi Leonard reacts after making a three-pointer against the Kings on Friday night.
(Scott Marshall / Associated Press)
Basically, a Clippers loss and a win by the Timberwolves would leave them and the Warriors with the same record. The Timberwolves would become the fifth seed and the Warriors would be the sixth seed and the Clippers seventh.
The main tiebreaker factor that put the Clippers in this position was going 0-3 against the Timberwolves.
“Win 49 games and if you don’t win Sunday, you got a chance to be seventh,” Clippers coach Tyronn Lue said. “So, we just got to keep scrapping, keep competing. One game at a time. It is what it is. But you didn’t ever think you’d win 49 games and still could be in the play-in. So, it is what it is.”
The Clippers stayed in contention behind 28 points from Kawhi Leonard and Harden’s triple-double of 23 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Norman Powell had 16 points as the Clippers benefited from stellar defense to narrowly hold off the Kings.
They just have to do it again against the Warriors at Chase Center in San Francisco.
“The outcome is going to tell what happens,” Leonard said. “So, just go out and play. That’s all you can do — play and have fun.”
The Clippers have beaten the Warriors three times this season. But Golden State is a different team from the one they last faced Dec. 27.
Golden State is 23-7 since adding Jimmy Butler at the trade deadline.
“That’s a good team over there,” Zubac said. “They’ve been playing well. … They got a lot of experience, a lot of playoff games together. So, got to be locked in, got to be the team we’ve been all year on the defensive end. It’s going to be tough. But I think we’re in a good spot. So it’s going to be fun.”