Warriors locked at No. 10

Golden State is locked into the Western Conference’s No. 10 seed, so Sunday’s regular-season finale at the Los Angeles Clippers cannot move the Warriors any higher. (espn.com) The Warriors entered April 12 at 37-44, four games behind the No. 9 Clippers at 41-40 with one game left, which is why the standings were already set before tipoff at Intuit Dome in Inglewood. (basketball-reference.com) The National Basketball Association’s play-in format sends the No. 9 team home or forward in a single game against No. 10, and the league’s April 12 tracker listed the West matchup as Los Angeles Clippers or Portland Trail Blazers against Golden State. (nba.com) That makes Sunday’s finale a live rehearsal as much as a standings game for Golden State, because the Warriors’ next meaningful game is scheduled for Wednesday, April 15, in the West 9-versus-10 elimination slot. (nba.com) The winner of that April 15 game does not reach the playoffs yet. It advances to a second play-in game on Friday, April 17, against the loser of the West 7-versus-8 matchup for the conference’s No. 8 seed. (nba.com) The Clippers still had something to play for entering Sunday because the National Basketball Association listed them in an unresolved fight with Portland for the West’s No. 8 and No. 9 positions. Phoenix was already set at No. 7. (nba.com) Golden State and Los Angeles split their first three meetings this season. The Warriors won 98-79 on October 28, 2025, and the Clippers won 103-102 on January 5 and 114-101 on March 2. (nba.com) The schedule also put the finale in the Clippers’ building, with Sunday’s game set for 8:30 p.m. Eastern time at Intuit Dome. If Los Angeles stayed No. 9, that would also be the site of the elimination game three days later. (nba.com) For Golden State, the math is finished and the margin is gone: beat the No. 9 seed on April 15 or the season ends. (nba.com)