*Updated Through Games Played on April 4*
With less than two weeks left in the 2023-24 NBA regular season, the NBA Playoffs and Play-In Tournament are quickly approaching. Currently, the Warriors sit in 10th place (42-34), which would qualify them for the Western Conference Play-In Tournament, featuring seventh through 10th place for the right to the seventh and eighth seeds in the playoffs.
Play-In Format
7th place vs. 8th place (winner gets 7 seed, loser hosts winner of 9th vs. 10th)
9th place vs. 10th place (winner faces loser of 7th vs. 8th for eighth seed, loser eliminated)
Loser of 7th place vs. 8th place vs. winner of 9th place vs. 10th place (winner gets 8th seed, loser eliminated
As things currently stand, the West play-in teams, like the conference overall, are stacked with starpower. Each seventh through 10th place team in the Western Conference has multiple players who have made an All-Star team within the past three seasons.
Stephen Curry is Having an All-Star Season | 2023-24 Highlights
The Dubs have a wide range of where they can realistically end up at season's end. Currently, they are three games behind the sixth-place Phoenix Suns and four games ahead of the 11th-place Houston Rockets.
Last season was the first time since the institution of the Play-In Tournament in 2021 that a play-in team won a playoff series. Those teams—the Miami Heat and Los Angeles Lakers—had deep postseason runs, with the eighth-seed Heat making the NBA Finals and the seventh-seed Lakers reaching the Western Conference Finals.
Plays of the Round | Western Conference First Round
Last season, the Warriors finished as the sixth seed and defeated the third-seeded Sacramento Kings in the first round. The way the conference standings are shaping up, the Dubs could face another youthful but talented team in the first round if they get into the top eight, as the Oklahoma City Thunder and Minnesota Timberwolves are — like the Kings in 2023 — are led in scoring by guards age 25 or younger (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, age 25; Anthony Edwards, age 22).
With so much congestion in the Western Conference standings, there remains plenty of opportunity for the deck to be shuffled more than once. No matter which way one looks at it, there’s plenty to be decided over the final four weeks of the season.