One road win could be the key to securing home court advantage

The Golden State Warriors hold a 2.5 game lead over the San Antonio Spurs for th
e top seed in the playoffs with only eight games remaining in the regular season
. A win tonight would almost certainly ensure that Golden State snares home cour
t throughout the playoffs, as any subsequent combination of five wins or Spurs l
osses would then do.
If the Spurs drop to 57-17 tonight, only a Cavaliers-esque late season stumble,
perhaps combined with a Draymond Green suspension or two, could prevent the Warr
iors from claiming the top seed. With games against Minnesota, Phoenix, New Orle
ans and the Tankers from L.A. coming up, the Warriors could coast to a first pla
ce finish after winning tonight.
On the other hand, a loss tonight would bring the Spurs within 1.5 games of the
Warriors. That would leave them with only one loss behind the Warriors and the S
purs could pounce on any Warrior loss for the remainder of the season to steal t
he first seed. Upcoming opponents like Houston, Washington and Utah pose a threa
t to Golden State in this scenario. Thankfully all of those games are at Oracle.
While a Warriors team with a healthy Kevin Durant is certainly capable of gettin
g to the Finals without home court advantage, Dub Nation will rest a little easi
er with a win tonight. The road to the Conference Finals would be easiest as the
first seed, particularly if the first round opponent is Portland or Denver as t
he eighth seed instead of pesky Memphis as the seventh.
Avenge the opening day slaughter
San Antonio s 29-point win over Golden State in Oakland to start the season shocke
d everyone who was excited about Durant s move to the Bay. Steve Kerr was embarras
sed by the poor showing and haters around the world danced in the streets as the
Super Villains didn t appear to be so super.
Remember how slowly Klay Thompson and Andre Iguodala got out of the gates this y
ear? Remember when the Warriors hadn t quite figured out their new roster and iden
tity? Remember when JaVale McGee played about as many minutes as Anderson Vareja
o? The Warriors struggled at times early in the season before reclaiming their s
wagger atop the league standings.
Tonight s game should showcase how far the Warriors have come since opening night.
Even without Durant, the Warriors are poised to give the Spurs all they can han
dle. The Splash Brothers put their slump behind them and the team s defensive inte
nsity has returned to last year s form.
Although the schedule, once again, puts Golden State in San Antonio on the secon
d night of a back-to-back, this game could be the Western Conference Finals prev
iew we ve been waiting for. This will be a barometer for how well the teams will m
atch up in the event that they meet in the playoffs.
Both teams are at the top of their game right now. The Spurs just knocked the Ca
valiers out of first place in the Eastern Conference as part of their five game
winning streak. Meanwhile, the Warriors comfortably defeated the Rockets (and aw
ful officiating) in Houston to run their win streak up to eight games. It s the tw
o best teams in the league at as close to full strength (get healthy, KD!) as we r
e going to see in the regular season.
Of course, this all assumes that Steve Kerr and Greg Popovich aren t colluding to
rest their stars during another nationally televised game just to see how badly
ESPN and Adam Silver would flip out. That would almost be worth it to see the re
actions... But we d all rather see them play for real this time around. Game on!