The Golden State Warriors on Sunday roared into the NBA playoffs with a 157-101 blowout of the Portland Trail Blazers, ensuring the Los Angeles Lakers would battle in the play-in after a 128-117 victory over the Utah Jazz, while the Minnesota Timberwolves snatched the eighth spot in the West, after center Rudy Gobert was yanked from the game for punching a teammate.
Every team was in action on the final day of the regular season, but all eyes were on the Western Conference where more than a dozen potential seeding outcomes rested on the results of four games.
The reigning champion Warriors moved quickly to simplify matters for themselves, exploding for an NBA first-quarter record of 55 points in the opening frame.
Photo: AP
Klay Thompson made five of the Warriors’ 12 three-pointers in the period — a record by any team in an NBA quarter.
Thompson — who finished with six three-pointers and 20 points — became the third player in NBA history to hit 300 three-pointers in a single season. Teammate Stephen Curry has done it four times and James Harden has done it once.
The Warriors led by 28 after the first quarter, and Curry took over with 10 of his 26 points in the second as the Warriors took an 84-53 halftime lead.
They coasted home, with all the Warriors starters sitting out the fourth period.
“It’s been a very up and down season, but when you get to the playoffs none of that matters,” Warriors talisman Draymond Green said, after the team clinched the sixth seed and a first-round series against the third-seeded Sacramento Kings.
“The real season starts,” Green said, “And that’s what matters.”
The Los Angeles Clippers snagged the fifth seed with a 119-114 victory over the fourth-seeded Phoenix Suns — and the teams would meet again in the first round.
The Lakers finished seventh and are to host the Timberwolves in the play-in today, with the winner advancing to the playoffs as the seventh seed in the West.
In Minnesota, Gobert was sent home after throwing a punch at teammate Kyle Anderson during an argument on the bench in the second quarter against the New Orleans Pelicans, shortly after ace defender Jaden McDaniels put his availability in doubt by hitting a wall out of frustration.
“This is probably one of the grittier wins I think anyone will ever be a part of. The things we went through in today’s game are not normal. Hit after hit, we just found a way to lean on each other,” point guard Mike Conley said of their 113-108 victory. “The most important thing is we could have easily splintered. Whether it was Kyle and Rudy or hearing news about Jaden, it was one hit after another, but it just brought more out of us. We dug down deep.”
Gobert sent a group-text apology to the team, Conley said.
Coach Chris Finch declined to speculate about potential punishment for Gobert, who was playing with back spasms after being listed as questionable.
Gobert also apologized in a post on Twitter.
“Emotions got the best of me today,” he wrote. “I should not have reacted the way i did regardless of what was said.”
Anderson, a fiery but respected leader who has given the Wolves a big boost with his versatility and experience in his first season with the team, engaged in a heated discussion with Gobert about one of the many sequences that had gone wrong to that point while the team was in a huddle during a timeout late in the second quarter.
Gobert then ended the argument by raising his arm to strike Anderson in the upper chest with his hand, before the two were separated and Gobert was taken back to the locker room.
“I think tempers just flared,” Anderson said afterward. “That’s all.”
Anderson said he did not think the two would have trouble getting along moving forward.
“We want to win games. It is what it is. It ain’t the first time someone has swung on me,” he said.
Additional reporting by AP
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