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Warriors instant analysis: Golden State outlasts Nets, clinches play-in spot

Joseph Dycus, The Mercury News on

Published in Basketball

SAN FRANCISCO – The Warriors, injured and depleted and undermanned as any team in the league, are now guaranteed a spot in the postseason.

All it took was Memphis losing to the Spurs Wednesday night, rendering Golden State’s 109-106 win over the Nets irrelevant.

That said, the Warriors’ first home game since returning from a six-game East Coast trip was a thriller.

The Nets’ Ben Saraf tied the game at 106 with a driving dunk with 46 seconds remaining, then De’Anthony Melton gave the Warriors a one-point lead after drawing a foul with 24 seconds on the clock.

Melton then forced Saraf into a tough runner, one that missed, and Draymond Green shot two free throws. He buried both and the Warriors got a stop on the final possession to extend their win streak to two games.

Gui Santos scored a career-high 31 for the Warriors, and teammates Kristaps Porzingis (17) and Brandin Podziemski (22) joined him in double figures. Gary Payton II scored 10, reaching double figures for the ninth game in a row. Stanford alum Zaire Williams scored 19 for the Nets.

The Warriors are not guaranteed a seven-game series, but rather a place in the play-in tournament for the third season in a row. Golden State is the 10th seed and is all but locked into the play-in.

Sixth-seeded Houston just needs to win one more game to eliminate the Warriors from earning a guaranteed playoff spot during the regular season.

For most of Wednesday night, the Warriors did not look like a team that would last very long in the play-in tournament. They committed 15 first-half turnovers as the Nets led 58-50 at halftime and 86-77 after three quarters.

But even though they had a whopping 26 turnovers at the end of the night, the home team still was able to stick around against a Nets team that entered Chase Center on an eight-game losing skid.

Payton cut into space and received Porzingis’ pass for a dunk to tie the game at 88 with 8:10 remaining in the game. A few moments later, Will Richard forced a Brooklyn timeout by hitting a 3-pointer in transition to give the Warriors a 93-90 lead.

The teams traded baskets down the stretch, the most absurd being Malachi Smith’s leaning jumper to beat the buzzer at the 3-minute mark.

The Warriors play host to the Wizards on Friday.

 

Moody latest

Less than 48 hours after Moses Moody’s gruesome left knee injury required him to be stretchered off the court in Dallas, the mood around the Warriors was still a somewhat somber one.

“Everybody’s pretty down, and feeling for him,” Kerr said.

Moody, who tore his left patellar tendon, was with the team on the flight back to the Bay Area on Monday night, and then the Warriors did not practice on Tuesday.

However, Kerr spoke with Moody on Tuesday and said that the player is handling the season-ending injury about as well as one could.

“He’s in as good a spirits as he can be,” Kerr said.

Moody is expected to miss most, if not all, of next season as he recovers and undergoes rehab.

Steph Curry update incoming

Steph Curry has missed the past 22 games with runner’s knee, but appeared to be on his way to returning soon after going through shooting drills in Boston.

However, he did not scrimmage in Atlanta as originally expected and has yet to while in the Bay Area, and Kerr announced that the team will have an update on the superstar’s condition later in the week.

Kerr has repeatedly said that Curry wants to come back this season.

Curry leads the team in scoring with a 27.2 point-per-game average, but has not played since Jan. 30.


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