Preview: Warriors take on Thunder with three games left in season

And then there were three. Three games are the bridge between the Golden State Warriors’ herky-jerky regular season dress rehearsal and the grand stage of the postseason. So far the Warriors have done enough to simultaneously appear like a wounded, unfocused champion who is ripe for the picking...while also putting up spurts of dominant basketball that could annihilate anyone in their path.

That inconsistent basketball has put them into a battle for playoff seeding amongst the mid-to-low records in the Western Conference. They currently are perched in the sixth seed, only a half game removed from falling into the play-in tournament where their penchant for mind numbingly stunning losses could get end their season much earlier than they dreamed.

Golden State Warriors vs Oklahoma City Thunder

April 4th, 2023 | 7:00 PM PT

Watch: NBC Sports Bay Area | Listen: 95.7 The Game

Speaking of the play-in tournament, OKC has gone from what looked like a full on tanking of the season, to the 10th seed. If they were to hold on to that, they’d get the last berth into the play-in tournament.

The last time these two teams met, the Warriors scored a whopping 128 points....and somehow still lost by nine. It was a shootout emblematic of their road woes this season; they just haven’t played the defense to have a better away record than the 9-30 they sport now.

Fortunately the Dubs have won two out of the three contests between the two franchises this season, so they should have plenty of confidence in wrassling the young upstarts from Oklahoma.

If the Dubs can knock off OKC and improve to 33-8 at home in Chase Center, that’d go a long way to ensuring their playoff destiny is a lock. And finally give their loyal fans in Dub Nation a welcome sigh of relief before it’s GO TIME in the postseason. DEFEND THE BELT!