#8 Golden State Warriors: 39-33

After it was announced that Klay Thompson will miss his second consecutive season with an Achilles injury, many wrote out the Golden State Warriors this season, but Stephen Curry has single-handedly carried them into the playoff picture. 

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At 33-years-old, Curry had arguably his best season of his career this year and has been the driving force to every single Warriors’ victory this season. Not only did he beat Bradley Beal to claim his second scoring title in his career, but Curry shattered records left and right this year because of his insane scoring numbers. 

Since the start of March, Steph Curry has scored 20+ points in 26 of the 29 games he has played in since then, including 15 games with 30+ points and 8 games with 40+ points. He did only average 23.0 PPG against the Lakers during the regular season, about 9.0 PPG less than his season average, but Curry has been on a tear over the last month or so and has shown no signs of slowing up.

Golden State will be without James Wiseman and Kelly Oubre Jr. as they recover from knee and wrist injuries respectively, and guard Damion Lee could also miss tomorrow’s game against the Lakers due to health and safety protocols. 

The fate of the Warriors lies in the hands of Steph Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins and while many are counting them out against the Lakers in the 7/8 seed play-in game, they could easily go on a scoring rampage led by Curry and pull off a shocking victory, especially if the Lakers are not ready to play.