{"id":731970,"date":"2026-04-16T11:15:24","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/731970\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T11:15:24","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T11:15:24","slug":"suns-will-face-warriors-stephen-curry-for-final-playoff-spot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/731970\/","title":{"rendered":"Suns Will Face Warriors, Stephen Curry for Final Playoff Spot"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6g\">PHOENIX &#8212; The Phoenix Suns&#8217; opponent for Friday night&#8217;s final play-in matchup has been revealed.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6j\">After a surprise comeback victory over the Los Angeles Clippers tonight, the No. 10 Golden State Warriors will travel to Phoenix Friday to take on the Suns.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6m\">Stephen Curry finished with 35 points and the Warriors shot 19-for-41 (46%) from deep against L.A., overcoming a 13-point fourth quarter deficit in the win. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6p\">Whoever wins Friday&#8217;s matchup will move on to face the No. 1 Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the playoffs. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-4\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6s\">Phoenix, who <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/suns\/onsi\/news\/phoenix-suns-fumble-late-lead-collapse-play-in-hopes-loss-portland-trail-blazers\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fell to the Portland Trail Blazers last night<\/a> to put itself in this position, will look to avoid being on the wrong side of history as the No. 7 seed has never missed the playoffs since the play-in was created five years ago.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"6v\">In order to do this, the Suns will have to regroup fast after the disheartening loss to the Blazers in which they blew an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. <\/p>\n<p>Previewing Suns vs Warriors<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/01kpaabwp479yx87ee20.jpg\" alt=\"Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) against Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks\" title=\"Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) against Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks\" width=\"3648\" height=\"2052\" class=\"undefined w-full w-full blur-[5px]\" q:id=\"78\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Dec 18, 2025; Phoenix, Arizona, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green (23) against Phoenix Suns forward Dillon Brooks in the first half at Mortgage Matchup Center. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images | Mark J. Rebilas-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7c\">The Warriors won the regular-season series over the Suns 3-1 and handed them one of their worst losses of the season when they beat them 101-97 in their last meeting on Feb. 5 when Golden State came back from down 14 in the fourth quarter without Curry. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-9\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7f\">Phoenix has not played the Warriors since they acquired Kristaps Porzingis, who played just his fourth game tonight with Curry. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-10\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7i\">Golden State has dealt with several injuries all season long, including a knee injury to Curry that sidelined him 27 games and Jimmy Butler tearing his ACL. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7l\">The Warriors struggled to deal with these injuries, going 9-18 in this stretch from Feb. 3 to April 2 without Curry, and finished the year with a 37-45 record. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7o\">Still, just as they showed tonight, Curry and the rest of the team&#8217;s playoff experience could play a huge factor in Friday&#8217;s matchup. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7r\">No matter what the Warriors present, one of the biggest obstacles for the Suns will be themselves and trying to overcome their own recent struggles.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-14\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7u\">&#8220;The goal is get in (the playoffs), just get in any way possible. It&#8217;s been our goal for a while. So we got to move on. Got to move on. It sucks. These are hard to take, but there&#8217;s stuff to learn in here that we got to learn fast and do everything we can to get ready for Friday night,&#8221; Suns coach Jordan Ott <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/nba\/suns\/onsi\/news\/phoenix-suns-coach-sends-message-after-play-in-collapse\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">told reporters after the loss to Portland. <\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-15\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7x\">Phoenix will get homecourt advantage once again, so we will see if it can make the most of it this time around. <\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-16\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"80\">Friday&#8217;s game will tip off shortly after 7:00 p.m. MST on Prime Video. <\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"22\" height=\"22\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/assets.minutemediacdn.com\/platform\/google_discover_icon.svg\" class=\"shrink-0\"\/>Add us as a preferred source on Google<a aria-label=\"Follow si.com on Google News\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=si.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" class=\"flex h-[30px] w-[30px] shrink-0 items-center justify-center rounded-full bg-primary font-group-large text-sm font-medium text-white transition-colors hover:bg-secondary focus:bg-secondary md:w-auto md:gap-2.5 md:px-4 md:py-[5px]\">Follow<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX &#8212; The Phoenix Suns&#8217; opponent for Friday night&#8217;s final play-in matchup has been revealed. After a surprise&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":731971,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-731970","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-phoenix","12":"tag-united-states","13":"tag-united-states-of-america","14":"tag-unitedstates","15":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116414102375546687","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731970","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=731970"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/731970\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/731971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=731970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=731970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=731970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}