Golden State Warriors clinch playoff spot with high-stakes win over Utah Jazz

SAN FRANCISCO — The Golden State Warriors have been coy about how much they've been watching the Western Conference standings. Some have admitted to monitoring them. Others have said they're an afterthought.

But, heading into Saturday's game against the Utah Jazz, there was not one person in Golden State's locker room that wasn't aware of the game's implications.

A win would allow the Warriors to sit in third place with a one-game advantage over the Dallas Mavericks. It would also give them the tiebreaker against the Jazz, ensuring they'd have a top-5 spot in the West if the two had the same record at the end of the regular season.

«Oh yeah, [we were] well aware,» Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. «We didn't talk about it a whole lot as a team, but the guys know.… I told it to the coaching staff, and Steph said it to a couple of the guys.»

The Warriors beat the Jazz 111-107, clinching a spot in the playoffs and setting themselves up nicely to potentially earn homecourt advantage in the first round of the postseason. It was just their second win in the past nine games.

Coming off their loss to the Phoenix Suns two nights before, the Warriors felt they finally had something positive to build on. Against the Suns, their defense — which was once ranked No. 1 in the league — reemerged, while on offense, they looked connected and coherent. The issue was that they couldn't close.

Against the Jazz, it was all about how they closed.

After the Warriors closed the Jazz's lead to single-digits in the final minutes of the third quarter, Utah made a quick surge at the start of the fourth to go up 16. With 6:58 left, Klay Thompson hit a 3-pointer, and the Jazz called timeout.

This is when the game changed, sparked by a Draymond Green pep