Your Golden State Warriors’ sixth win in a row Thursday night all but ensured they will make the playoffs, or rather, squeak in as the No. 10 seed for the Play-In Tournament.

It’s a sign of how far the Golden State Warriors have fallen this season that it is cause for celebration that they just effectively clinched the lowest-possible seed for the NBA Play-In Tournament. That’s the No. 10 seed, which prior to 2021, would not have even qualified for the play-in. And come on, the Warriors have the highest payroll in NBA history, you'd expect them to not be in this humbling Play-In Tournament conversation.

But in a season that saw a running bad joke of Draymond Green suspensions, the team spending much of the season below .500, and even getting booed at home, the Warriors have now won six straight games, have their core players fully healthy, and seem dangerous as a lowly 10-seed.

Looking at the big playoff picture, Thursday night’s commanding 133-110 win over the Houston Rockets leaves the Warriors with a four-game lead over those same Rockets for the 10th seed, with six games remaining to play. But the Warriors hold the tie-breaker over Houston, so in reality, this represents a five-game lead.

As the standings are now, the Warriors would face LeBron and the LA Lakers in the 9-10 Play-in Tournament matchup, a ratings bonanza the NBA would love to see. (Will the refs rig the games to make it happen? It is the NBA, after all!) But teams are pretty well bunched up for seeds 5-9, so that game could easily be against the Sacramento Kings, New Orleans Pelicans, Phoenix Suns, or Dallas Mavericks.

But about Thursday night’s game, which was a blowout. The stupid-but-newsworthy drama of the game was Houston Rockets backup Tari Eason attempting to taunt the Dubs with a “Warriors Come Out to Play” t-shirt, mimicking the line from the 1979 film The Warriors. Eason is out for the year with a leg injury.

“That’s pretty lame, especially if you’re not even playing,” Klay Thompson told reporters after the game, per the Chronicle. “Like it’s one thing if you’re playing, and you’re out there competing and you can back it up. But if you’re just going to be trolling on the sideline, like, bro, what are you doing?”

And the Bay Area News Group points out the surprising emergence of rookie forward Trayce Jackson-Davis, who scored a career-hight 20 points. He’s got Big Brock Purdy Energy — as Purdy was selected with the last pick of the 2022 NFL Draft, Jackson-Davis was selected next-to-last in the 2023 NBA Draft.

“Trayce and Draymond together, that changed our team,” coach Steve Kerr said after the game. “It’s pretty dramatic, just the rim protection, the rebounding that Trayce gives us, and what that allows Draymond to do. It’s been really fun to watch them together. Trayce, for a rookie, it’s amazing what he’s doing.”

The Warriors follow up tonight with a back-to-back game in Dallas against the Mavericks at 5:30 pm PT, and again, have six more regular season games remaining. But unless there’s the extremely unlikely outcome that the Warriors lose all six, and Houston wins literally all of their remaining six, the Golden State Warriors will be the No. 10 seed in the Play-In Tournament, which starts Tuesday, April 16.

Related: Draymond Green Will Return ‘In the Coming Days’ as Below-.500 Warriors Look to Regain Footing [SFist]

Image: HOUSTON, TEXAS - APRIL 04: Moses Moody #4 of the Golden State Warriors dunks the ball in the second half against the Houston Rockets at Toyota Center on April 04, 2024 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Tim Warner/Getty Images)