Thunder roll Mavericks in NBA Cup quarterfinals

Golden State has a potential opponent.

On Wednesday night, the Golden State Warriors will make their Emirates NBA Cup tournament debut, as they made the playoff field for the second annual in-season cup. The Dubs will visit the Houston Rockets — a team they’ve beaten twice in as many attempts this year — at 6:30 p.m. PT on TNT in the quarterfinals of the NBA Cup.

And if the Warriors make it three wins in as many tries, we know who they’ll face next: the Oklahoma City Thunder. On Tuesday night, the Thunder blew out the red hot Dallas Mavericks, winning 118-104 to advance to the semifinals. Those semifinals take place in Las Vegas this coming Saturday.

So the Warriors know their opponent if they advance to the semifinals. Now comes the hard part: actually advancing, by beating an excellent Rockets club on the road. And if they do that, it only gets harder ... not only have the Thunder advanced in the NBA Cup, but they have the best record in the Western Conference. And not only that, but they beat the Warriors a few weeks ago (albeit narrowly, and in a game that Steph Curry missed, and the Warriors won an earlier matchup).

The Dubs certainly aren’t putting the cart ahead of the horse. All of their attention is on the Rockets. But it’s fun for us to look ahead at what the rest of the schedule is, to see who the Warriors will match up against if they can get past Houston.

If the Warriors lose on Wednesday, they’ll play a game against the Mavericks at some point this week to ensure that they have 82 games on the regular season schedule. The Dubs are 1-0 against the Mavs this year.