Matt Steinmetz

The Warriors ended their regular season on Wednesday night with a 109-94 win over the Los Angeles Lakers at Oracle Arena. It might as well have been the end of a long preseason.

Everyone knew the Warriors, coming off an NBA Finals appearance and acquiring Kevin Durant, were going to be a playoff team. And most figured they’d probably be the No. 1 seed in the West, too. And after finishing this season 67-15 that’s exactly what they are.

For the Warriors, the real season begins Sunday afternoon at 12:30, when they host the Portland Trail Blazers in Oakland. The Warriors would love to make short work of the Blazers, a team they’ve beaten 11 out of 12 times in the past three regular seasons. Last year, the Warriors eliminated Portland in five games.

LINK TO “WARRIORS WRAPUP” POSTGAME SHOW FROM WARRIORS’ WIN OVER LAKERS.

The two big priorities when it came to Wednesday’s game was for the Warriors to stay healthy and for Kevin Durant to use the game as a final tune-up for the playoffs. Durant missed 19 games after injuring his left knee, but returned for the final three games of the regular season.

LINK: CLOSE CALL BUT HARDEN WINS MVP BY SLIVER OVER WESTBROOK.

Durant looked like he was in peak form, scoring 29 points in 27 minutes on 11-for-16 shooting. Durant, who missed all nine of his 3-point attempts in his first two games back knocked down 5 of 7 from beyond the arc.

The only injury of note for the Warriors heading into the postseason is a sprained right ankle/foot for Matt Barnes. He is unlikely to be ready for Game 1 against the Blazers.

I don’t have a vote anymore for the NBA awards. But if I did, this would be my MVP ballot:

–James Harden, Houston Rockets: He earns the No. 1 vote by a sliver over Russell Westbrook. The reason: he’s turned the Rockets from a team you didn’t have to take seriously into a team you do. Houston certainly isn’t the favorite to win it all, but if the Rockets catch fire for a period of time, and Harden is doing his thing, they can beat any team in the league.

The Rockets have a shot at winning 55 games — in the Western Conference. That’s no joke … and we didn’t even get into Harden’s numbers, which, of course, are incredible.

–Russell Westbrook, Oklahoma City Thunder: If Westbrook wins the award, so be it. He deserves it every bit as much as Harden, it’s just that you have to pick one if you’re picking. The fact that Westbrook averaged a triple-double is incredible.

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Winning didn’t seem to be the highest priority for the Warriors on Monday night. Instead, Warriors coach Steve Kerr focused on making sure not to overextend the minutes of his starters — and to that extent, he accomplished what he set out to do.

The game? Well, the Jazz beat the Warriors 105-99 at Oracle to snap Golden State’s 14-game winning streak. Other than that, this one didn’t have ramifications for the Warriors (66-15).

The Jazz, on the other hand, needed the win to keep alive their hopes to earn home-court advantage in the first round of the playoffs against the Los Angeles Clippers.

LINK TO “WARRIORS WRAPUP” WILL POST WHEN IT BECOMES AVAILABLE.

Kevin Durant played 32 minutes, but none of his teammates reached 30 minutes as the Warriors had their eyes on their first-round matchup with Portland this weekend a little more than the immediate outcome against the Jazz.

Warriors forward Matt Barnes sprained his right ankle/foot during Saturday’s game against the Pelicans and didn’t play on Monday. The Warriors said he would also miss Wednesday’s season-finale against the Lakers but hoped he could return for the first round of the playoffs.

The Warriors played without Klay Thompson, who was given the game off to rest.