First-round playoff schedule for Warriors-Clippers

Published Apr. 17, 2014 12:14 a.m. ET

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Hardly the best of friends, the Clippers and Golden State Warriors will renew their familiar rivalry in a best-of-7 Western Conference playoff series that begins Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Staples Center.
 
The No. 3 seed Clippers will also host Game 2 Monday at 7:30 p.m. on Prime Ticket before the series moves to Oakland, Calif., for the third (on Prime Ticket) and fourth games. Those games will be played April 24, giving the teams a two-day break between games, and April 27, another two-day break.
 
If a Game 5 is necessary, it will be played April 29 at Staples, although a time has not been determined.
 
The Clippers would also host a Game 7, if necessary, on May 3 at Staples.
 
The Clippers and sixth-seeded Warriors split their four-game regular-season series, with each team winning at home. But most of the games were physical, most notably in the Dec. 25 game when three technical fouls were assessed and Clippers forward Blake Griffin tangled with Warriors forward Andrew Bogut in the fourth quarter.
 
Bogut isn't expected to play in the first-round series after suffering a fractured rib. That means veteran Jermaine O'Neal will probably start at center, but he and Griffin have their own simmering feud. The two squared off on March 12 and later exchanged words in the hallway after the game, won by the Clippers 111-98.
 
They were separated by officials and shook hands before O'Neal left, but it was clear nothing was resolved -- so it's possible there will be some bad blood when the two teams meet again.
 
In other words, it shapes up as the most intriguing, and possibly the ugliest, opening-round series.

Golden State Warriors vs. Los Angeles Clippers

*=if necessary

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