By Jeremy Harness

Bay Area sports fans still have at least one playoff game to look forward to.

A night after the Sharks were bounced out of the NHL playoffs in Game 7, the Warriors are going to play a deciding game of their own Saturday night, as they edged past the Los Angeles Clippers, 100-99, Thursday night at Oracle Arena.

The Warriors led for much of the second half and just held on down the stretch, withstanding a frantic flurry by the Clippers in the final 20 seconds

In the timespan, while the Warriors led by four, Clippers guard Darren Collison missed a layup and also missed a 3-pointer after the Clippers secured the rebound, while Jamal Crawford missed another 3-pointer, before Matt Barnes made an off-balance 3-ball with 1.1 seconds left.

The Clippers fouled Stephen Curry, who missed the first free throw, and then missed the second one purposely to run out the clock and send the series to Staples Center for a winner-take-all tilt for the right to go the second round.

This was a game where the Warriors didn’t shoot the ball very well but grinded out a playoff-style victory when they needed it the most.

Curry scored 24 points but made only nine of his 24 shots. However, he turned the ball over only twice while handing out nine assists, two nights after committing eight turnovers.

Meanwhile, the Warriors turned the ball over only eight times, which certainly made up for the subpar shooting.

They also drew key fouls down the stretch against the Clippers’ impact players. Andre Iguodala made a 3-pointer while drawing a foul on Blake Griffin to extend the Warriors’ lead to 96-89 with 2:31 left, which was Griffin’s sixth foul.

The Clippers quickly cut it to two, before Harrison Barnes drew a blocking foul on sharpshooter J.J Redick, which fouled him out of the game as well.