The final two games of an NBA season don't mean much to powerhouses like the San Antonio Spurs and Detroit Pistons. For them, the regular season might as well have been over in February.

But for bubble teams like the Golden State Warriors, the last two games signify more than just a time for resting the starters and giving young guys some extra playing time.

Standing at 40-40 with just a one-game lead on the L.A. Clippers for the eighth and final playoff slot in the west, the Warriors are trying to make the postseason, a task no Golden State squad has achieved since the '93-'94 season.

In fact, no Warriors team since 1994 has even been above .500 after Jan. 1.

And as if you hadn't seen this coming, a trip to the playoffs for the Warriors may mean a first-round showdown with coach Don Nelson's former club, the mighty Dallas Mavericks.

If that storyline doesn't capture your imagination, consider the fact that in '93-'94, the Warriors also had a young point guard by the name of Avery Johnson on the roster. Johnson is now the coach of the Mavericks.

But the similarities don't stop there.

In 1994—the last time the Warriors made the postseason—it was Dallas who came in with the eighth seed in the Western Conference standings.

Following the typical Don Nelson approach to up-tempo coaching, this year's Warriors and the Warriors of 1994 were both the second fastest teams in their respective leagues in terms of number of possessions per 48 minutes. Both played a smoking-fast brand of basketball.

Lastly, the Warriors play the Dallas Mavericks tonight. With a Warriors win and a Clippers loss, it's playoff time, baby.

But this isn't the first time the notion of a playoff run has entered the minds of Warriors fans. No, this process has been long in the making.

Near the end of Sunday's 121-108 victory, which put them ahead of the Clippers by one game, Golden State fans chanted "Playoffs! Playoffs!" When the scoreboard showed that the Clippers had in fact lost their game, the fans in attendance roared with delight.

So after 13 seasons, eight coaching changes, countless free agent giveaways, the Latrell Sprewell nightmare and Mike Dunleavy Jr., Nelson will try to do what no other coach at Golden State has done since he departed so long ago: make the playoffs.

The weight of NBA mediocrity is about to be lifted.

"This is what I've been waiting for," Jason Richardson told the Associated Press after Sunday's thrashing of the Minnesota Timberwolves. "This is what our franchise needs. I'm just going to give it everything I've got to make sure we get there."

While a playoff birth is not yet certain, a playoff run, despite how unlikely it may have seemed at this time last year, will be exciting to watch.

With a core of Baron Davis, Al Harrington, Jason Richardson, Stephen Jackson and Monte Ellis, I'm having flashbacks of "Run T-M-C".

Reach columnist Maks Goldenshteyn at sports@thedaily.washington.edu.