One half of the 2017 NBA Finals is set and for the third straight year, the Golden State Warriors will be in there. The Warriors cruised through the West, going 12-0 to start the playoffs and looking as good as they ever have. While they’re the third team to go undefeated in the modern era, they’re the first team to do it when in a best-of-seven series.
NBA playoff scores 2017: Warriors are headed to NBA Finals for 3rd straight year
The Warriors are 12-0 in the playoffs.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
Down went the Trail Blazers, then the Jazz, and now the Spurs, putting the Warriors on a new page in the history books.
With a 129-115 win over the San Antonio Spurs on Monday, the Golden State Warriors punched their ticket to the NBA Finals for the third consecutive season. They did so undefeated, joining only two teams in NBA history to go unscathed in the Western Conference playoffs.
Only the 1988-89 and 2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers have ever went their first, second, and third playoff rounds without a loss.
The ‘89 Lakers, which featured Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Magic Johnson, James Worthy, Michael Cooper, and Byron Scott, went on to get swept by the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons. The ‘01 Lakers, notably powered by Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant, went on to three-peat, capturing their second straight championship that season in a 4-1 series victory over Allen Iverson’s Philadelphia 76ers.
The Spurs, on the other hand, were underdogs from the start without Tony Parker. Then after losing Kawhi Leonard in Game 1, it seemed like an almost impossible task to try and beat the Warriors.
No one can predict how the series would have turned had Leonard not hurt his ankle in Game 1. After all, the Spurs were up 23 when Leonard went down in the third quarter before going on to lose by two. San Antonio’s championship aspirations have been an afterthought ever since.
The Spurs got great play out of Jonathon Simmons, whose stock rose tremendously absorbing the minutes in Leonard’s absence. They got solid minutes out of Dejounte Murray, the rookie point guard who filled in for Parker alongside Patty Mills. Just when David Lee got it going in Game 3, he went down for the playoffs with a knee injury.
San Antonio just couldn’t catch a break, one they desperately needed against a stacked Warriors team.
Not only was it the end of the season for the Spurs, it was potentially the end of the career for Manu Ginobili. There had been plenty of speculation that this would be his last season and when Gregg Popovich started him in Game 4, it seemed like maybe Popovich knew more than he wanted to lead on. If this was Manu’s last game, it felt only right to give him the admiration he deserved.
After all, at 39 years old having played 15 seasons in the NBA — all for the same team — Ginobili has seen more in his illustrious career than most franchises have seen since their inception. Internationally, Ginobili put Argentina on the map at the 2002 World Championships. At the 2004 Olympics, he scored 29 points to defeat Team USA on the way to a gold medal. His teammates, Andres Nocioni, Walter Hermann, Fabricio Oberto, and, most notably, Luis Scola, found themselves in NBA jerseys shortly after.
Over a decade-and-a-half, the Spurs’ wing became a household name, a linchpin in four championship runs as a beautifully erratic bench scorer who helped pave the way for the influx of international talent the NBA has enjoyed. Along the way, he picked up the 2008 Sixth Man of the Year award, donned the euro-step, and laid waste to a bat.
Moment of the night
The “Manu” chants in San Antonio
Play of the night
Kevin Durant invented the DOUBLE BLOCK.
Monday’s final score
Warriors 129, Spurs 115 (Golden State of Mind recap | Pounding the Rock recap)
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