The Warriors buzzed right through the injury-depleted Spurs again to finish the sweep on Monday and win a berth to the 2017 NBA Finals. The win ensures the Warriors will have at least three more days of rest than the Cavaliers, assuming Cleveland doesn’t drop any more games to Boston. The NBA Finals begin on June 1.
5 amazing facts from the Warriors’ perfect NBA playoff run
Good morning. We have that and more in Tuesday’s NBA newsletter.
Photo by Ronald Martinez/Getty Images
In the meantime, here are five amazing facts from the Warriors’ playoff run ... so far.
1. The Warriors are the first team to ever go 12-0 to advance to the Finals. Two previous teams in the modern era went 11-0 before the league moved to a best-of-seven in the first round (’89 Lakers and ’01 Lakers). If Golden State earns a sweep in the Finals, they’d be the first team in the modern era to sweep the entire playoffs. 16-0 is in play!
2. The Warriors have outscored their Western playoff opponents by an average of 15.5 points. They’ve won by double digits in 10 of the 12 games. They have four wins of at least 20 points and just two wins within single digits.
3. In Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors only led for a total of four minutes and 19 seconds but still won. In the subsequent three games, the Warriors led for 134 minutes and 54 seconds, while the Spurs led for a total of nine minutes and six seconds.
4. Staying on that theme, the Warriors’ opponents in the first three rounds only held leads in about 107 minutes of play. The game was tied or the Warriors led in the other 469 minutes. In other words, the Warriors trailed in about 18 percent of the minutes during three rounds of play. (And the bulk of those minutes where the Warriors trailed — 42 minutes in Game 1 vs. San Antonio and 36 minutes in Game 3 vs. Portland — came in two games. The Warriors trailed a total of 29 minutes in the other 10 games.)
5. Since resting all their stars for a Saturday night primetime showdown with the Spurs on March 11, the Warriors are 27-1.
The Warriors: They just might be light years ahead at this point!
There are rumors that Manu Ginobili might be ready to retire. He has been noncommittal. Just in case, San Antonio gave him a wonderful send-off. Here we are sharing our memories of Manu.
Joe Lacob, who loves a stage and a spotlight, used the Warriors’ impressive win to declare that Golden State was the better team despite losing the Finals to the Cavaliers last year. He really is like Draymond.
Marcus Thompson on Steph Curry’s shot at redemption.
Game 4 of the Eastern Conference Finals is set for 8:30 p.m. ET on TNT. Now we find out if LeBron James is a truly a horrible clownfraud joker or one of the greatest players ever. It all comes down to this otherwise unremarkable game unlikely to have bearing on the results of the season ...
Beautiful Kevin Arnovitz exploration of the Warriors’ and Spurs’ differing team cultures and how that plays out on the court.
Enes Kanter shares details on his weekend and how he says Turkey’s Erdogan regime has been trailing him all over the globe. A plea to work this hard to protect all Turks and all Muslims.
Kevin Durant double block! It’s like a double rainbow but rude.
Need a point guard? This is your summer.
Will Steve Kerr coach in the Finals? No one knows.
The Magic hired a new lead in the front office: Jeff Weltman, Masai Ujiri’s No. 2 in Toronto and a Bucks executive before that.
Paul Millsap will be a free agent after opting out.
A very thorough assessment of the Celtics’ future and why Isaiah Thomas might not fit in it. Meanwhile, are the Celtics building for 2018 or 2025?
I had missed this excellent story on Jeff Van Gundy’s post-Rockets malaise and personal investment into a charter school in a rough part of Houston. Cool.
Check out Issue #0 of Game Point Magazine. Very cool. Can’t wait to see more.
New Ricky O’Donnell mock draft. I’m still perplexed by Josh Jackson’s place in this draft.
What it’s like to cover the Euroleague Final Four in Istanbul.
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