This year’s NBA playoffs look to be shaping up for something really epic. The Eastern Conference Finals on Sunday, May 21 saw the third clash between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics. Here the Cavs were stunned when Boston rallied to overcome a 21-point third-quarter deficit to win upset 111-108 thanks to a final desperate 3-pointer from Avery Bradley with 0.1 seconds left.

However, on the other side, the Western Conference Finals was more of a curb-stomp rampage on the part of the Golden State Warriors, who clinched what felt like a formality victory over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 4.

This was a finals sweep that earned the Warriors a new NBA playing record.

Setting up for the third time

The NBA Western Conference Finals faceoff between the Golden State Warriors and the San Antonio Spurs came off as being heavily lopsided in all four games. Steph Curry was on hand for the former while the latter had to take to the court without Kawhi Leonard, and they got hammered for it.

With this, the Warriors became the first team in NBA playoffs history to make it to the Finals without a loss ever since the league adopted its current playoff format in 2003. That means a clean 12-0 victory streak in all post-season games.

Now the Warriors are looking forward to facing the Cleveland Cavs in the NBA Finals for the third consecutive time.

And this time, they’re determined not to repeat the embarrassing outcome (for them) of 2016 Best of 7, where they frittered away a commanding 3-1 game lead to let Cleveland set its own record of being the first Finals team to win the championship by overcoming that 3-1 deficit.

Warriors forward Draymond Green summed it up best in a postgame interview, "No one cares who lost in the Finals.

It's about winning. We're there, that's the first step, now it's about winning."

Bad and good for Spurs

In hindsight, any fighting chance the San Antonio Spurs had to even put up a challenge against Golden State went away in the first game of the 2017 NBA Western Conference Finals. There Kahwi Leonard received an ankle injury after he landed off-balance on Zaza Pachulia’s foot.

Without him, the Spurs were ultimately helpless before the power trio of Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, and Steph Curry. In the last game, Curry illustrated the dominance of his team over the opponent by getting past Jonathan Simmons of the Spurs with masterful footwork.

If there was any consolation for the Spurs from their beat-down, it was the impressive and inspiring play of their shooting guard Manu Ginobli, of whom rumors have been circulating that he will soon retire at age 39. He managed 15 points, 7 assists and 3 steals against Golden State.
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