Last night, the San Antonio Spurs put up as good of a fight as they could at home against the juggernaut Golden State Warriors. Despite Manu Ginobili's historical night in joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar as the only players 39 or older to score 20-plus points in the Conference Finals, they still lost by double digits. The previous night, the Cleveland Cavaliers straight up obliterated the Boston Celtics, crushing them by 44 points. Cleveland set an NBA halftime record by having a 41-point lead. Both teams are now well positioned to meet in the NBA Finals for the third straight year with perfect 12-0 records.
Golden State's dominance
Following last night's victory, the Golden State Warriors became only the third team in NBA history to start a single postseason 11-0. The only other teams to do that were the 1988-89 and 2000-01 Los Angeles Lakers, who went on to win the NBA Finals in both seasons. The Warriors have also managed to score 100 or more points in all 11 of their playoff games. They also became the first team since the 1970-71 Milwaukee Bucks to win 9 of their first 11 playoff games by double digits. That year's Bucks team also went on to win the NBA Finals. The Warriors have also won 4 of their games by 20 or more points.
Cleveland is crushing the Eastern Conference
The Cleveland Cavaliers are 10-0 in this year's playoffs.
If they win their home game tonight against the Boston Celtics, they will join the Golden State Warriors as only the fourth team to start 11-0. Going back to last year's playoffs, the defending champions have won 13 straight playoff games, which ties them with the 1988-89 Lakers. If the Cavaliers win tonight, they will have that record all to themselves.
Like the Warriors, the Cavaliers have also scored 100 or more points in all of their playoff games this year.
NBA Finals Week?
If both the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers sweep their Conference Finals series as expected, the last game will take place on Tuesday, May 23. However, the NBA Finals do not start until Thursday, June 1.
Since that date is set in stone, it cannot be moved up to accommodate both teams sweeping. This means that there will be an eight-day period between games, where media pundits and reporters will have to fill that time hyping up and over-analyzing everything. In a way, this week will mirror the NFL's annual Super Bowl week, minus the many auxiliary events and parties that accompany it.
