Two teams on a collision course throughout the past season will now meet in the Western Conference Finals for the 2017 NBA Playoffs. The Golden State Warriors host the San Antonio Spurs on Sunday afternoon in a battle between the two top teams in the West.
While the Spurs will be down one of their longtime veterans, they'll still have their newest stars, including NBA MVP candidate Kawhi Leonard, on the court. Will that be enough to counter the star power of Golden State? Here's a look at the Game 1 Preview including odds, game time, channel and how to watch a live stream feed.
Game 1 preview
The Golden State Warriors dispatched of their two opponents in a similar fashion. They swept Damian Lillard and the Portland Trail Blazers 4-0 in the opening round. That was followed by a 4-0 sweep of Gordon Hayward, Rudy Gobert, and the Utah Jazz. Golden State got key contributions from all four of their stars along the way, and have now been resting up for this series.
The San Antonio Spurs took a bit longer to get to this stage of the postseason, as they needed more games to finish off Houston and Memphis. Each series was a 4-2 win for the Spurs, who lost their star guard Tony Parker for the rest of the playoffs in the process. Still, with Kawhi Leonard and Parker both out for the closeout game in Houston, the Spurs routed James Harden and the Rockets to advance to this meeting with Golden State.
The two teams met three times this past season, with San Antonio winning the regular season series 2-1. That included the season opener in Golden State on October 25th which the Spurs took 129-100 in Kevin Durant's debut.
Kawhi Leonard finished with 35 points and five rebounds while LaMarcus Aldridge had 26 points and 14 rebounds.
All-Star Kevin Durant finished with a team-high 27 points along with ten boards, while Stephen Curry had 26 points including a 3-for-10 three-point shooting rate in that loss.
While that loss was a major blowout, it came many months ago and also included Tony Parker in the starting lineup. Expect a very different look for the Spurs in Game 1, although their rout of Houston without Leonard shows the potential for this team to win big.
For the first game of this series, Golden State is a large 10.5-point favorite to win. On the moneyline, they're priced at -800 while the visitors are a +550 underdog. The over/under points total is hovering around 211 points as of this report.
How to watch it live
Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday afternoon. The live television coverage of this first installment will be made available through ABC network.
Live streaming for the game is available to cable and satellite subscribers on WatchESPN. The service includes ways to watch online via laptops, tablets, smartphones, video game systems and streaming media devices.