Warriors focus on crown, not history
Cleveland, June 7: A year after making history but falling one game short of an NBA title, the Golden State Warriors are focused on capturing the crown, not a possible unbeaten playoff run.
T h e Warriors remained perfect in the 2017 post-season by sweeping the first two games of the NBA Finals at home and enter game three Wednesday a t Cleveland on a record 14-0 playoff w i n streak — two wins shy of the first undefeated run to a championship. “We want 15-0. That’s what we want,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Tuesday, his version of taking one win at a time. “We literally have never once mentioned 16-0. To me it’s a miracle that it’s even a possibility. It’s so hard to do.”
The difference between making history and taking the title was
put in
clear perspective last year when the Warriors won an NBA record 73 regular-season games but lost the finals to Cleveland, squandering a 3-1 edge in the best-of-seven series and falling to the greatest comeback in finals history. “We’re more focused on what happened last year in terms of we were up 2-0 and we came here and the series shifted,” Kerr said. “That’s the important lesson, not any historical benchmarks or anything like that. It’s definitely not something we’re focused on.”
The Warriors, who won 113-91 and 132-113 at home over the Cavaliers, swept Portland, Utah and San Antonio to reach the finals.
They surpassed the 13win streaks of the 1980s Los Angeles Lakers and the 2016-17 Cleveland Cavaliers to set the record, although “Showtime” Lakers star Magic Johnson claimed Monday his squad would have swept the Warriors in a series.
Hearing that, Warriors forward Draymond Green began a long period of laughter before saying, “That’s my thoughts.”
The best record for any champion in NBA playoff history belongs to the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers, who went 15-1 to claim the crown, their only loss in the opening game of the finals.
The Warriors know history can be bittersweet. There are four championship banners in the team’s practice facility and a much smaller one to commemorate 73 wins.
“We have a huge hurdle to get over tomorrow,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. “To give ourselves a chance at even coming close to thinking about (16-0), we need to really just lock in on how hard this 48 minutes is going to be to really seize control of this series.”
—AFP