THREE-PEAT IN SIGHT
5 straight Finals: Curry, Green triple-doubles lead the way
Draymond Green hugs Warriors owner Joe Lacob after a 119-117 OT victory, completing a sweep of the Trail Blazers in the NBA Western Conference finals. Golden State will now face the winner of the Milwaukee-Toronto series in a bid to become the first team since the 2002 Lakers to win three consecutive NBA titles. Along the way, Stephen Curry and Green became the first teammates in history to record triple-doubles in the same playoff game.
PORTLAND, Ore. — The Warriors weren’t fazed late in the third quarter Monday night, when Portland center Meyers Leonard hit a jumper to put Golden State’s hole at 17 points.
As Draymond Green later estimated, the Warriors often require only three or four minutes to overcome such a deficit. Without three of its best players Monday, Golden State took a bit longer, needing roughly nine minutes to even the score on a night it eventually escaped the Moda Center with a 119-117 overtime win over the Blazers in Game 4 of the Western Conference finals.
It marked the third straight game in which the Warriors erased a deficit of at least 17 points. But no recent larceny was more memorable than Monday’s,
when Golden State rode the complementary brilliance of Draymond Green and Stephen Curry to a sweep-capping victory.
This is the first time an NBA team has reached five straight Finals appearances since the Boston Celtics went 10 consecutive times from 1957 to 1966. Golden State is the sixth franchise in the four major North American sports to make at least five championship appearances in a row, joining the Celtics, the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens (1950-60, 1964-69) and New York Islanders (1979-84), the NFL’s Cleveland Browns (195055) and the MLB’s New York Yankees (1949-53, 1960-64).
As the Blazers enter the offseason and ponder what-ifs, Golden State begins a nine-day hiatus before the NBA Finals. It awaits the winner of Bucks-Raptors. Up 2-1 in the East finals, Milwaukee plays in Toronto on Tuesday.
“It felt like one big season lumped together for the past five years,” Klay Thompson said, “and we wouldn’t have it any other way.”
The record books will show that the Blazers were swept in the West finals, their first since 2000. But Portland would be flying to Oakland on Tuesday up 3-1 if not for its second-half struggles. Before Monday’s collapse, the Blazers fumbled away a 15point halftime lead in Game 2 and a 13-point halftime lead in Game 3.
This was all a prelude to one of the more memorable meltdowns in recent NBA postseason history. Fueled by a career night from Leonard (30 points, 12 rebounds) and a bevy of 3-pointers, Portland rode a 23-8 run to a 95-78 lead with 1:55 left in the third quarter.
Just 13 seconds after Leonard’s jumper put the Blazers up 17, Curry drilled a 30-footer. This was all Green needed to know the onslaught had arrived. In little more than 10 minutes, the Warriors uncorked a 30-11 run to seize their first lead since midway through the first quarter.
After shooting 14for-25 from 3-point range in the first three quarters, the Blazers went 2-for-12 in the fourth. Lillard’s potentially game-winning layup with 0.1 of a second left bounced around the rim and out to force the Warriors’ seventh overtime of the season.
Golden State had lost its six previous extra periods, but it made sure Monday wasn’t more of the same. With 39.6 seconds left, Curry found Green, who drilled a 3-pointer to put the Warriors up 119-115.
Lillard made a layup to cut the deficit to two, only to miss his potentially game-winning corner 3-point try with 1.3 seconds remaining. Thompson unleashed a yell and pounded his chest. To get to this moment, Curry (37 points, 11 assists, 13 rebounds) and Green (18 points, 11 assists, 14 rebounds) had needed to become the first teammates to have tripledoubles in the same playoff game.
The Blazers had been the darlings of the NBA postseason, but the feelgood vibes couldn’t stop the Warriors from doing what they do best: deliver game-changing blitzes. They came back from 18 down in Game 3 and 17 down in Game 2.
What perhaps scares Toronto and Milwaukee most is that, to sweep the Blazers, the Warriors didn’t need Kevin Durant (calf) or DeMarcus Cousins (quad). Andre Iguodala missed Game 4 after suffering a left calf injury in Game 3.
A week-plus break before the Finals allows Golden State time to relax and heal. If the Warriors can come back from a 17-point deficit in roughly nine minutes without those three, how quickly can they do it with them?
“Our guys have been at this for a while,” Warriors head coach Steve Kerr said. “They know how to win.”