As the Golden State Warriors attack the single-season wins mark this year, the team that sits behind them in the standings isn’t exactly lost on the Warriors as a viable threat. They know that the San Antonio Spurs are there, and they know that the Spurs are going to be someone they have to beat.
From Shaun Powell at NBA dot com:
“We understand that we’ve got to go through San Antonio to achieve our goal,” said Warriors center Andrew Bogut.
Andrew Bogut is certainly not wrong. There’s a strong possibility that Golden State and San Antonio will be meeting in the Western Conference Finals this season, and that means that two elite teams are going to battle each other for the right to face whoever comes out of the Eastern Conference. It’ll be a bloodbath.
As Powell goes on to write:
The Spurs and Warriors are inseparable now, and if they keep up the pace and avoid the traps, the Western finals could be a series that, as you might imagine, is too close to call.
While Golden State will most certainly be the favorite in that series, especially since they’ll likely be the team with the homecourt advantage, then this could be a knockdown, drag-out fight. The brilliance of Stephen Curry against the suffocating Kawhi Leonard. Steve Kerr versus Gregg Popovich.
We’ll see how it all plays out over the next several weeks, but it does seem as if Warriors versus Spurs in the Conference Finals is a mere formality at this point. If we get it, prepare for fireworks. It’ll be exquisite.