What happened the last time the Golden State Warriors faced the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Playoffs?
The Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs know each other quite well.
The 2nd seed Warriors are facing the 7th seed Spurs in a rematch of a very recent battle between the two teams. The last time these two teams met was in the 2017 playoffs. The Warriors were the top seed and the Spurs were the 2nd seed. It was a battle for the Conference Championship.
Unfortunately, the Warriors swept the Spurs thanks to an…incident in Game 1.
Yeah, see, the Spurs were led by Kawhi Leonard. The only real reason people thought the Spurs could take on the Warriors was because of him. Sadly, while coming down after taking a shot, Leonard landed on almost All-Star Zaza Pachulia. Many said this was intentional on Zaza’s part.
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It appeared, (and I personally think it was intentional) that Pachulia, or, as Skip Bayless says, “Pa-cheap shot” slide his foot under Kawhi’s landing…uh, “zone” and that caused Kawhi to suffer what was essentially a season-ending injury.
To be honest, that’s all that happened last year. The Warriors proceeded to blow out the Spurs for the next three games and it ruined what was supposed to be a very interesting series. The Spurs lost that first game by two points, then proceeded to lose by 36, 12, and 14.
This year, injuries seem to once again make this series not reach its full potential.
Now, the teams have met two other times in the playoffs. Back in 2013, the Spurs beat the Warriors in the semifinals in six games. The first time they met was a couple of months before I was born back in 1991.
There, the Warriors, led by Tim Hardaway, Chris Mullen, and Mitch Richmond, beat the Spurs in four games in a best of five first-round series.
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In total, the Warriors hold a 9-5 advantage. If the San Antonio were to sweep the series in 2018, they would only tie up the all-time series record. But, something tells me that’s not going to happen.