The game was almost over before it ever really began. Seven minutes into game four in Portland on Monday night, the Warriors built a 30-7 lead over the Trail Blazers – and from there, Portland never stood a chance of winning. The Warriors eventually prevailed 128-103, completing a four-game sweep that ended the Trail Blazers’ season.
It was the second playoff elimination in as many days for the NBA. On Sunday, the Cleveland Cavaliers beat the Indiana Pacers by the somewhat less comfortable score of 106-102, sweeping them from the playoffs and possibly even ending Paul George’s Pacers career.
It should come as no surprise that the Warriors and Cavaliers were the only two teams to sweep their opening-round series. Conventional wisdom says that, for the third straight year, the Warriors and Cavaliers will most likely represent their respective conferences in the NBA finals. In some respects, this is exactly what championship teams are supposed to do in the opening round of the playoffs: swiftly cut down their own opposition while other teams are busy battling each other just to keep their postseason hopes alive.
Funnily enough, the Cavs and Warriors have managed to do so without playing their best basketball. The Cavaliers, mostly notably, looked downright atrocious for the first two and a half games against the Pacers. Then came the second half of game three, the moment when Cleveland flipped the proverbial switch and pulled off one of the biggest comebacks in NBA playoff history, riding a 41-point performance from LeBron James that helped to erase a 26-point deficit. They beat the Pacers 119-114, a loss so gut-wrenching that it felt like Indiana had no shot of bouncing back. And they didn’t. With the victory on Sunday, James won his 21st straight first-round game while appearing in his 10th career series sweep.
But just because the Cavaliers ended up sweeping the Pacers doesn’t mean that everything is going smoothly. Their defense remains a huge question mark. Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love have only been sporadically effective, and were practically glued to the bench during their team’s game three comeback. Yes, Cleveland won all four games, but they only outscored Indiana by a combined total of 16 points, making it one of the least dominant sweeps in NBA playoff history. It’s probably helpful that they will have an extra few days to regroup: the Cavaliers have a lot to figure out, and the competition is only going to get tougher.
The Warriors had an easier time in taking care of the Trail Blazers. The only close game of the series was their 119-113 win on Saturday (AKA the JaVale game) which, oddly enough, might have been their best win so far, as they erased a 16-point deficit in less than five minutes. It was an impressive accomplishment, especially since Kevin Durant was out with a calf injury and Mike Brown was pressed into emergency head coaching duties in place of the seriously ailing Steve Kerr.
While the Warriors have been good, we hadn’t really seen them at their frightening best this postseason until Monday night’s massacre. With Durant back in the lineup and Steph Curry (37 points, eight assists, seven rebounds) finally heating up, Golden State looks nigh on invulnerable. They scored 45 points in the first quarter alone, tying an NBA playoff record. (I know: at this point it might be faster to point out when something didn’t tie or break an NBA record.)
While the Warriors are in a much better shape than the Cavaliers, there’s still plenty of uncertainty to be found here. Nobody knows how healthy Durant really is, how much time he will actually spend on the court, or how effective he will be when he is. If Kerr misses most, if not all, of the postseason, is anyone truly comfortable with Brown as head coach? (I just imagined a thousand LA Lakers fans shaking their heads.) Is Curry back, or is there another cold streak coming in the not-so-distant future?
The good news for the Cavaliers and Warriors is that they don’t have to be perfect if they want to win. They just have to be better than the competition. Looking at the remaining teams, you would be hard-pressed to find one that has fewer question marks than either Golden State or Cleveland. This, of course, brings us back to how they were able to sweep their opponents while nearly all the remaining series are scheduled to go at least six games. At this point, the Warriors and Cavaliers don’t need to send a message to remind us that they’re the favorites for a reason. They have, nonetheless, done so.
