The Golden State Warriors punched their ticket to the NBA Finals Thursday night following their 120-110 Game 5 win over the Dallas Mavericks. The Warriors won the Western Conference Finals series, 4 games to 1.
The Warriors have now made it to the NBA Finals six times in an eight-year span.
“For our team, our guys, especially the core group, to be part of that six times in eight years, I don’t even know what to say,” Golden State head coach Steve Kerr said. “It just takes an enormous amount of skill and determination and work.”
Since Kerr took over as the head coach in 2014, the Warriors have never lost a playoff series in the Western Conference. They are 18-0 in series in that time frame.
“I mean, he’s our engine offensively,” Kerr said. “Everything revolves around him. We got a lot of great players around him and guys who fit well together. It all starts with Steph.”
Stephen Curry won the inaugural Western Conference Finals MVP award. He averaged 23.8 points, 6.6 rebounds and 7.4 assists per game in the series, shooting 42.4 percent from beyond the arc.
“It’s okay to celebrate this one and understand we still got work to do, but it’s pretty damn good,” Curry said.
Curry joins LeBron James as one of just two active players in the NBA’s 75 greatest players who have reached the NBA Finals six times.
“This one is very sweet just because of where we were in 2019,” Curry responded when asked about how this Finals berth feels compared to the previous ones.
Luka Dončić recorded his third-straight postseason averaging 30 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists. Dončić and Michael Jordan are the only players in NBA history to have three or more consecutive 30-5-5 postseasons.
“I’m really proud of this team, everybody, every player, every staff member,” Dončić said. “I promise we fought until the end.”
Dončić did have a slow start to Game 5, potentially a lesson learned for himself and the coaching staff. He was held to six points in the first half, his lowest opening half of his playoff career.
“We need Luka to go big a lot of nights just to give us a chance, and unfortunately the ball just didn’t go for him tonight,” Dallas head coach Jason Kidd said. “I think he carries the load as well as anyone, and I think for us as an organization, we’ll help lighten that load as we go forward.”
At the time of publication, the Celtics have a 3-2 series lead with Game 6 scheduled for Friday, 27 May. A potential Game 7 would be on Sunday, 29 May. The Warriors will now await the winner of the Eastern Conference Finals series between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics.
