NBA Western Conference Finals Predictions and Recap
May 16, 2017Going into this series I was very excited for this matchup. The superteam 1 seed, the Golden State Warriors, who were 8-0 going into the Western Conference Finals were going to take on the 2 seed San Antonio Spurs, led by the most well rounded MVP candidate in contention for the prestigious award this season. The Spurs had just recently shut down who I thought was the team to beat in this year’s NBA Playoffs, the Houston Rockets. The Rockets’ impressive depth, lights out shooting, and possible 2016-17 regular season MVP, James Harden, presented this Houston squad as the team with the greatest chance of stopping the Warriors on their way to a third straight NBA Finals appearance. However, the Spurs’ ability to shut down the Rockets’ explosive offense completely changed my opinion on the San Antonio team. Being able to stop Harden in his tracks in Houston, forcing the Point Guard to score only 10 points with an abysmal 18.2% FG% in game 6, WITHOUT Kawhi Leonard made me reconsider the fact that the Spurs could actually be the team to stop Golden State this season, instead of Houston. And for the first half of Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals, it appeared that the Spurs would in fact be the roadblock that ends the Warriors’ season early.
Then GSW Center, Zaza Pachulia, came down on Kawhi Leonard’s ankle after taking an additional step to guard Leonard’s shot from beyond the arc in the third quarter. This series defining play by Pachulia, whether intentional or not, will probably keep Kawhi from playing any further minutes in the 2017 NBA Playoffs and has omitted San Antonio’s chances of seeing an NBA Finals appearance this season. Without Kawhi, the Spurs blew their 21 point lead they had right before Leonard’s injury in game 1 and were simply unable to keep up with Golden State in game 2, losing 136-100, with Steph Curry exposing the Spurs defense with 29 points and 7 assists. Before Kawhi’s injury I would’ve said that San Antonio wins the series 4 games to 2, now however, I’d be surprised if Golden State cannot find a way to sweep the Kawhi-less Spurs.
Written by Erik Clark