The Golden State Warriors will have to go through the Portland Trail Blazers to reach their fifth consecutive NBA Finals. Heavy favorites or not, here are the keys to that path.
Even with Kevin Durant hurt and likely to miss multiple games in the 2019 Western Conference Finals, the Golden State Warriors are still heavy favorites. Per Odds Shark, the Warriors money line is at a staggering -530 before they even step on the court against the Portland Trail Blazers. If you want to bet your life savings on Golden State, it won’t net you much.
The Warriors, for the second straight year, have only seemed to get themselves up for playing against the Houston Rockets. Somehow still, their fourth championship in five years seems inevitable (like another juggernaut). Golden State is still winning despite how bored the team has looked nearly all year and it still has four future Hall-of-Famers in their primes.
The Trail Blazers have overachieved this postseason, overcoming the loss of starting center Jusuf Nurkic to make the team’s first conference finals since 2000. Hopefully that accomplishment is satisfying for them, because on paper this series is lopsided.
Just because it will be an uphill battle for Portland does not mean the Warriors will automatically advance, however. If Golden State wants to take care of business, here are the keys for this series.