NBA playoffs: Warriors sweep Jazz, go to conference finals

The Golden State Warriors are right where everyone knew they would be all along. On Monday night, the Warriors swept the Utah Jazz with a 121-95 win that saw a 39-17 lead after the first quarter,

Watching Golden State is to watch a cheat code break out in real, live action. The Warriors have four of the top 20 players in the NBA, and that’s a conservative estimate. Draymond Green would be the best player on almost any other team in the game, and he’s the fourth-best player in Oakland.

Regardless, this win simply is another notch in a belt for a team that is all about claiming its second championship in three seasons, with the lone disappointment being a 73-win campaign in 2016. With the San Antonio Spurs seeing Tony Parker lost for the season due to a torn quad, there is no reason to believe Golden State won’t end up in the NBA Finals, all but certain to see LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

To this point in the playoffs, neither has lost a playoff game in what is leading up to the trilogy. Cleveland has played a pair of tomato cans in the Toronto Raptors and Indiana Pacers, while the Warriors have taken out a woeful Portland Trail Blazers squad, followed by a 51-win Jazz team. Now, Golden State will step up in class with either the Spurs or Houston Rockets, while the Cavaliers get another easy mark in either the Washington Wizards or Boston Celtics.

With the roster of Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Green, the Warriors might be the most talented team we’ve seen since the ’96 Chicago Bulls which featured Michael Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Horace Grant and the coach of the Warriors, Steve Kerr. While this modern-day group lacks size, it makes up for it with a bevy of scoring options. For example, Monday night’s affair saw Curry score 30 points in 35 minutes, while Thomas added 21 on 9-of-16 shooting. Durant totaled 18 points, while Green notched a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds.

At this juncture, it would be stunning if Golden State and Cleveland don’t square of one more time, giving us a third consecutive Finals with the same two participants for the first time since the 1960s. With each side claiming one title, we would get a phenomenal matchup with both short and long-term implications on the line. The Warriors would be the favorite once more, although any team with LeBron can’t be dismissed out of hand.