The Numbers: Warriors Make 5 Straight Finals

by Kelly Scaletta

On May 20, 2019, the Golden State Warriors made history when they defeated the Portland Trail Blazers 119-117 to make it to the NBA Finals for the fifth straight time.

They joined the Boston Celtics (who went 10 straight years from 1956-66) as the only teams to do so.

Stephen Curry led the way with a 37-point, 11-assist, 13-rebound triple-double.

The Dubs would go on to lose in the Finals to the Toronto Raptors, in part because of injuries to Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson, and in part because of a Herculean performance by Finals MVP Kawhi Leonard.

However, the five straight Finals streak is a monumental achievement in this age where free agency and salary caps exist. Those are things the Celtics dynasty did not have to deal with.

Because the Warriors “only” won three titles in their five visits, their place as a dynasty may be overlooked by some, but many of the numbers will be hard to ignore in the annals of the game.

Over the five-year span, the Dubs went 322-88 during the regular season for a 78.5 winning percentage. That is an average of 64.4 wins per season, the best five-year run in NBA history. To put that in perspective, there are only 24 total occurrences of a team winning 64 games in history.

Curry has another eye-popping number: Over the course of that five-year run, he popped 406 threes during the combined playoff campaigns, according to Basketball Reference. Ray Allen, who was the career leader in playoff threes, made 385 in 15 years total.

The Warriors’ success spawned a copycat league of pace-and-space teams and revolutionized basketball.

In terms of both the record books and impact, Golden State was an undeniable dynasty.

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