Warriors-Spurs Western Conference Finals 2017: Playoff Matchup History

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With a trip to the 2017 NBA Finals on the line, the Golden State Warriors and San Antonio Spurs will meet once again in what’s become a competitive head-to-head matchup.

The Spurs completed a 4-2 Western Conference semi-finals series victory against the Houston Rockets on Thursday. The win sets up quite the prime-time matchup against the Warriors, who haven’t lost a game all playoffs. Golden State is 8-0 so far this postseason in its two series.

Surprisingly, the Warriors and Spurs haven’t played in the NBA Playoffs since the 2012-2013 season. The two teams met in the Western Conference semis that year, with San Antonio walking away with the 4-2 series victory.

The Spurs moved on to play in the NBA Finals, but lost to the cast of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Bosh and the Miami Heat by a 4-3 series margin.

Before that, though, the two teams hadn’t met in the playoffs since the first round of the 1991 NBA Playoffs. The Warriors won that series, 3-1.

This time around, the Warriors have the top seed in the West and the Spurs sit at the No. 2 spot.

The Spurs had the edge in the two teams’ three regular-season meetings. San Antonio won the first game handily, 129-100, back in October and did so again March 11 with a 107-85 win.

On March 29, though, Golden State won 110-98 to make the regular season series 2-1.

The Warriors are seeking the franchise’s ninth trip to the Finals, while the Spurs are going for their seventh. It’s Gregg Popovich’s 10th time advancing to the Western Conference Finals.

San Antonio has prevailed in the Finals five times while Golden State has four championship trophies of their own, the most recent coming in the 2014-2015 season.

The Warriors are led statistically in the playoffs by Stephen Curry’s 27.1 points per game. Kevin Durant is averaging 23.3 points while Klay Thompson is putting up 16.1 points per game. Draymond Green leads the team with 9.1 rebounds.

San Antonio’s Kawhi Leonard is putting up a team-best 27.8 points per game in the playoffs to go along with 7.7 rebounds, another team-leading stat category. He didn’t play in Game 6 of the semi-final round against the Rockets, but that didn’t matter.