The Warriors' Shot at History, and Redemption: 16-0

Heading into Game 2 of the Finals, the Golden State Warriors are 13-0 in the playoffs. They ripped through the West without losing a single game (though they did luck out a bit), and Thursday night, they took Game 1 against the Cavaliers by a score of 113-91, with Kevin Durant and Steph Curry shooting out the lights. At this point, the possibility of the Warriors not only winning the title but putting up a 16-0 playoff record can't be ignored. Will it be difficult for the Dubs to win three more games in a row? Of course, but the Warriors have blown our minds before, and no amount of brilliance from them would be truly shocking at this point. And so we ask: If it happens, what would a perfect postseason for the Dubs truly mean?

First off, there's the redemption angle. At the end of the day, winning a title, even if it comes with a loss or two in the Finals, would be seen as a nice recovery from last year's collapse. But let's be honest—the Warriors didn't just blow a 3-1 lead, they blew their chance at history. Going 73-9 and winning a title would have put them in the "greatest team of all time" conversation. Instead, they're basically the basketball equivalent of the 2007 Patriots: dominating the regular season, but coming up short when it mattered most.

The Patriots have won two titles since then, and while New England fans are unlikely to garner any sympathy, any one of them will tell you that in spite of everything that team has accomplished, missing out on immortality still hurts. One year after failing to stick the landing, the Warriors have their chance at a different—but still important—version of immortality.

As with the hypothetical 73-9 championship team, winning the 2017 title in four games wouldn't definitively make these Warriors the best team of all time, but you wouldn't be able to have the debate without asking, "What about when Golden State swept the playoffs?" A few teams have come close: the 2001 Lakers rolled through the West before dropping Game 1 to a Sixers team that was running on pure Iverson power, then won the next four. The 1991 Bulls went 15-2 in the playoffs, losing just once to Magic Johnson's Lakers, and once to the Sixers in round two. Even the mighty pairings of Jordan–Pippen and Shaq–Kobe couldn't roll through an entire playoffs without slipping at least once. If the Dubs take the next three games, it would move them into uncharted territory.

To be sure, the Warriors came very close to losing a game during the Western Conference Finals. They were down to the San Antonio Spurs by 23 points in Game 1 of that series when Kawhi Leonard went down in a maybe dirty and definitely dangerous play by Zaza Pachulia. He left the game with an ankle injury, and the Spurs never recovered. Maybe the Warriors still come back and take Game 1 even if Kawhi doesn't get hurt, but it seems unlikely that they would have taken four straight against the Spurs with Leonard dominating both sides of the ball. So, there is a decent-sized asterisk here.

At the same time, history (outside of Texas) is not going to care about that. We're just going to think it's really awesome that a team went undefeated in the playoffs, and anyone who brings up the Leonard injury will just seem like a buzzkill. After all, teams benefit from their opponent's misfortune in the playoffs all the time.

The Spurs might have not won their fifth title in 2014 if Serge Ibaka didn't miss the first two games of the Western Finals. Likewise, the Cavs' epic comeback last year was aided by Draymond Green getting suspended for Game 5. And of course, the only two titles in Houston Rockets history coincided with Michael Jordan's baseball experiment, and his subsequent return at less than full strength. Luck affects every title to a certain degree, more drastically in some years than others. As such, it stands to reason that the first undefeated playoff run of all-time would also depend on some good fortune breaking the winner's way.

Pulling it off isn't going to be easy, of course. While LeBron's Finals record isn't exactly spotless, he hasn't been swept in one since 2007. History suggests his brilliance is worth at least a win or two regardless of how mighty his opponent is.

Still, the Warriors ran the Cavs off the floor on Thursday night, and it didn't feel like a fluke. They've rolled through the playoffs, putting up blowout after blowout. They currently hold the greatest point differential in NBA playoff history—and that's with getting precisely nothing from Klay Thompson on offense. Like them or not, the Warriors have been brilliant for the past two months, and actually pulling off a 16-0 playoffs—against LeBron James, no less!—would put quite an exclamation point on what has already been an incredible season.

The power of LeBron can't be underestimated, but at this point the threat of an undefeated Warriors postseason cannot be denied, either.