With the drama of the Conference Semifinals now firmly in the past and the next round scheduled to start, it’s time for the remaining teams to look forward to giving themselves a shot at actually securing a championship. The Boston Celtics, Miami Heat, and the Dallas Mavericks have all won titles since 2008, but none have won as many or as recently as the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors with their current core won the championship in 2015, before taking two more when Kevin Durant was a part of the team. Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green have been to the NBA Finals five times, and Steve Kerr has barely ever lost as a coach before the NBA Finals. And he has now stated that this is exactly what gives them confidence going into Game 1 against the Mavericks:
Steve Kerr on how the Warriors are feeling before Game 1 of the WCF: “We’re feeing confident. Our guys have been in this position many times, our core guys… Our guys have guts. They’re not afraid of anything and that’s where our experience helps us.”
— 95.7 The Game (@957thegame) May 17, 2022
“We’re feeing confident. Our guys have been in this position many times, our core guys… Our guys have guts. They’re not afraid of anything and that’s where our experience helps us.”
While it is true that their core has done it before, the team around them is not the same as it once was. And they will be facing a highly motivated Dallas Mavericks team that is on somewhat of a fairytale run. The idea of defending Luka Doncic is certainly not one that would inspire confidence in many, but the Warriors’ core has been battle-tested against prime LeBron James.
Ultimately, there is no other way to go into a series of this magnitude, and if they can win another championship together, then the trio will go down in history as being even more successful than they already are. Championship know-how is immense, especially against a team like the Dallas Mavericks who won their first playoff series in over a decade this season, and it should make for an incredible battle.
