SAN ANTONIO — Maybe they finally will get a challenge this time.
The Spurs and Thunder simply have rolled through this postseason. There’s the 18-game winning streak that has the Spurs flirting with history. Seventeen combined playoff games and just one loss. The Thunder sending home the last two NBA champions, and no other playoff teams besides these two that can boast a series sweep.
What took the Western Conference finals so long to get here tonight, anyway?
“I think we both deserve it,” Spurs guard Manu Ginobili said.
Few would dispute that.
It’s a clear-cut matchup of the West’s best teams without any qualifiers: No what-if speculating because of devastating injuries like Derrick Rose’s blown-out knee that sunk top-seeded Chicago and reshuffled predictions in the East, nor were there lucky breaks or Game 7 heartbreakers that will gnaw at San Antonio’s and Oklahoma City’s dispatched opponents and their fans all summer.
By and large, the Spurs and Thunder have just steamrolled to this point.
The top-seeded Spurs clobbered the Jazz and Clippers by an average of 14 points a game. They’re one victory from tying the 2001 Lakers for the longest winning streak kept alive in a postseason and two from becoming just the fourth team in NBA history to win 20 in row.
“It’s been a while since we’ve been in the Western Conference finals. And it’s been a week kind of sitting here stewing and waiting on it,” said Spurs forward Tim Duncan, whose last playoff trip this far in 2008 ended with a loss to the Lakers. “All of that together makes it an exciting series to start.”