LOS ANGELES (AFP) - Two-time defending NBA champions Golden State qualified for their fifth straight NBA Finals on Monday (May 20) with a 119-117 overtime victory over the Trail Blazers in Portland.

The Warriors swept the best-of-seven Western Conference finals in four games and will battle for the title starting on May 30 against either the Milwaukee Bucks or Toronto Raptors. </s> The Golden State Warriors are through to their fifth straight NBA Finals after a 119-117 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green combined to claim the game-clinching score in Portland.

The pair produced triple-double performances as the defending champions ensured they swept the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals series 4-0.

They will face either the Milwaukee Bucks or Toronto Raptors in the Finals.

Golden State join the Boston Celtics - who made 10 straight NBA Finals between 1957-66, winning nine of them - as the only team ever to reach at least five consecutive NBA Finals after winning their 11th consecutive play-off series.

"I hope it doesn't go unnoticed," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. "Five straight Finals hasn't been done since the '60s, hasn't been done for a reason. It's very, very difficult." </s> Reigning champions the Golden State Warriors completed a 4-0 sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers to seal their place in the NBA Finals for a fifth successive year.

Golden State, champions in 2015, 2017 and 2018, were pushed all the way in game four on Monday night but eventually saw off battling Portland 119-117 after overtime in Oregon.

The Warriors will now face either Milwaukee or Toronto in the Finals, with the Bucks currently 2-1 up in their series.

The Trail Blazers had looked on course to salvage a lifeline in the Western Conference play-off final after establishing a 17-point lead late in the third quarter.

But the Warriors fought back to send the match to overtime, where they clinched victory after Portland point guard Damian Lillard failed to sink a three-point attempt in the final seconds.

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green starred for the visitors at Moda Cente, becoming the first team-mates to each record triple-doubles in the same NBA play-off game.

Curry finished with 37 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, while Green weighed in with 18 points, 14 boards and 11 assists.

For Portland, Meyers Leonard poured in 30 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, Lillard contributed 28 points and 12 assists while CJ McCollum added 26 points. </s> Stephen Curry on his way to a triple-double of 37 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists.

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both posted triple-doubles to power the Golden State Warriors to a 119-117 overtime victory over the Portland Trail Blazers yesterday morning (Singapore time) and into a fifth straight NBA Finals.

The two-time defending NBA champions swept the Blazers in four games in the best-of-seven Western Conference Finals. The only other team to reach five straight NBA Finals were the Boston Celtics, who went on to a record 10 in a row from 1957 to 1966.

"I hope it doesn't go unnoticed or underrated - five straight finals hasn't been done since the 60s," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr.

"It hasn't been done for a reason. It's really, really difficult and so I just can't say enough about the competitive desire of the group of guys that we have here."

The Warriors will battle for the title starting on May 30 against either the Milwaukee Bucks or Toronto Raptors, aiming to become the first team since the Los Angeles Lakers of 2000-2002 to three-peat as champions.

Curry and Green became the first teammates in league history to have triple-doubles in the same post-season game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Curry finished with 37 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, while Green had his second straight triple-double with 18 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.

Fittingly, Curry and Green combined on the game-winning basket in overtime, Curry feeding Green for a three-pointer that pushed Golden State to a 119-115 lead with 39.6 seconds left in overtime.

"Obviously, in that situation, we want Steph to have the ball, we want Steph or Klay (Thompson) to take the shot," Green said.

"But they were swarming them. So I was just talking to them, 'Watch out, watch out'.

"When he passed me the ball, I just let it go. When I shot it, it felt good."

The Trail Blazers had led 69-65 at half-time, and built the lead to 17 in the third quarter - the third straight game in which Portland led by as many as 17 only to come up short.

With veteran Andre Iguodala having joined superstar Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins on the injured list, the Warriors produced a total team effort to rally again.

Thompson scored 17 points, while reserve Kevon Looney added 12 points and 14 rebounds and Alfonzo McKinnie chipped in with 12 points.

Portland star Lillard, playing with painful separated ribs, finished with 28 points, while unheralded Meyers Leonard led the Trail Blazers with a career-high 30 points and 12 rebounds. </s> CLOSE SportsPulse: The Warriors dynasty has reached its fifth straight Finals. And by the looks of it, they look primed to win the third straight title. USA TODAY

The Golden State Warriors are heading to the NBA Finals again. Here's a look inside the astounding numbers of their historic achievement:

5. The Warriors are heading to the NBA Finals for the fifth year in a row after Monday's 119-117 overtime win over the Portland Trail Blazers.

2. The Warriors are one of only two teams in NBA history to have played for the championship five consecutive seasons. The Boston Celtics are the other group, having appeared in the Finals 10 straight seasons from 1957-66 – winning the title nine of those years.

6. The Warriors have completed six sweeps in their dynastic five-season run, including Monday night when they closed out the Blazers in the Western Conference finals.

1. Steph Curry and Draymond Green became the first teammates to each record triple-doubles in an NBA postseason game when they accomplished the feat in Game 4 against the Blazers, per ESPN Stats & Info. Curry had 37-13-11 while Green put up 18-14-11. It was Green's fourth triple-double of these playoffs, and second in a row.

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green have become the first pair of teammates in Postseason history to both record a triple-double in the same game.



h/t @EliasSportspic.twitter.com/KkQgGeGQSO — ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) May 21, 2019

34.2. That's the league-high scoring average Kevin Durant was putting up this postseason when he went down in Game 5 against the Houston Rockets with a leg injury.

35.8. That's what Curry has averaged in scoring in the full games since KD was hurt as the Warriors have gone 5-0.

Stephen Curry has his fifth-straight 30-point game, a career-long postseason streak. — Warriors PR (@WarriorsPR) May 21, 2019

99. Monday night marked the Warriors' 99th playoff game in the past five seasons.

75. That's how many wins the Warriors have picked up in the NBA's second season in that time.

3. The Warriors are now four wins away from the NBA's first three-peat since the Shaquille O'Neal/Kobe Bryant-led Los Angeles Lakers won consecutive titles from 2000-02.

Assuming he's healthy enough to return for the Finals, Durant will be looking to join another exclusive three-time club. He could become just the sixth player to win at least three Finals MVPs, and he could become just the third man to win three consecutively. Shaq and Michael Jordan are the only players who have gone three in a row; of course, His Airness accomplished the feat twice.

11. The numbers of Finals appearances in the Warriors' history, which trails only the Celtics and Lakers.

10. The Warriors now wait 10 days until the NBA Finals begin on May 30. </s> LOS ANGELES, United States, May 21 – Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both posted triple-doubles to power the Golden State Warriors to a 119-117 overtime victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday and into a fifth straight NBA Finals.

The two-time defending NBA champions swept the Blazers in four games in the best-of-seven Western Conference finals.

The only other team to reach five straight NBA Finals was the Boston Celtics, when they went to a record 10 in a row from 1957 to 1966.

“I hope it doesn’t go unnoticed or underrated — five straight finals hasn’t been done since the 60s,” said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. “It hasn’t been done for a reason, it’s really, really difficult and so I just can’t say enough about the competitive desire of the group of guys that we have here.”

The Warriors will battle for the title starting on May 30 against either the Milwaukee Bucks or Toronto Raptors, aiming to become the first team since the Los Angeles Lakers of 2000, 2001 and 2002 to three-peat as champions.

Curry and Green became the first teammates in league history to have triple-doubles in the same post-season game, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.

Curry finished with 37 points, 13 rebounds and 11 assists, while Green had his second straight triple-double — posting double digits in three key statistical categories — with 18 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.

Fittingly, Curry and Green combined on the game-winning basket in overtime, Curry feeding Green for a three-pointer that pushed Golden State to a 119-115 lead with 39.6 seconds left in overtime.

“Obviously in that situation we want Steph to have the ball, we want Steph or Klay (Thompson) to take the shot,” Green said.

“But they were swarming them. So I was just talking to them ‘Watch out, watch out.’

“When he passed me the ball, I just let it go. When I shot it, it felt good.”

The Trail Blazers had led 69-65 at halftime, and built the lead to 17 in the third quarter — the third straight game in which Portland led by as many as 17 only to come up short.

With veteran Andre Iguodala having joined superstar Kevin Durant and DeMarcus Cousins on the injured list, the Warriors produced a total team effort to rally again.

Thompson scored 17 points while reserve Kevon Looney added 12 points and 14 rebounds and Alfonzo McKinnie chipped in 12 points.

“Being without Kevin these last five games has put us in a really tough spot and our guys stepped up in a big way,” Kerr said. “The group has a fiber to them — when (these) guys go down they find a way to come together and compete and win.”

The Warriors scored the last nine points of the third period to close within 95-87 and knotted the score at 104-104 on Curry’s layup with 4:34 left in regulation.

“We know we can cover 17 points in a matter of three or four minutes,” Green said. “So we always try to keep that mindset — that we’re never out of the game.”

Both teams had a chance to win in regulation, but Curry traveled before draining a three-pointer that didn’t count and Lillard was unable to get through in traffic as time expired with the score tied 111-111.

Portland star Lillard, playing with painful separated ribs, finished with 28 points while unheralded Meyers Leonard led the Trail Blazers with a career-high 30 points and 12 rebounds.

CJ McCollum added 26 for the Trail Blazers, but it wasn’t enough for a team that had fended off elimination twice in their second-round series against the Denver Nuggets.

“We couldn’t get over the hump,” Trail Blazers coach Terry Stotts said. “I think it was a demonstration of how good they are and how good they have been over the years — they find a way to win.” </s> PORTLAND, Ore. — Draymond Green had 18 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, and made a key 3-pointer in overtime as the Golden State Warriors advanced to the NBA Finals for the fifth straight year with a 119-117 victory on Monday night to sweep the Portland Trail Blazers.

Stephen Curry added 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. He and Green became the first teammates to have triple-doubles in the same playoff game.

The Warriors will face the winner of the Eastern Conference finals between Toronto and Milwaukee.

Damian Lillard, playing with separated ribs, had 28 points and 12 assists for Portland. He missed a 3-point attempt as time ran out in the extra period. Meyers Leonard added a career-high 30 points along with 12 rebounds. </s> The Golden State Warriors look to sweep away the Portland Trail Blazers and clinch a fifth straight NBA Finals berth.

The Golden State Warriors stand on the brink of a fifth consecutive appearance in the NBA Finals, and a chance at winning a third straight championship, and all they have to do is close out the Portland Trail Blazers in Game Four of their Western Conference Final series on Monday night. No NBA team has appeared in more than four consecutive NBA Finals series since since the Boston Celtics ended a streak of 10 in a row with the 1966 Final, as recounted by the San Francisco Chronicle. And only four teams other than the Warriors have accomplished the feat of making the Finals four years in a row since 1966. The Warriors will try to punch that ticket in the game that will live stream from the Rose Garden.

To find out how to watch a live stream of the Golden State Warriors vs. Portland Trail Blazers fourth and potentially final game of their NBA Western Conference playoff series, use the streaming information at the bottom of this article. The matchup gets underway at 6 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time at the 19,980-seat Moda Center at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon, on Monday, May 20.

That start time is 9 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time, 8 p.m. Central. In the United Kingdom, the Blazers-Warriors Game Two tipoff time will be 2 a.m. British Summer Time on Tuesday, May 21.

The Warriors also made a bit of history in Game Three, rallying from 13 points down to win the game — making them the first team in NBA playoff history to win back-to-back games in which they trailed by at least 13, according to NBA.com.

The Warriors will be missing three star players for the potentially decisive game, however with Kevin Durant, DeMarcus Cousins, and Andre Iguodala all expected to be in street clothes for the game, according to SB Nation.

As for Portland, they must win not only to stay alive, but to have a chance at accomplishing something no NBA team has ever done — come back to win a playoff series after falling behind 3-0.

“Obviously it’s frustrating,” Portland star Damian Lillard told NBA.com. “You look at the numbers and there’s a slim chance of you winning the series like that, but we’ve got a lot to play for. Obviously you never know when the first time it’s going to happen. We could be the first team to do it.”

To watch the Golden State Warriors vs. Portland Trail Blazers NBA conference semifinal Game Four do-or-die matchup live stream online from the Pacific Northwest, log in to WatchESPN, the online streaming service offered by the sports broadcasting giant ESPN. WatchESPN is free of charge to anyone with login credentials from a cable or satellite television provider and is available through the ESPN and WatchESPN apps for mobile devices, as well as on set-top streaming boxes, such as the Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire.

Another way to watch the Golden State Warriors vs. Portland Trail Blazers game stream live for free and without a cable subscription is for fans to sign up for a free trial of an internet streaming TV package, such as DirecTV Now, Sling TV, or YouTube TV. Those services require credit card information and subscription fees — but each offers a seven-day free trial, and that means during the week-long time frame, fans can stream the Warriors vs. Blazers game — and all other live NBA Playoff games in that period — for free.

To watch the Golden State Warriors vs. Portland Trail Blazers matchup in the United Kingdom, viewers can tune into Sky Sports Arena. For a complete list of broadcast and live streaming sources in dozens of other countries around the globe, see the listings at NBA.com. </s> PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — The Golden State Warriors swept their way to a fifth straight NBA Finals, getting triple-doubles from Stephen Curry and Draymond Green in a 119-117 overtime victory over the Portland Trail Blazers on Monday night.

Green had 18 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists, and made a key 3-pointer in overtime. Curry added 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists. He and Green became the first teammates to have triple-doubles in the same playoff game.

The Warriors will face the winner of the Eastern Conference finals between Toronto and Milwaukee. The Bucks lead that series 2-1 with Game 4 on Tuesday night in Canada.

The Warriors erased another big deficit, coming back from 17 down after erasing an 18-point deficit in Game 3 and a 17-point hole in Game 2.

"We've been here before. We've seen everything, every experience you can imagine. So we relied on that," Curry said.

Playing without Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala and DeMarcus Cousins, the Warriors became the first team to reach five straight finals since the Boston Celtics went to 10 in a row from 1957-66.

Damian Lillard, playing with separated ribs, had 28 points and 12 assists for Portland. He missed a 3-point attempt as time ran out in the extra period. Meyers Leonard added a career-high 30 points along with 12 rebounds.

The Warriors were up 114-113 in the extra period after Green missed the first of a pair of free throws. CJ McCollum's jumper from out front briefly gave Portland the lead but Alfonzo McKinnie's basket put Golden State back ahead and Green made a 3-pointer to push it to 199-115 with 39 seconds left.

Lillard made a layup and Curry missed a jumper to give Portland back the ball. Facing stifling defense from both Green and Klay Thompson, Lillard couldn't get off a shot but the ball went out of bounds in the scramble. The Blazers got it back with 3.3 seconds left but Lillard's final shot didn't fall.

For the third straight game the Trail Blazers led at the half. They stretched the lead to 17 points in the third quarter, but the Warriors went on a 12-0 run to close within 95-90 early in the final period.

Green's long baseline jumper gave the Warriors a 108-106 lead with 3:30 left. Lillard's 3-pointer put the Blazers back ahead and Leonard's dunk extended it to 111-108 with just under 2 minutes to go.

After Thompson's 3-pointer tied it up again both Curry and Lillard missed 3s. Curry made a 3 from the corner with 10.7 seconds left but he was called for traveling first and it didn't count.

Lillard's layup bounced around the rim and out and the game went to overtime.

Iguodala was out because of a sore left calf. The veteran swingman, who is averaging 10.1 points in the playoffs, was hurt in the second half of Saturday's Game 3 victory.

It was not known how long he'd be out, but the Warriors said an MRI Sunday was clear.

Golden State was already missing Durant because of a sore right calf. It's unknown when the two-time NBA Finals MVP will return.

Lillard separated his ribs in Game 2 but was playing through the pain. He averaged 33 points in the first-round playoff series against Oklahoma City, hitting a series-clinching 3-pointer in Game 5, but he struggled against Golden State's defensive focus on him.

Portland, playing with urgency in an elimination game, pulled in front 30-28 in the opening quarter on CJ McCollum's layup and free throw, but Curry answered on the other end with a step-back 3-pointer.

Portland went ahead 59-50 after back-to-back 3-pointers from Leonard, who finished with five 3s in the first half.

Curry hit a 3-pointer with 2.6 seconds left in the half to close the Warriors within 69-65 at the break.

Portland pushed the lead to 83-72 on McCollum's 3-pointer. After he made another 3 to push the lead to 91-78, he gestured to the crowd to make noise.

Warriors: Curry has made a 3-pointer in a playoff-record 106 games. ... Quarterback Colin Kaepernick was among the fans at the game, sitting a few seats down from the Warriors bench. ... Per Elias Sports and the Warriors, Curry had a streak of 81 consecutive free throws made in the fourth quarter and overtime in the postseason — before he missed one with 9:25 left in the game against the Blazers.

Trail Blazers: Leonard, who didn't even play in five of Portland's postseason games, had a playoff-high 16 points in Game 3. After scoring 25 in the first half, fans at the Moda Center chanted his name.

Former Oregon wide receiver Keanon Lowe got a standing ovation when he was introduced to the crowd at the Moda Center in the first quarter. Lowe, a coach at Portland's Parkrose High School, stopped a student who came to the school armed with a shotgun on Friday.

"I saw the look on his face, the look in his eyes, I looked at the gun, I realized it was a real gun and then my instincts just took over," Lowe, 27, said about wrestling the gun away from the teenager. Lowe spoke to reporters before the game.

The suspect, 19-year-old Angel Granados-Diaz, pleaded not guilty earlier Monday during a brief court hearing.
The Golden State Warriors qualify for the NBA Finals for the fifth year in a row by defeating the Portland Trail Blazers, 119–117, in overtime in Game 4 of the Western Conference Finals.