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 to reach their fifth straight NBA Finals.

 

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.

The two-time defending NBA champions swept the Blazers aside 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,” Warriors coach, Steve Kerr after the high octane encounter.

“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,” Kerr added.

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

Curry and Green also became the first teammates in NBA history to have triple-doubles in the same post-season game.

Interestingly, both players combined on the game-winning basket in overtime, with Curry feeding Green for a three-pointer which pushed the Warriors 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 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,” Green told reporters after the match.