The Golden State Warriors entered their third straight NBA finals Thursday evening in a familiar position. They have won a bunch of games, shot a ton of threes, and are staring down Lebron James’ Cavaliers on their quest to win their second title in three years. But while the Warriors’ 2016-2017 season has played out in the formulaic fashion that NBA fans are growing accustomed to, this outcome was not always so certain.
As Whitney Medworth reported for SBNation.com:
“The Warriors’ season took an interesting turn late in the season. On Feb. 28, Kevin Durant went down with a sprained MCL and would miss about a month of time. The Warriors lost that game, and four of their next six. Golden State looked disjointed and unsure of itself and with Durant’s injury looming, it was hard to make sense of the team.”
But this gloomy outlook did not deter reddit user u/RDollaz to go out and support his team, posting images of Golden State’s shooting guard Klay Thompson signing his team-branded toaster on March 13. Little did u/RDollaz know that this toaster would spark Golden State’s late-season resurgence.
“The Warriors immediately ran off a 14-game winning streak after that. In fact, they’re 27-1 since then. Their only loss was against the Jazz on April 10 where Thompson didn’t play. It all makes sense that they lost that game since this is technically his toaster streak,” remarks Medworth. (After Thursday’s game, they are 28-1.)
With the Warriors jumping out to a 1-0 series lead, hopes are alive for their pursuit of playoff history. They have the opportunity to do what no other team has been able to do — go 16-0 in the NBA playoffs. To accomplish this historical goal against the explosive Cleveland Cavaliers is probably more a fantasy than a likely outcome.
But then again, no other team in history had the power of a toaster behind them.