With their win over the Dallas Mavericks on Thursday in San Francisco, the Golden State Warriors punched a ticket to their sixth NBA Finals appearance in eight seasons. In their previous five appearances in the final round of the NBA playoffs, the Warriors have emerged victorious three times: 2015, 2017 and 2018.
Curiously, all three of Golden State’s recent championship wins coincide with California native Kendrick Lamar releasing an album. In 2015 it was “To Pimp a Butterfly,” in ’17 it was “DAMN” and in ’18 it was “Black Panther: The Album.”
Lamar, who has mentioned NBA stars like LeBron James and Kyrie Irving in his lyrics, just released his fifth studio album, “Mr. Morale & the Big Steppers.” With the Warriors in the Finals again, it’ll be fun to see if the pattern holds.
Most sportsbooks have the Warriors favored to win the Finals, where they will face either the Miami Heat or Boston Celtics. The Celtics are winning their series with the Heat 3-2 and will be looking to close it out tonight in Boston. For what its worth, even though the series still hangs in the balance, FiveThirtyEight has the Celtics listed with a 76% chance of beating the Warriors in the Finals.
And they’ve never gotten anything wrong…
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