Warriors make it to the fifth successive NBA Finals

Stephen Curry and Draymond Green both posted triple-doubles to power the Golden State Warriors to a 119-117 overtime victory for a 4-0 sweep over the Portland Trail Blazers and into a fifth straight NBA Finals.

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

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 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. 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 the Warriors to a 119-115 lead with 39.6 seconds left in overtime. The Trail Blazers had led 69-65 at halftime, and built the lead to 17 in the third quarter.

But the Warriors, playing without injured superstar Kevin Durant as well as DeMarcus Cousins and veteran Andre Iguodala, chipped away, scoring the last nine points of the third period to close within 95-87 and knotting the score at 104-104 on Curry’s layup with 4:34 left in regulation.

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

Lillard, playing with painful separated ribs, finished with 28 points while unheralded Meyers Leonard led the Trail Blazers with 30 points and 12 rebounds.

C.J. 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.