Warriors Have Shocking Record in NBA Playoffs Game 1s Under Steve Kerr

Cover Photo: Getty Images

Winning Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs' best-of-seven series has historically proven a great indicator as to which team will win the series outright. And no team has reinforced this pattern more than the Golden State Warriors under Steve Kerr lately.

In fact, for the 18 total NBA Playoffs series Kerr has been the team's permanent head coach, Golden State has lost just a single Game 1.

Since Kerr took over as the head coach for the Warriors in 2014, Golden State has lost just one NBA Playoffs series, which came to LeBron James' Cleveland Cavaliers in the 2016 NBA Finals.

The lone blemish on this otherwise perfect Game 1 résumé came against Kevin Durant and his former Oklahoma City Thunder team in the 2016 Western Conference Finals.

The Warriors take on the Portland Trail Blazers in this year's NBA Western Conference Finals, hosting the Blazers at Oracle Arena this Wednesday night. Golden State is currently a 7.5-point home favorite for Game 1, according to FanDuel Sportsbook.

However, even potentially without Kevin Durant for some portion of this series, the Warriors have proven they can win without him.

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David Hayes is not a FanDuel employee. In addition to providing DFS gameplay advice, David Hayes also participates in DFS contests on FanDuel using his personal account, username DavidWHayes. While the strategies and player selections recommended in his articles are his personal views, he may deploy different strategies and player selections when entering contests with his personal account. The views expressed in their articles are the author's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of FanDuel.