Golden State Warriors vs. San Antonio Spurs: Game 4 Prediction, Betting Odds, Kawhi Leonard News

It appears that the San Antonio Spurs have reached the end of the line in their 2017 NBA playoff run. Hosting the Golden State Warriors in Game 4 Monday night, they should see their championship hopes come to an end with a sweep in the Western Conference Finals.

Despite the Boston Celtics’ improbable upset of the Cleveland Cavaliers Sunday night, a surprising victory for the Spurs doesn’t seem to be in the cards. With injuries to Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker and others, San Antonio just doesn’t have what it takes to extend the series.

The Spurs haven’t looked anything like a contender since Leonard re-injured his ankle in the series opener. The team collapsed in Game 1, lost by 36 points in Game 2 and were beaten by 12 points when the series shifted to San Antonio in Game 3.

With Leonard likely out for Game 4, Monday should be more of the same.

“It wouldn’t make much sense,” Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich said of playing Leonard in Game 4 when he met with reporters Sunday. “If he’s unable to play yesterday, I don’t think there’s going to be a miraculous healing by tomorrow.”

Leonard’s injury is certainly the biggest loss for San Antonio, but the team’s bench was shortened even further in Game 3. David Lee is out with a partially torn patellar tendon, eliminating another player that could possibly pick up some of the slack on the offensive end in the absence of both Leonard and Parker.

The Utah Jazz’s Gordon Hayward said that teams have to be close to perfect in order to defeat Golden State, and that has proven to be true throughout the playoffs. Before winning three straight games against the Spurs, the Warriors swept the Jazz with four wins by at least 11 points. In their first-round sweep of the Portland Trail Blazers, Golden State won three times by 12 points or more.

The Warriors are 12.5-point road favorites in Game 4, via the betting odds at OddsShark. The over/under is 216.5, and Golden State has scored at least 110 points in nine of their 11 postseason victories.

San Antonio was the NBA’s best defensive team in the regular season, though the lights out shooting of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant has made the West’s No.1 seed impossible to stop. Curry is averaging 30 points on 18 shots per game against the Spurs, making 50 percent of his 32 three-point attempts. Durant is putting up 27.7 points on 16.7 shots, and he’s hit 40.9 percent of his threes in the playoffs.

The Spurs will probably show some fight, which is what they did in Game 3. It was a three-point game midway through the third quarter, and San Antonio was only down eight points with a few minutes gone by in the final period.

The Spurs simply don’t have the players to keep up with the Warriors, who might very well be in the midst of the most dominant playoff run in NBA history.

Prediction: Golden State over San Antonio, 123-105