HOUSTON -- With the Cleveland Cavaliers joining the Golden State Warriors in seizing a 3-0 stranglehold on their conference finals series, we're probably safe to start looking ahead.
More than safe, realistically.
So allow me to pass along this gem, courtesy of my ESPN Stats & Info pal Micah Adams, who had dug up the answer Sunday night even before I could ask him the question on my mind about the unique opportunity Stephen Curry should soon have in the NBA Finals.
Confirming those suspicions, Adams reports that Curry can indeed become the first player in league history to win a series against each of the four teams that supplied the other four members of the league's All-NBA first team.
Curry, in fact, is one win away from becoming the first player in league annals just to face each of the other four members of the first team in the same postseason.
Curry's Warriors swept Anthony Davis' New Orleans Pelicans in the first round, then ousted Marc Gasol's Memphis Grizzlies in six games in Round 2. Golden State has James Harden's Houston Rockets down 3-0 entering Monday night's Game 4 here, with a likely showdown looming in the Finals against LeBron James and his Cavs.
Adams also informs us that this would be the first time in 30 years that the league's newly minted MVP faces the second- and third-place finishers in a single postseason, dating all the way back to 1985, when Larry Bird faced second-place finisher Magic Johnson in the Finals after an earlier meeting with third-place finisher Moses Malone.
A more detailed look at the history of the new MVP facing his two closest rivals in balloting in the same postseason:
