By the end of Friday night, the Warriors could make history. They are just two wins away from a perfect 16-0 playoff run that would make them the first NBA team to ever go "fo-fo-fo-fo." (Or at least, that's how I think Moses Malone would describe it.)
But Julius Erving doesn't necessarily think that this Golden State team is the best ever, and he explained on ESPN LA 710's morning show Wednesday why he thinks that the 1983 Sixers - who swept away the Lakers in four games for the NBA title - could not only hang with the Warriors but ultimately take them out.
"When you have a team with the makeup of our team back then, we could play slow, we could play fast," Erving said. "Moses [Malone] was such a dominant force. I have visions of him grabbing the rebound a few times and taking it coast to coast."
"And Billy Cunningham being the task master that he was, we would have figured it out. We would have figured out how to play against this team and how to beat this team."
That Sixers team was built entirely differently than this Warriors side - but remember, that was a couple of years after the NBA first introduced the three-point line and most still thought it was little more than a gimmick.
Still, Philly was loaded. Andrew Toney and Mo Cheeks did their work in the backcourt while Dr. J and Moses shouldered a heavy load down low, bringing Bobby Jones off the bench. Twelve guys on that team played more than 13 minutes a night and nearly everyone shot better than 41 percent from the field.
Philadelphia 76ers
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And although it's hard to compare teams across eras, it's easy to see why such a balanced group might be the perfect foil to a Golden State team that offers little in terms of a true low-post presence other than Zaza Pachulia and JaVale McGee.
Unsurprisingly, current Lakers GM Magic Johnson - who played on that 1982-83 Los Angeles team - said that his Lakers team would have swept the Warriors and that team's coach, Pat Riley, added, "Try to put somebody on Kareem Abdul-Jabbar."
All of this comes in the wake of a group of Vegas bookmakers that told ESPN they would have the Dubs as -360 favorites if they were to match up Golden State with the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls, who went 72-10 that year. The '82-83 Sixers finished 65-17 in the regular season before going on a 12-1 playoff run.
