Photo credit: Twitter.com

By Joe Hawkes-Beamon
SRS Contributor

OAKLAND — Familiar foes face each other as the San Antonio Spurs will square off against the defending NBA Champion Golden State Warriors in the first round of the 2018 Western Conference playoffs.

The Spurs (47-35) secured the No. 7 seed after losing 122-98 in New Orleans to end the regular season. The second-seeded Warriors (58-24) lost their final regular season game 119-79 at Utah Tuesday night.

As the Spurs are making their 21st consecutive trip to the playoffs, this will be the first time that the team failed to win 50 games in a season since the 1998-99 season.

The Warriors failed to win at least 60 games for the first time in three seasons, which would’ve tied the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s with four-straight 60-win seasons for most in NBA history.

Golden State won three of the four regular season match-ups against San Antonio: winning 112-92 on Nov. 2 at San Antonio, 122-105 on Feb. 10 in Oakland and 111-107 on March 8 in Oakland.

San Antonio took the regular season final meeting, defeating Golden State 89-75, in San Antonio on March 19.

The two teams met last May in the Western Conference Finals, with Golden State completing a four-game sweep over the Spurs in route to their second title in three seasons.

Here’s the Warriors’ schedule for the first round of the 2018 playoffs: