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Dieter Kurtenbach
PUBLISHED: | UPDATED:

​OAKLAND — To make history, you first must defy it.

That’s what the Golden State Warriors will try to do over the next two months.

These Warriors are already an NBA dynasty, but in this year’s playoffs — which tipoff Saturday at 5 p.m. at Oracle Arena — they’ll attempt to do things that no team in the league’s modern era has done.

Not since the league consisted of eight teams — it’s now 30 — has one played in the NBA Finals five years in a row, as the Warriors aim to do this June. And to win four titles in those five years? Well, there’s no modern precedent for that either.

To many observers of the league, the Warriors winning another championship has been an inevitability since they added a fifth All Star player, DeMarcus Cousins, this past summer.

They have too much talent. They have too much experience.

But these Warriors also have the most to lose. And their toughest opponent is, undoubtedly, themselves.

Amid the perceived inevitability, a truth: These next two months could well be the last hurrah for these Warriors.

Unless Cousins wants to play for much less than his fair-market value again in 2020, he will be a one-and-done Warrior.

Klay Thompson is a free agent, too.

Draymond Green is eligible for a big-money contract extension, and the negotiations are expected to be contentious.

Shaun Livingston has all but said he intends to retire, perhaps moving into a front-office role. Andre Iguodala would be entering the last year of his contract, making him a viable trade asset. Even the team’s general manager, Bob Myers, could be on the move. The Los Angeles Lakers appear poised to make a run at him amid their front-office upheaval.

As for Kevin Durant? Well, suffice it to say that the rumors about his exit via free agency this summer are no longer whispers.

But if this dynastic run is indeed coming to an end, all blue-and-gold-clad parties agree that it would be best to end it on winning terms.

That, of course, would be another defiance of history.

While the Warriors remain head-and-shoulders above the rest of the league when it comes to talent, that separation used to be head-and-elbows. The Eastern Conference will surely provide a worthy adversary in the Finals (assuming the Warriors are there) — a stark change from recent years and the Warriors’ trips to Cleveland.

And while the Western Conference bracket doesn’t appear as grueling as it was in years past, the Warriors’ chief rival, the Houston Rockets, likely looms in the second round. Houston put a legitimate scare in the Warriors last season, and after some re-tooling of their own this past off-season, the Rockets are hellbent on getting over the hump this season and they have the ability to do it.

While Golden State’s first-round opponent — the Los Angeles Clippers — should be easy prey, the Warriors cannot let their guard down this postseason. The path could prove treacherous for that.

The problem is, they spent the past seven months practicing having their guard down.

Call it the byproduct of apathy, hubris, fatigue or an unholy concoction of all three. By any name, it is the natural toll of year-after-year success and it was evident if you watched the Warriors at all this regular season.

Golden State lost eight games by 20-plus points this season. That’s another number no modern-day NBA champion has approached. Until a recent run of solid form, their defense was literally average, ranking in the middle of the league statistically.

Ultimately, this Warriors team knew all along that its legacy will be defined only by its success in the postseason, specifically by winning its fourth title in five years. As such, their 82-game regular season was treated as perfunctory by them and most others.

Still, they finished in first place in the Western Conference, albeit amid a challenge from the upstart Denver Nuggets (a team no one expects to win the title) and with their least-impressive record (57-25) in the Steve Kerr era.

To be fair, there were some spectacular moments in the regular season, games in which the Warriors felt threatened or emboldened and decided to send a message by adding focus to their talent.

But there weren’t many games like that. Accordingly, the question lingers: Which is the real Warriors team?

Were these battle-tested Golden State bears hibernating through the winter, saving their energy for spring and summer maulings?

Or was the underwhelming regular season a sign of things to come for a tired and bored team?

With the postseason upon us, we’re about to find out.