In the final round, they benched Bogut who had apparently been key to their success all season, went small against a big Cleveland team, let themselves get out rebounded, and won the championship! With Draymond Green playing center! How did they do it? I'd like the experts here to explain it to me so that I can learn more about the game. Also, as the Blazers build for next year, we should be excited to learn that you can win a championship one year after getting bounced in the first round without making any significant change to the roster. This GS team was pretty much the same roster that lost in the first round to the Clips.
You know how they really did it? Pelicans with no Jrue Holiday. Grizzlies with a masked Conley and hurt Allen. Cavs with no Irving and Love.
The real question is, would this Warriors team beat any post-1975 NBA champion in a Finals series? Oh yeah? Which one? Edit: changed ones to one.
Then we'll deal with 1965-1974. Then 1947-1964. Then the 1920s and 30s. Good thread ideas to keep us going through the summer.
Sure, I think they could have beaten some of them. I think the Mavericks and the Wade/Shaq lead Heat were weaker. But not sure who else I'd favor them against.
OK lets ask another question, how did they win 67 regular season games? In a year with a deep western conference...........
Every year there are injuries, but how many seasons have we seen 9 tough teams. Hell even Phoenix and Utah who had losing records were tough. I can think of maybe two other years that were this balanced, but not many more. 67 wins is pretty impressive. That does not happen every year. Golden State1w 67 15 0.817 0.0 42-10 13-3 39-2 28-13 8-2 W 4 Houston2sw 56 26 0.683 11.0 33-19 8-8 30-11 26-15 7-3 W 3 L.A. Clippers3x 56 26 0.683 11.0 37-15 12-4 30-11 26-15 9-1 W 7 Portland4nw 51 31 0.622 16.0 31-21 11-5 32-9 19-22 4-6 L 4 Memphis5x 55 27 0.671 12.0 35-17 9-7 31-10 24-17 5-5 W 1 San Antonio6x 55 27 0.671 12.0 32-20 8-8 33-8 22-19 9-1 L 1 Dallas7x 50 32 0.610 17.0 29-23 7-9 27-14 23-18 5-5 W 1 New Orleans8x 45 37 0.549 22.0 29-23 8-8 28-13 17-24 7-3 W 2 Oklahoma Cityo 45 37 0.549 22.0 25-27 10-6 29-12 16-25 4-6 W 2
With regards to health, I think its partly a byproduct of the great depth of the team and brutal western conference this year. Curry played the most minutes per game on the W's in the regular season at 32.7. They blew out their opponents in a significant portion of games and the starters wouldn't even play in the 4th quarter in a lot of games. They were giving out voluntary rest days to the older players left and right because we'd still win with Holiday/McAdoo/Barbosa as rotation players. The W's are generally an injury prone team and the last few seasons it was cited as a reason they couldn't make a deep run. Wasn't an issue this year and it ended up being a major advantage. And no one said a word when we lost a razor close series to the Clips last year without Bogut. The year before when they lost to the Spurs in 6 it was reported that Bogut would not have been able to play game 7 and more recently its been reported that Curry may not have been able to go either. Lee barely played due to injury and he was a much bigger part of the team back then. And this year The Cavs came through the fugging east and no one said a word when they swept the demolished-by-injury Hawks. Shit happens, tough titty. The Warriors dominated from day one until the last day of the fucking season. Clippers and Spurs were welcome to join us in the Western Conference Finals. Where the fuck were they? I acknowledge that the Warriors were fortunate with regards to health this season, but I take it as karmic retribution for decades of Warriors Basketball. You'll get no sympathy from me. We skullfucked the league this season and no one stepped up to do anything about it.
Golden State did it because they were the best team in the league. Cleveland didn't have to go through anything to get to the finals, yet no one is talking about that? I mean, they played the East, which is the equivalent to what GS went through in the west.
And with regards to how they did it: They have a great player who commands a double team and an absurd amount of defensive focus. Most championship winning teams have a player like this. They were the best defensive team in the league. They have ridiculous defensive talent. Iguodala, Green and Bogut are top 5 defenders at their positions. Klay, Livingston, and Ezeli all pretty good too. Curry and Barnes are solid at this point. They have smart players, many of whom are particularly smart defensive players. They have multiple rim protectors, a stupid amount of wing defenders, size, length, guys who get steals and force turnovers, good coaching and great schemes. There's just too many different ways they can play- and win. They tend to play better as series go on and adjustments are made. Its concerning but a testament to their coaches maneuvering the chess pieces- and just having more, better pieces than your opponent. And if is KS asking how they specifically did it against the Cavs: basically the Cavs were trying to milk clock, take W's out of their tempo, and were selling out to get the ball out of Curry's hands and let anyone else (besides Klay) shoot. The Bogut/Dray frontline was ineffective and getting smashed anyway and Iguodala had to be on the floor with LeBron at all times. Iguodala provided another ballhandler and he was the guy the Cavs left alone and dared to beat them, and he hit enough for the W's to win all 3 games he started. LeBron was less effective, the W's pace improved, Curry got more room to operate, and the Warriors had run them into the ground by the 4th quarter every game.
Run BJM, I'm curious as to what a smart fan of another organization thinks the Blazers should do this offseason to become real contenders, outside of the obvious (resigning Aldridge)
BRO, YOU KNOW BJM WAS OUT THERE BOOING JOE LACOB FOR TRADING HIS BOY MONTA AND RUINING THE ORGANIZATION
We lost all 3 games to the Warriors this season, but I was unimpressed. See under the blue tabs where it says "Shot Chart" and "Game Flow"? Click "Game Flow" to see how close the game was. November 2: We were up 1 point with 14 seconds left, Klay made a 3, and we lost. http://espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=400578334 March 24: Despite no Aldridge, Batum, Matthews, or Kaman, we led till the mid-3rd quarter, never got blown out, and were led only 11-14 points throughout the 4th. http://espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=400579351 April 9: Without Matthews, we were down 1 point with 2 minutes left, then quit trying, typical of our last couple of weeks. http://espn.go.com/nba/shotchart?gameId=400579466