If somehow we win tonight we'll still be underdogs against the Clips; two of three in LA. But yeah if we win that, and if we win against Golden State we'd somehow of found ourselves in the conference finals. We'd have a much better chance against the Thunder so I'd be rooting for them to beat the Spurs. Spurs would be a slow painful death. Thunder would be exciting and they make enough dumb plays to give us a chance. I certainly wouldn't complain about either. But yeah we're definitely ahead of ourselves; got to win tonight to have a chance.
Yeah I read that, was interesting, but Golden State could easily improve their Curryless play once they game plan around other players. I don't think you can just extrapolate minutes he wasn't on the court and say thats predictive. If everyone else is healthy they have a loaded team. I'd put them at the same level with the Thunder and Cavs. They wouldn't be the run away favorites as they are with a healthy Curry but they'd have a legit shot at winning it all. The Thunder could certainly beat the Spurs too which would remove the Warriors greatest threat.
Yeah, that was a quick-and-dirty approximation based on data on the books. I agree that the Warriors can optimize around the players they have left by gameplanning for no Curry, in a way they really couldn't during the season or when Curry was just resting. But it's interesting that even without such optimizations, they're basically on the level of teams like the Cavs and Thunder. I'd probably narrowly favor the Warriors over the Clippers in the second round even if Curry missed the whole series, especially with them having home court. This does give the Blazers an interesting, if still tiny, chance to go on a miracle run. The 73-win behemoth is potentially out of the way for them...and if the Thunder can pull off an upset of the Spurs, you could at least start to imagine a smoking hot Portland team competing in each series. They're still big underdogs in this series and would be big underdogs to the Curry-less Warriors and Thunder and Cavaliers, but none are nearly as imposing as the full-strength Warriors.
No kidding. We're behind in the series. There should be NO talk of any other "future" series. Just game 4. That's it. Is it scary for some people to live in the present moment? There's WAY too much work to be done to be even thinking about another series. Game 4. That's all that exists.
Come on Stren, most people said they'd be happy if we won a couple games, and yet there they were after game one freaking out. People are going to be upset if we lose. Doesn't matter if we were supposed to lose or not.
This year has been all about win-win... I'm just enjoying the ride. If i may quote something: "The worlds a roller coaster And I am not strapped in Maybe I should hold with care But my hands are busy in the air saying" Incubus - Wish you were here
I'm really hoping they can beat the clips, got a good opportunity here. But whatever tomorrow brings, I'll be there. With open arms, and open eyes. Yeah.
On my part, it's not about expectations, it's just about it being fun to talk about basketball and possibilities. In fact, even in my post, I said that the Clippers are big favorites to win the series. So I'm really not getting ahead of myself...I expect the Blazers run to end in 2-4 games. But it's fun to look at the possibility of a miracle run.
OK...deep breath....don't panic. This is the internet - finding a virgin to sacrifice shouldn't be difficult.
I think you may want to re-read my post, buddy. As per usual, my analysis appears to be spot-on. On to the second round, oldmangrouch!
