let’s not act like Iggy isn’t very important tho...he is by far their best defender on Harden I read that he’s held Harden to only 17 points/100 possessions since the start of the 16-17 season which is significantly lower than what guys like Klay and Dray have held him to he’s very important for them defensively I hope Kerr gives Boogie a significant amount of minutes if we play them giving us 2 liabilities to attack Jordan Bell seems to get worked a lot too...I hope he gets a decent amount of minutes as well
This is still a make or miss league. The Warriors usually make more shots than anyone else. The Rockets missed 27 straight 3 pointers in a home game. That said I like our chances to make more this year if most guys are healthy. The likelihood of the Rockets, a 36.2% three-point shooting team, missing 26 threes in a row is .00084% or a 1 in 118757 chance. Are you kidding me?
Quiet as kept.. their best Defender on Harden right now is KD. Iggy isn’t the same player he was but he’s still a factor. They swi Iggy is 35 now. A liability on offense and not the same player he once was. He’s still a good defender for his age tho. The good thing is they switch on defense. And if they don’t switch on D then they won’t be able to stop the PnR. Iggy’s individual D on Harden won’t matter as much because we hunt matchups off the switch anyway.
Pr OKC will be a tough but Portland is not a toss lol. Dead this narrative. Are you still having nightmares of Lamarcus Aldridge’s fade-away? Because the only way Dame and CJ somehow outplay CP3 and Harden 4 times out of 7 games will be with Divine intervention.
not sure how you’re getting that KD is their best defender on Harden Iggy being out there adds another excellent defender out on the floor making it that much harder for our offense...if Boogie is out there, then we’ll be able to get whatever we want on the PnR and he’s an easy ISO target, but if Kerr is smart and heavily reduces his minutes, well, we were struggling to score on them in the WCF without Iggy
Be KD has put a bigger emphasis on the defensive side of the ball since he signed with GS. He’s elite now. Plus he knows Hardens game.. Harden struggles to shoot over his long arms and can’t easily blow past him either. Harden struggled with that matchup. It’s not seen much because KD doesn’t switch on him often. Harden usually sees multiple matchups. Where was Iguodala in the 27 min he played in Game 2? We won by 22. You’re vastly overrating his impact. He makes one but it’s not that significant. We didn’t shoot the lights out in that series regardless. Neither Harden or Paul shot high percentages. We started winning by holding them under 100 points 2 games in a row. We took momentum in that series on Defense.. not offense. Iguodala wouldn’t have changed the outcome of that series. Sh*t we almost beat them without CP3 lol. If Ariza shot at least his Average.
The fact that people still make this claim yet still get so upset when GS wins the championship like they had no idea it could possibly happen baffles me. There is no parity in this league and the NBA has a history of protecting its 'darling teams'. GS will be in the Finals unless they are plagued by injuries.
The Warriors are more talented than the Rockets top to bottom and should be favored to win. It's good that you guys are optimistic but lets be real, who here would actually put money on the Rockets at even odds to win? The things the Rockets have going for them is that they got players that match up reasonably well against Golden State and though they lost to GS in the past, have mentally tougher players. (warriors relied on superior talent, refs and injuries to barely beat Rockets last year) Also since both teams rely heavily on three point shooting, this means hot shooting by the Rockets or poor shooting by the Warriors could easily offset the talent gap. Their shooters may average a higher percentage from 3 than Rockets, but players in general have a much bigger variance game to game eg. Thompson and Curry may average over 40% from 3 but have one game going 0/10 and one 8/10. Based on odds they should be favored but the team isn't as unbeatable as some super teams in the past due to their reliance on outside shooting, and Rockets having their own shooters who can get hot for a few games. Houston will require some luck in hitting more shots and playing better than normal, and Warriors will need to miss more shots than usual for Houston to win, if they both play to their average GS will win.
knowing what the rockets did a year ago and what they've done this season when they were full healthy I without a problem would. Anyone not even familiar with the NBA can pick GS to win. There's only one team thats legitimately given GS a run dating back to a year ago and thats houston. One team that put them on the brink of elmination. One team that held them to under 100 pts on multiple occasions. they cake walked everyone else and it wasn't close. Houston has the formula to take out GS. that's been proven. It comes down to heath and execution for it to actually happen
Hope you're right. The Rockets do have a formula that works, but still concerned that the success this year came in the regular season. Come playoffs, even assuming we get impartial refs, Harden will get less FT's, and those few points may be the difference between winning and losing.
and had houston loss those regular season games, the talk would be houston has no chance. But even in winning, the talk now is well its just regular season. it doesn't mean much. there's really no winning scenario there in either result. it is what it is. you can choose to believe or not people can point those out but putting GS on the brink of elimination tells me enough, with health and execution they are very much good enough to be the ones to eliminate them from the playoffs
Terrible hot take, OP. You could have said the "Warriors are a finesse team" in each of the past 5 years, and you'd be wrong. You'd be wrong this season too. They're the best team in the league, even if they are 0-3 against the Rockets.
Not a Warriors fan by any means. I just haven't seen anything that disproves what I am saying over the past few years. And nothing seems to have changed this year. GS is still head and shoulders above any other team in the league, especially us.
i guess you didn't watch the playoffs a year ago. a team head and shoulders above someone in your own words doesn't get put 1 game away from being eliminated
I watched every game. I agree our style is the style to beat them. I agree had CP3 not gone down that we would have likely won. I also saw how games 6 and 7 that the NBA was not going to allow GSW to lose with the ref assignments and the way they dictated my game flow. Which just goes to support my original statement that the NBA protects its darling team and will do what it takes to get them on the main stage. The NBA is and always has been about ratings. When was the last time we had a Finals that wasn't the two most popular teams or two teams that weren't going to create some drama or the best story lines? All I'm saying is that this board was full of people calling the NBA rigged last year after the WCF and now people seem to have completely forgotten that feeling and have bought into the belief that anyone can make a run when many of the past few years completely prove otherwise.
doubt anyone has forgotten it. in fact i would venture to say that the ones who really follow on a regular basis are just anxious to get back there. yes this season has been a roller coaster but the outlook is looking better and better. people always talk about how injuries late in the season just can kill a team and how other teams seem to get lucky with timing. well that happened this year for the rockets. while injuries obviously sucked, the timing couldn't have been better as there is plenty of season left to get back to what the rockets need to do. which is being that one team that has a legit shot at taking out GS
