the reason the warriors are going to break the record is they have been extremely lucky in close games. the 72-10 bulls had 3 one point losses as they finished the season 18-3. the warriors just don't lose close games, whether they are making a play, someone on their team who shouldn't make a play makes a play, the other team doesn't make a play. the sheer amount of things that have gone right to get them seemingly every close win is amazing. i mean getting kevin durant to throw it away instead of make a simple pass or call a timeout. then even after that requiring the refs to make an AMAZINGLY generous foul call, on the road, on kevin durant, against andre iguodala, with iguodala obviously leaning in and trying to draw contact, with durant making minimal contact even with the lean in. if anyone can honestly say they think durant gets that call against iguodala on that same play against this warriors team, i suspect they know they are lying to themselves. and then iguodala, a known terrible free throw shooter (in the clutch as well so it's not like he makes them when it counts) makes both. that's just the kind of sequence you might get once every couple of seasons. but they've probably gotten it 2 or 3 times just this season (one other being a game against brooklyn where iguodala had to hit an off the dribble 3 to tie it and then brook lopez misses literally a 2 foot alley-oop tip in at the buzzer). and when you blow everyone out, that leads to 53-5 records. add in the fact that they have "phoenix suns training staff" health and have a guy who has seemingly made 3 leaps forward in one offseason from "maybe the best shooter of all time" to "guy who can literally make any shot no matter how well defended or how difficult" and there has basically not been anything like this. this is just lightning in a bottle from a team that was a 6th seed 2 seasons ago.
Curry best shooter of all time smh, that **** was crazy. But yea before I consider him top 20 of all time he needs at least one finals MVP IMO, he will probably get it this year though.
That was in OKC, though, at the end of a long road trip. What percentage chance would you put on the Thunder winning 4 out of 7 games against the Warriors, during the playoffs when the Warriors are more dialed-in and rested? And with the Warriors being at home for 4 of those games? I put it at somewhere between 0% and 1%. Beating elite teams on the road is always highly impressive, no matter how close it is.
Really? Nobody going to hit us with a "KD gets over losses too easily." comment? I'm disappointed in all of you.
It's way too early to crown him, sure. But it's fun to speculate on how he'll be considered if he keeps this level up. Basically, he's playing at an inner circle, all-time level right now. If he suddenly regresses or suffers injuries that cuts short his career, he can't be considered in the top 10/20, etc. But if he keep this up for a normal career length span (with normal age-related decline) where will he be? It's an interesting question.
You feel that their close game wins are lucky. I just call it Stephen curry. I happened to watch the end if their Denver loss (cos i check the box score and it's interesting when they're losing), even when the score near the end seemed to be unfavorable, u would get a curry 35 footer out of nowhere, and steal, and then a chance to win the game. You really thought they'd still win it despite being up 5 late! That just shows the players on the team has supreme confidence being able to win no matter what, so they still put in full effort here and there, eventually it adds up. Down 20 becomes up 5... When curry can hit from 35ft any time, the rest of the players feel they can only do everything else to fill in. That's called instilling confidence by the MVP.
Things are never created equal in the regular season, the Thunder are an elite team too and they will also be well rested and dialed in. I guess we'll see, but just like last year I expect their playoff games to be a lot more competitive than their regular season games ever were.
Yeah, you've implied before that the Warriors weren't dominant in the playoffs last year, but that's completely wrong. They had a point differential of nearly 8 PPG. Sure, that was a couple points shy of their regular season point differential of 10, but their regular season point differential was historic. An 8 PPG point differential would often lead the league in the regular season...it's an incredible point differential in the playoffs, when you don't get any games against the Lakers, 76ers, Kings, etc. I assume you focus on the fact that they actually lost some games in the playoffs when you think that the Warriors struggled...but the fact is, they pretty much blew teams out when they didn't lose. And that was a worse Warriors team than this one. And I'm sure the Thunder will be more dialed-in and rested, but equivalent focus and rest favors the better team, which the Warriors have pretty conclusively proven they are to this point. I don't think the Warriors will crush the Thunder in a playoff series, but there's little to suggest that the Thunder can beat the Warriors 4 out of 7 with four of those games being in Oakland. The Warriors didn't kill the Thunder tonight, but beating them in their arena at the end of a long road trip is still sending a message.
Yes because in the end wins and losses mean more than point differential. Rockets didn't have a great point differential last year and made it to the WCF by winning games. I didn't even consider point differential and never will. I didn't say the Warriors struggled but they didn't coast or anything close to it. They were in some games that the ball bounces this way or that they lose. Hell the Rockets get a lucky bounce and they are up 2-0 against the Warriors. Tonight was one of those games and so was their last one against OKC actually. The ball may bounce OKC's way and it may be on a road game. Saying you give OKC 1% maximum is saying the Warriors are invincible. We'll see, my guess is if they have to play OKC and SAS in the playoffs they will both be 6 or 7 game series and each of those games will be decided in the last 4 mins or so. In that time previous stats such as those don't matter. It becomes gut check time and those teams with those players have proven that they can rise up to that challenge before.
<iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/157006504" width="500" height="500" frameborder="0" webkitallowfullscreen mozallowfullscreen allowfullscreen></iframe> <p><a href="https://vimeo.com/157006504">Steph's In Town</a> from <a href="https://vimeo.com/user44640352">I3artow i3aller</a> on <a href="https://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.</p>
Er, except that by wins and losses, the Warriors are gigantically superior to the Thunder. Check their records. By wins and losses between the Warriors and Thunder, the Warriors are far superior, batting 1.000 against them. Your entire case that the Thunder are actually pretty close to the Warriors rests entirely on point differential in the two games they've played. So, I guess point differential matters to you when it's convenient. Because, by wins and losses, there's no argument that the Thunder are close to the Warriors.
NBA Game Action gonna turn into I hate Harden thread as well? Nothing wrong with believing in yourself.
Except that championships aren't won by records. Bad point to make there. They don't hand out the trophy at the end of the regular season. Batting 1.000? So, explain to me what happened in the LAC-Houston series last year? Every year people bring up Regular season record (Team X is 3-1 against Team Y) and every year it proves to not matter at all because of regular season variables really. No, point differential doesn't matter to me. Period. Otherwise I wouldn't even consider the Spurs in this conversation since they didn't look too hot against the Warriors. After years of this stuff though I've come to realize that the Regular seasosn is all about matchups and seedings. Had the Rockets played the Spurs well tonight and then say played the Thunder well and other elite teams well through the rest of the season. Their record then doesn't matter. It only matters if they can match up against who they play in the playoffs. Look, playoff games between great teams are won in the last 5 minutes of game often times. The point is and has always been this. The Thunder were in BOTH games, had a shot fallen here or there or a ball bounced here or there. This was the narrative last year. "Whose going to beat the Warriors at home?!" and their championship run was so unconvincing that everyone called it a fluke and put that chip on their shoulder. Again, playoffs are about match ups and seeding. The Thunder have proved that they can match with this team. Just because a team has never lost on their home court doesn't mean they never will. Come on now, sports don't work like that. In the end should these two teams meet it's going to be between Durant/Westbrook and Curry in those final 5 minutes and anything can happen, which is why it should be a fantastic series.
People forgot that this is the last of the 7 road games, they played back to back on Wed & Thur, you could clearly see GSW players were fatigued with many missing layups. Don't forget that Bogut only played limited minutes due to the injury to Ezli, and Curry had to go out with the ankle injury. You add all those together, I'd say it's more likely the GSW will play better than the OKC next time.
You is right. Warriors are the healtiest and luckiest team in the NBA. They ain't even that good!! SWAG CHAMP
Okc gave that game away. But yeah, I don't know how you guard curry anymore, the guy is out of his mind right now. I've never seen anything like this.
I'm glad someone here has some sense on this board. People praise Kobe for being a badass mofo when he gets injured but still plays the rest of the game. Curry does the same, carries his team on his back to keep the score close, broke some NBA records, did a 40-foot clutch gamewinner in OKC homecourt after a long road trip and still gets called "lucky". The hate is unreal.
