[Western Conference Semifinals] (1)Golden State vs. (5)Portland

i mean you've got barkley trying to say this might be better than lebron's 29 out of 30 game. really? conference finals against a favored opponent that was a veteran team that played great D and no one on your team is worth guarding and you still score 29 out of 30? and this game is better?

 

Man I can't stand the Warriors! Cavaliers, Spurs, anybody...please! Most annoying team ever!

 

Gotta throw some Respeck on this Blazer team.

****ing shameful that Olshey did not win executive of the year. That **** is more egregious than the horrific officiating in these playoffs...and that's saying something.

 

Honestly what this series is lacking is physicality. Warriors don't look like they're getting worn out at all, and I was hoping for that.

 

The game was one of the best I've seen with 30sec left in the 4th, curry put the cherry on it

 

It's easy and all to get excited because it is right now and it's from three with amazing dribbling skills. Injury game. Etc. without a doubt unreal sick amazing offensive basketball.

It should be noted... However... This is what all time greats do. Lebron 29 points in a row. Hakeem vs Robinson. MJ so many times.

And that's not a slight to Steph. He's in that group now of guys who have just hit unreal mode.

The only thing you'd say is all the three guys mentioned above were better defenders too whereas Draymond and Klay were the ones killing it defensively. But Steph isn't bad. And his offense is just unreal.

 

their current gm became the gm after they drafted curry and was only an assistant gm when they drafted klay.

 

That's probably going to take a couple of months

 

u hate the Warriors for absolutely no reason whatsoever. u should love them like the rest of country now that Rockets are out

there's no reason for us to dislike Warriors because we have no historic rivalry or geographic rivalry

dis was definitely da best playoff performance OF ALL TIME like everyone across the country is saying, except u. admit it muhaha

 

GM ain't no genius.

He tried to trade Curry for Bogut. Bucks wanted Monta

He tried to trade Klay and Green for Love. Kerr and West said I quit if you do that trade.

And Curry was drafted by a different GM.

 

if you're gonna use these things as arguments at least get it right. It was a different GM that considered trading curry for bogut.

he never wanted to trade clay AND green for love. he considered klay and maybe barnes for love.

stop spewing crap

 

If GS wins the title you will hear and read about this game forever.

 

Actually you're right to tell him about the GM, but actually, he's wrong either way. Larry Riley never considered trading Steph Curry for Bogut. There have been many articles coming out about that trade. It was never Steph OR Monta. It was only ever Monta, though there are those trying to claim it was either one, when it actuality, it never was offered.

 

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Steph Curry's 17 points is the most in any overtime game, regular season or playoffs</p>&mdash; Marcus Thompson (@ThompsonScribe) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThompsonScribe/status/729913038153752578">May 10, 2016</a></blockquote>
<script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

i hope not. it was a 2-1 game against an overmatched opponent. that everyone would still expect them to beat handily even if portland won this game. i'm guessing even someone who got deity treatment like jordan has like 10 games like this that no one even knows about. i guess i don't get why it's so surprising that he hit tough 3's. he's done it all year. maybe i just expect it now so it doesn't seem that great. or at least, it seems great, just not "we will be talking about this for a long time" great. like durant scoring 41 against an all-time great spurs defense yesterday. it just seems normal for guys at that level.

 

Draymond Green and Bogut get away with so much crap it makes me sick! If this game was officiated fairly.. Blazers win in a blowout! I'm not jealous...it's about the integrity of the game. The NBA is ruining basketball propping up the Warriors. When you allow one team to play a certain way and not allow other teams to do the same, that's cheating! The NBA has always favored certain teams, but with the Warriors it's on another level. I understand they changed the way the call screens to favor Warriors but they're not consistent. It should be the same for all teams!

 

No, they offered Curry. Bucks wanted Monta.

the owner himself said he would have traded Curry for Bogut, but Bucks didn't want Curry




http://journaltimes.com/sports/bask...cle_6a9c8ba2-77fe-5d6f-a009-1b57861ad0fe.html

If you’re a member of Bucks Nation, this story will almost make you want to cry.

Saturday night, the Bucks will host the white-hot Golden State Warriors at the BMO Harris Bradley Center in downtown Milwaukee. The Warriors have reeled off a remarkable 24 consecutive victories to start the season after having won the NBA championship last season.

You can go to the bank the Warriors wouldn’t have accomplished those feats without the superlative play of their dynamic backcourt of Steph Curry and Klay Thompson.

Curry is the league’s reigning Most Valuable Player and the game’s most entertaining player with his dizzying array of shots.

Thompson is an exceptional player in his own right. He is coming off an All-Star season and is an exceptional perimeter shooter who, like Curry, can unleash a barrage of points at any time. Case in point: Last January in a game against the Sacramento Kings, Thompson staged one of the most incredible scoring performances in NBA history.

Thompson scored 52 points in that game which, alone, is quite impressive. But he also erupted for 37 points in one quarter, connecting on all 13 of his shots from the field and all nine 3-point attempts.

“I flew back (to his home in Los Angeles) after the game and, honestly, I couldn’t go to sleep,’’ said legendary Los Angeles Lakers guard Jerry West, now an executive assistant for the Warriors. “I was replaying in my own mind what I had just witnessed. It was incredible to watch.

“It’s something no one’s watched, to be honest with you. The people that were fortunate to be there saw something that’s probably not going to happen for a long, long time … if it ever happens again.’’

But Thompson’s game for the ages might have never occurred if he had been drafted by Milwaukee. Going into the 2011 NBA draft, Thompson was generally regarded as a late-lottery selection. He worked out for several teams, including the Bucks.

Before his workout in Milwaukee, Thompson auditioned for the New York Knicks. Thompson told me at his Bucks’ workout that then Knicks’ director of basketball operations Joseph “Donnie’’ Walsh compared him favorably to Hall of Fame shooting guard Reggie Miller, whom Walsh drafted while general manager for the Indiana Pacers in 1987.

The Bucks had the 11th overall pick and definitely needed a long-range shooter like Thompson. But the Bucks brass of owner Herb Kohl, general manager John Hammond and coach Scott Skiles determined they needed immediate help and coveted an established veteran.

So, the Bucks moved their pick as part of a three-team transaction. The Bucks acquired Stephen Jackson, Shaun Livingston and the draft rights to Tobias Harris from Charlotte and Beno Udrih from Sacramento. Milwaukee also sent Corey Maggette to Charlotte and John Salmons and draft rights to Jimmer Fredette (who was picked 10th) to Sacramento. Thompson was selected 11th by Golden State.

The central figure in the deal for the Bucks was Jackson, a hard-nose, nice, all-around player who wanted out of Charlotte after his request for a contract extension was denied.

At his initial press conference in Milwaukee, Jackson reiterated to The Journal Times that he wanted an extension from the Bucks and he wanted it “now.’’

It never happened.

Acquiring Jackson proved to be a disastrous move for the Bucks. He played only 26 games for them– starting just 13 -- while averaging 10.5 points.

He also butted heads with Skiles and became a major distraction for the team. The Bucks, realizing their mistake, moved quickly to cut their losses.

On March 14, 2012, they convinced Golden State to take Jackson as part of a package deal that also included highly-regarded center Andrew Bogut. In return, the Bucks obtained Monta Ellis, Ekpe Udoh and Kwame Brown.

While Bogut was the quality center the Warriors desperately craved, Ellis was clearly the central figure in the deal for the Bucks. An explosive shooting guard, Ellis, the Bucks’ hierarchy was convinced, could make an instant impact and take the team to new heights. They firmly believed their backcourt of the future was set, with Ellis pairing with young point guard Brandon Jennings.

But the Ellis-Jennings’ tandem never meshed. They were both look to score-first, look to score-second guards. What’s more, despite having lockers next to each other, they were hardly best of friends. In fact, some of their teammates said Ellis and Jennings seldom spoke to each other.

By acquiring Ellis, the Bucks brass played it safe. Ellis was an apparent “sure thing’’, someone with an established track record as a scorer -- he averaged 25.5 and 24.1 points in his two previous seasons with the Warriors -- even though he never had an All-Star appearance on his resume.

If the Bucks hadn't been so conservative, they would have instead acquired Curry, whom the Bucks scouting department was enamored with when he entered the 2009 draft and was taken as the seventh overall selection by Golden State.

Unlike some teams, the Bucks scouting department wasn’t overly concerned that Curry played at a small college -- Davidson -- and that he was a so-called ‘’tweener’’ as a 6-foot-3 guard.

But the Bucks were concerned about Curry's ankles. He underwent surgery on his right ankle to repair torn ligaments in May of 2011. The following March, he had season-ending surgery on the same ankle.

So, with Curry having ankle issues and with Ellis seemingly entering the prime of a potentially-great career, the Bucks opted for Ellis, who was a huge fan favorite in the Bay Area.

“I’m getting chills talking about (Ellis) right now,’’ Warriors owner Joe Lacob said in an interview after the Ellis-Bogut centered deal. “He’s one of my favorite players in the NBA. Anyone who thinks otherwise is crazy. I feel strongly about him.

“It was incredibly difficult to trade him, but he’s the piece it had to be to get Andrew Bogut. We would have traded either (Curry or Ellis) to take the next step for this franchise.’’

And one is only left to wonder what kind of step the Bucks might have taken if they, and not the Warriors, had Curry and Thompson today.

 

http://www.sportingnews.com/nba-new...-trade-monta-ellis-andrew-bogut-stephen-curry

Published on Mar. 18, 2012

Some took the Golden State Warriors’ move to trade Monta Ellis in an effort to get Andrew Bogut as a vote of confidence in point guard Stephen Curry.

Warriors owner Joe Lacob turned that theory on its ear in an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, when he admitted the team was also willing to trade Curry for Bogut.

Lacob said it was a tough decision to move Ellis, a player he has grown fond of. He also mentioned Curry and said the team would have moved either player to get the deal done.

“I’m getting chills talking about (Ellis) right now,” Lacob said. “He’s one of my favorite players in the NBA. Anyone who thinks otherwise is crazy. I feel very strongly about him. It was incredibly difficult to trade him, but he’s the piece it had to be to get Andrew Bogut. We would have traded either (Curry or Ellis) to take the next step for this franchise.”

Ellis spent six seasons with the Warriors after being drafted out of high school in the second round of the 2005 NBA Draft. He was the Warriors’ most productive player for much of that time, including scoring averages of 25.5 points and 24.1 in the 2009-10 and ’10-11 seasons.

In Curry, the team found a point guard to complement Ellis and the Warriors’ up-and-down style of play. But injuries have called his position with the team into question. Curry has aggravated his surgically repaired right ankle on multiple occasions, and there has been talk the Warriors might rest him for the remainder of the season.

 

http://www.cbssports.com/nba/eye-on...y-west-kerr-prevented-thompson-trade-for-love

Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group transcribed a radio interview with Klay Thompson's father, who said that owner Joe Lacob and GM Bob Myer wanted to trade Thompson for then-Minnesota-Timberwolves forward Kevin Love, but front office advisor Jerry West and coach Steve Kerr "took (Thompson) off the table."

Thompson was involved in months of trade talks about being dealt for Love, and initially it looked like the trade was a foregone conclusion. But suddenly word came out that the Warriors were resisting including Thompson for Love, and then it became an absolute that he wouldn't be traded.

That opened the door for the Cavaliers to swoop in with a superior offer of Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett. Thompson is set for a massive extension this fall, and if not, a huge new deal in restricted free agency. After all, how are the Warriors going to manage leverage when they weren't willing to give Thompson up for Kevin Love?

This will go down as one of the bigger non-deals in league history, and how it's remembered will either prove the Warriors to be geniuses or fools, because that's how hindsight works. Meanwhile, it should be noted that according to Thompson's father, West and Kerr apparently have the power to veto, or at least convince management and ownership not to do something. That's got to be a little concerning, and it doesn't really fit with what we know of Lacob, a hands-on owner. How this all shakes out will be interesting to watch.

 

Steph Curry: Legend