And that one quarter was after spending a ton of energy getting out of the hole we dug ourselves into to begin with.
without KD their offense takes a slight hit, but they can still outscore us with the plash bro's alone. their defense takes a big hit with KD not rim protecting I think harden, Paul, and gordon can finish in the paint a little more. KD is also really good on the perimeter and closing out on shooters. could lead to some extra drives and shots. I'd be more worried about defense if I were the warriors. I also think their rotation shortens up. they probably start curry-klay-iggy-dray-looney with livingston-mckinnie and maybe jerebko or bell? can't play Bogut or cook because they'll get roasted on D. probably goes got jerebko too. I think the increased role for Steph will just mean less legs to go 1:1, shoot, and play D... Iggy and Livingston are old and banged up so its gonna be hard for them to go 35 minutes. looney isn't used to that amount of playing time. the whole thing is very interesting all of a sudden. I don't underestimate them. they are a 73 win championship team without KD, but I'm starting to see some opportunities to win.
With our switching D those ball screen cuts don’t work as well as against other teams that’s why curry has trouble against us. We have proof and even curry has admitted that it does effect there free flowing offense so if curry says it I believe it. Obviously he’s gonna get some looks but I think if you trap him and make him pass it out of double teams he’s way less effective because he’s careless with his passes. They get a lot TOs because they pass a lot and our switching disrupts their flow. I honestly think there offenseis screwed they don’t have enough scorers. Their d will be good but there going to have trouble scoring jmo.
Iggy was already averaging 35 minutes this series prior to KD going down. So they don’t even have the option of throwing him out there a crazy amount of minutes to cover for KD being out. The rest of what you said is spot on. It should also help us a bit on the boards. If they play Livingston more we can go small with Tucker at the 5 and Rivers in and actually not get killed on the boards...
Plus they’re now going to have three players who can’t shoot on the floor at all times. You can basically leave them open behind the 3 PT line. Not that I like doing or watching this but if Curry/Klay get hot and start knocking down threes like crazy we could always see if Iguodala can make both free throws. If he starts bricking then who’s Kerr going to bring in now?
Everyone is talking about curry and klay going off and imo even if they combine for 50+ I still think it will be hard for them to score even 100 points. Let’s say curry gets 30 and klay 25 that’s 55 points. Your basically asking iggy and green to combine for 35 points and then looney and the others to get 15+ points. I can see curry and klay getting 55 points combined but I don’t see iggy and green getting 35 combined and I def don’t see looney and those other guys off the bench combining for 15+ points let alone 20. It’s going to be really hard for them to score going forward. Not to mention our D is going to be laser locked into curry and klay. They might get theirs but they will have to work really hard to do it. At home is see us really putting a beating on them. If we knock down 15+ threes this game will be a blowout in our favor.
29-4 without him sine kd joined. Still same 3 all stars + 1 fmvp was on that 2015 title team and 2016 73 win team. This will be FAR from easy to pull off
Exactly, which is why I do not buy the narrative that the Rockets have no excuse if they lose. The Warriors lost 2 All-Stars and can still win a chip.
Also people forget that Iggy was an All Star in 2012 (before GS sure, but still in his career). Four All Stars (current and past), a regular season MVP, a Finals MVP, 3 championships (1 w/o Durant) and a 73-9 season. The Warriors are loaded. The Rockets have to not underestimate them, but also know that they have one true advantage: their bench. Tire Klay/Curry out, put Draymond in foul trouble, force Klay/Curry inside, utilize that bench, and rebound from beginning to end. The rest of the chips will fall where they may.
Question.....do any other players come off the bench with KD gone or do we still run with Shump, Rivers, NeNe and Green?
It's funny you replied to me saying this, ironically I just got off the phone with my buddy and he made the same point about even if Curry and Klay go for 30 each, where are they going to get the rest of their scoring from?
What you've listed here is true, but it doesn't address my point. I'm not going to nitpick at our achievements/failures back and forth with you. I made a subjective statement, that we play more to our potential when we are under dogs. I don't understand why Vegas odds would even factor into that btw. It literally matters. I think what you mean to say is that it's not entirely reflective of the current situation, which it doesn't have to be to have this discussion. 29-4 is statistically significant. Even if they are 20% worse now, it would be 23-10 and that is a monstrous record to have without your highest paid player. The record is from 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. It's 33 games, with shuffling teammates, changing opponents. The Warriors have a point differential of over 16 points when Durant, Curry, Klay and Green are on the floor >> this is an all-time insane kind of number, rarely achieved. They have a point differential of almost 15 with Curry, Klay and Green regardless of who else is on the floor. You said they'll miss his rebounding, I pointed out that he's having a horrible rebounding series. Livingston won't be playing KD's minutes, it will most likely be some combination of Jerebko/Bogut/Bell and all 3 of those guys will outrebound Durant easily. It is taking a three point threat off the court and should make defense easier for us in theory. In practice, every fan goes into a game against a Curry-led team thinking their team will do that, and it rarely works. Maybe you've been watching Harden too long, but Curry is not going to come up and iso and then wait around if it doesn't work out. I think the opponent is 5% worse off, and the Rockets might think this team is 20% weaker than the first 5 games. That's a psychologically dangerous place to be in.
How would Vegas odds not factor into that...how else do we define underdogs here then? I just don't understand why you think "we play more to our potential as underdogs" and why anyone believes the Rockets will take anything for granted and not go out there and give 1000% these next two games. They aren't sitting around texting each other saying "we got this locked up now that KD out". If you want to sell my on any psychological benefit of KD being out it's GS players like Draymond and Klay are going to be extra motivated to show and remind everyone they're stars and whoever Kerr chooses to replace those minutes is a huge unknown and could randomly go off. And hopefully you are just throwing out hypothetical %'s and not really saying you think they are only 5% worse off without KD.
