Bucks, Lakers and Clippers have not looked better than us without Westbrook. Are any of these teams going to reach Warriors levels? Even pre-Durant? Even peak Cavs? The competition has seriously evened out, and Harden has never been very far from the Finals. Maybe someone can claim they've been as good, but we've been almost dominant against a better opponent than any of them is facing. Thunder have a better record than Mavs, Magic, Blazers. Thunder were apparently the team we really DIDN'T want to face but we're competing fine without Westbrook. We clearly don't have enough juice to sustain this with $35m sitting on the bench, but it's a great show of character thus far. I think if Russ scored 20 efficient points plus 10/10/2 and effort on defense, it would be enough for Harden to bring home the title. I don't think we need Russ to put up 30, which imo is our #1 risk. Gordon can then drastically reduce his volume and improve his efficiency too. We've needed him to shoot way too much. This drop in usage is also going to make Harden more potent in 4th quarters. If Westbrook doesn't come crashing in with a ton of mid rangers, who is going to add a more important piece than Westbrook from this point forward? I think we are legitimately on pace to win a title. Am I crazy?
Would have been better suited before Game 3 loss. I don’t think it’s fair to say once we get Russ we’ll be THAT much better. Our role players were fantastic games 1 and 2. They could do the same or could stink with Russ returning, no fault to him. I think Raps come out of the East. I still think Clippers come out of the West. I did always believe we could beat the Lakers, but I’ll hold out on making that claim now until I see if we take care of business against OKC. We did have a tendency to fall into a funk after we lose a game this season. It’s a necessity that doesn’t happen here and we win this series in max 6 games.
It's dangerous to extrapolate too much from the regular season, especially this one. We have a chance, but I wouldn't say we're the favorite.
I agree with the caveat that we gotta be a bit smarter or luckier.... 2013 okc 2014 blazers spurs and even gsw as well as the latest L all of the playoffs exits in hardens career here almost all could have been avoided with a sprinkle of smarter play by harden or the teammates I remember being down 2 vs 3 in the series vs okc in 2013 having a small lead or a small deficit down the stretch with couple of minutes to go....and harden ruined it all by allowing to be stopped by derek fischer of all people in transition(!) 2-3 times in a row by commiting unforced turnovers....just cant do that
I'm extrapolating almost nothing from the regular season, I consider everything post Capela injury to be our season, and the sample is small and inconsistent. I think there's a lot of unknown, but there are good signs about the unknowns of what this team can achieve. Is it unreasonable to guesstimate from the post microball record that we might have been competing for the #1 seed if it were in place for a whole season? I really don't.
Thought about it, but I thought I'd wait for a loss because I wanted to see what it would take for us to lose. Takes a lot it turns out lol. Harden has to foul out, you have to have the best Harden defender of all time, your best line up must click and we have to shoot very poorly. I think we're showing signs of a team similar to 2018. In fact, I don't think we had as much offensive options that year, but we may have been better defensively when Moute was healthy.
If we had the "buy in" to microball, especially on the defensive in, IMO we are the top 2 seeds (Bucks @ 1)
I like our chances better if we don't face the Lakers who have the refs and league on our side. I like our chances better if Portland gets cold from the 3 and we get red hot if we play them.
we all saw what happened starting in game 1 vs GS last year. have to believe silver not gonna let LAL go out in the 2nd round
i agree that this current team firing on all cylinders can be really good, at it seems like we generate an open or semi-open 3 on almost every possession, but 2018 was an unbelievable team. i think i and all of us sometimes underrate just how crazy that team was because we ended up losing. we were better than the majority of champions throughout league history and maybe a significant majority at that. not only did we win 65 in the regular season, i think we were either 50-3 or 50-4 when harden, cp3, and capela played. at full strength, we were legit dominant in a way not many teams have ever been. to have the defense we had while also having the number 1 offense. and honestly, the warriors modern ability to neutralize capela probably understates our dominance relative to historical champions for whom we would have probably had an answer to almost everything they did. the fact that, at the moment chris paul's hamstring snapped, we were odds on favorites to beat a 4 HOF'er juggernaut that was thought unbeatable just 5 months before, that is still brought up as maybe the most talented team ever, and that was basically on par with any all-time great team, is still incredible to me.
The style of play is too unique and extreme to be able to assert with any confidence what the playoff success might be, in my opinion. All I can say is we have a shot, and we are capable of beating any team.
I'm not on this train yet. I predicted a 6-GM series vs OKC. If the Rockets prove me wrong here and do 5-GM series which we can, then I'll be 60% on the chip train. The other 40% is purely on how good we can close out a 5-GM series against this OKC team. We have to bring it on almost every night like this to have a chance against the teams we will face.
The Rockets crushed OKC in Games 1 & 2 without Russ and took them to overtime in Game 3 despite the refs, not playing anywhere near their best on either end, and Harden, EG, Austin, PJ & Ben going something like 6-for-32 from 3. That won't happen often.
