And even though they lost to those teams, with CP3 they were still winning at a 70% clip. The only reason it was even close was due to a CP3 injury. Yes, if the odds are "the only way you can catch this team is via a significant injury". If healthy, you aren't going to surpass them. I'm right. You have to look no further than the Clippers record with CP3. And I repeat (which is how we got on this):
Sorry, but no one is going to agree with you that the odds of SAS overcoming a 4 game deficit to overtake GSW are the same as the odds of OKC overcoming a 1 game deficit to overtake LAC. Who cares if the Clippers with Paul were winning at a 70% rate? A healthy GSW was winning at an 85% rate.
Kawhi is fantastic and a top player but this is extremely knee jerk. Depending on the flavor of the month people rotate between saying durant/davis/leonard will be the best after lebron. There is only one lebron. And dont sleep on harden/curry. Those two are limitless offensively
I don't think I'll have trouble finding anyone who read our discourse from the start to now would disagree with me. But that's a good attempt to twist my words to something different.
Already answered in a post, but just also realized since Kawhi is missing tonight... the Spurs are already 4-1 without Kawhi. One would expect that to improve to 5-1 tonight. Wins against Phoenix, Portland, Brooklyn, Toronto, Kings (if tonight). Loss against Memphis. Last year they were 6-3 without him. Wins against Philadelphia twice (once by 51), Lakers, Suns, Grizzlies, Mavericks. Losses against Nuggets, Thunder, Clippers. The Spurs would still find a way to get to 50 wins without him. Again, not a knock on him. Just pointing out they're a good f'ing team. And Kawhi on the Kings is a much different Kawhi, even if he's still good.
Yeah....Pop only rests Kawhi when he thinks the Spurs can win w/o him. Btw, in those games, Portland was missing Lillard and Toronto was missing Derozan. So the 4-1 record is meaningless. Yeah, you're not going to be able to convince anyone of that. The last time Aldridge led a team to 50 wins was when he was with Portland (they won 51). That team also featured Lillard, Wes Matthews, Batum, and Robin Lopez. The effectiveness of a system depends on the talent level of the players in that system. It's like with the NFL. How successful have Belichick's disciples been?
The only reason SA has a chance to catch GS is because Duran got hurt. The only reason the Clippers fell out of top 4 seeding is because CP3 got hurt.
The old build em up so we can tear them down technique. If Kawhi does make it past this series, the Warriors are going to give him hell and then you'll see the knee jerk pendulum swing back to him being overrated.
