2016 NBA Playoffs WESTERN Conference Discussion

Also why is Stephen Curry so ice cold? He torched the regular season, now he can barely shoot 40%, like night and day.

 

Curry's been struggling when Durant switches on him, but it also seems like he's half a step slower than what he was in the regular season.

 

He won't admit it but his elbow is bothering him.

 

KD has done a phenomal job on him. His length has been really disruptive. I know the odds may be stacked against them, but I picked OKC in seven and I'm sticking by that. I just feel KD and Russ are gonna respond. Everything literally everything is on the line on Monday night. Impending free agency, their legacies, another Finals berth meanwhile Golden State obviously has the immense pressure of getting back to the Finals or having an all time great season being all for not. It's gonna be an epic game. What a series this has been. You had Klay's outburst in Game 6, Steph coming alive, Westbrook and Durant's struggles, just an epic comeback by the Warriors and now it's OKC's turn to respond.

 

If OKC is really that talented, then Westbrook and Durant shouldn't be averaging 40 minutes apiece in this series. Curry and Thompson aren't and they're the ones playing from behind. Curry didn't play more than 40 minutes in any game this series until last night in a must win game on the road. The Warriors have more talent in their backpocket to lean on.

 

It's the playoffs dude. Back when we were good Kobe would always play about the same amount of minutes. The Warriors may be deeper, but they haven't looked more talented in this series. When OKC actually plays the right way it's been a mismatch. It's like when we had Kobe and Shaq after them we had good depth, but they were deeper teams but having two alpha males gave us a decided advantage.

 

Apples and Oranges. Those Lakers squads played at a much slower pace, especially earlier in games with Bynum and Gasol on the floor. So even though Kobe played a lot of minutes, he wasn't running a rat race like Westbrook and Durant are doing right now. In the 2010 playoffs, Kobe never once shot more than 29 FGA's in a game. Durant has shot 30 or more FGA's 3 times in this series alone.

 

Don't see how it's apples to oranges when we're talking about minutes. OKC is also playing plenty of half court basketball and has imposed their will with their size and length and also Westbrook and Durant are younger than Kobe was and have far less mileage.

 

If there isn't much to debate how is OKC dominated the series Game 1-4? Give Golden State credit for fighting back, but if they have such a much better team this series would've been over already. These teams are neck and neck.

 

I'm debating it because that's what the series has told us. Golden State clearly isn't as deep as everyone thought and OKC is deeper than we all thought. Waiters, Roberson, Ibaka, Adams, Foye have all made big contributions. Golden State blew them out in Game 2 and barely eeked out wins in Game 6 and 5 so again tell me how the Warriors are so much better or deeper? There's no evidence that is the case. Yes OKC has two great players, but their role players have all stepped up and definitely weren't the reason for that epic choke job last night.

 

i felt like okc underachieved a bit during the regular season, and they look more like the team i expected in the postseason. gs has really overachieved for a couple years. they have a REALLY good #1 option, a very good (but somewhat inconsistent) #2 option, and a world-class glue guy. after that, they have two marginal centers, two very good swiss army knife sfs, an aging scoring guard (who's wildly inconsistent), and a bizarre giant, non-shooting floor general. oh, and a fat guy.

what i'm really trying to say is that gs is greater than the sum of its parts. there's some serious talent at the top (which is a must), but after that, they constructed a team that fits really well together. but if you just exported those pieces elsewhere, they may not look so great. livingston had a hard time finding a home for a while. barbosa has bounced around. speights was a bit of a laughing stock.

if okc wins a title, you'll have posts next year talking about how crucial it is to have an enes kanter and a dion waiters (!) and an andre roberson. guys who before this year might have made one snicker at the suggestion.

long story short: neither team's bench is actually all that great, but what matters is that the parts fit. gs's have for a couple years now. maybe okc's are starting to? maybe that's thanks to donovan?

 

What an intense game. It was like flashbacks to the Laker 3-peat battles in the Western conference vs SAC, POR & SAS. It really felt like the Playoffs & like something was on the line. Just great stuff to watch.

Adversity. Earlier this season Kobe was asked about the Warriors. If being this good was helpful or if it was going to hurt them come Playoffs. Kobe answered that the Warriors needed to face adversity. That only when a team faces & overcomes adversity against the odds are they ready to win a championship. Phil always talks about it along with other former Laker champions.

I think the Warriors just passed their adversity test.

 

The OKC that everyone knows and loves came out last night in crunch time. RW/KD couldn't have had any bigger case of sphincteritis. No way I want them in the Finals with that tendency.

 

I don't consider it choking if they lose to a better team. Just like the Lakers up 3-1 against the Suns.