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Hawks can win the east as they showed through their latest stretch man handhandling the wiz bulls raptors. They have also beaten cleveland twice. If GS meets the Spurs, okc they are toast.
Both teams are undeniably playing one of the best and most unselfish basketball in the league. They're not padding their records against lightweights too with both scoring and defending in the Top 10 levels.
Well coached, roster depth, balance attacks, elite defensive presence and a strong leader on the sidelines. The standards they set are usually reserved for championship contending teams.
Do you see any of the lower seed teams upsetting them in the playoffs?
Hawks can win the east as they showed through their latest stretch man handhandling the wiz bulls raptors. They have also beaten cleveland twice. If GS meets the Spurs, okc they are toast.
Hawks can win the East if they avoid Detroit/Chicago until the ECF, and seeing as Washington matches up well with either there's there's a decent chance match ups will fall their way. In the West the Dubs have just too many bad match ups and they rely on an injury-prone Center to be a real contender, so I just don't see them making it past the WCF.
I thought ATL is 2-0 against Detroit so far? Don't think they're a threat.
Not likely. Spurs are winning the West.
Hawks don't really have any compe ion in the East, tbh..the Bulls are the only other realistic choice, but they have the declining Rose/Noah cancers bringing them down IMO..the Wizards/Raptors are the definition of pretenders, the Pistons aren't actually a notable team, etc..the Cavs are obviously a wildcard, but they're extremely flawed..
Warriors are gonna have to potentially go through OKC in round 1, Memphis or Dallas in round 2, and the Spurs in round 3..in addition to a rookie coach never winning a championship in NBA history(IIRC) and the Bogut factor..
I think PED version of Lebron is good enough to will the Cavs to a victory against the Hawks other than them I honestly don't see anyone else beating Atlanta. Thibs is rumored to be losing his locker room and Noah is not 100%, Chicago is probably out early in the second round.
I'm not a huge fan of Golden State. Obviously Kerr is doing wonderful things in Golden State but teams like the Spurs or OKC can outclass them in the playoffs. There's just something about the Warriors offense that screams "choke" come playoff time. I don't want to go into details now, but will when I have ample time.
They were both close games (today's game was up for grabs until late in the fourth). Detroit has a pretty good coach, an elite frontline, and athletes. If they can control the paint and rebounds it'll keep them on any game.
It's funny though, GSW are doing the the right things as Atlanta is doing and they are still not considered as championship level just because they are a direct rival of the Spurs. They're playing defense, they're sharing the ball, they're winning games and we're coming up with things like "oh my God they're not gonna make it anywhere; they're relying on an injury-prone center". While on the other hand, just because a former Spurs coach is coaching the Hawks, people are going "omg they're going to the finals", "class" and "Spurs East!!!"... Not saying GSW are going all the way but the way the Dubs are being constantly being put down makes me want to puke.
You don't think that last bit has anything to do with the fact Atlanta is playing with the exact style that won the Spurs a championship last year?...
Sharing the ball and hitting the three is a Spurs exclusive now? I watched how the Spurs decimated the Heat last year and I see the same with how the Hawks and the Warriors are playing this season so far.
The Hawks are playing with the "good to great" philosophy while not one player is separated as the alpha on the team. Meanwhile in Golden State its clearly the Curry and Thompson show. Shut down those two and the Dubs are ed, while shutting down Teague and Horford in Atlanta just means Korver or Millsap take over.
ZERO likelihood
Beg to disagree. I believe that people like Speights, Iggy, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green and their bench could help in the days wherein Steph and Klay are off or heavily guarded. Just because the two are the main attractions of the team doesn't mean that the rest of their supporting cast are patsies. The same goes for Atlanta. Shut down one or two players and another one will pick up the slack.
Only team that stands a chance vs gsw is the spurs. Gsw make Ibaka useless by playing small on offense and he is unable to punish them in the post. Okc just had fluke win vs gsw but they can't maintain that performance in a 7 gm series.
Atlanta has a good chance of getting beat. Their talent isn't overwhelming so a few teams can give them a run for their money.
Spurs rely on an injury prone SF and PG to be a contender so I'm thinking that's not really a good excuse.
I agree that the only teams that could beat Golden State are the Spurs(match up perfectly) and I think Memphis could beat them, too..if Bogut is out, though, then anybody in the West can beat them(using the Bogut "if" works, in this case, as he's one of the most injury prone big men in recent history)..
I don't think the difference between the 2 teams is the connection to the Spurs, the difference is that one of them plays in the East, where the only other "expected" contenders have chemistry and on-court issues(Bulls and Cavs)..
Some Spurs fans are still stuck in 2013.
Iggy to an extent can, but he's overrated especially at this stage of his career. The rest of those players rely on Curry and Thompson to generate open looks for them. I wanna see how Livingston looks before I completely write them off, but the vast majority of their personnel are spot up shooters/slashers/defenders.
I'll put it this way:
Atlanta = 2014 Spurs
Dubs = 2013 Spurs
You said the GSW weren't contenders. Now, you're saying the only team that could beat them is the Spurs? You're making it sound like the Warriors should be the favorites.
¿Garantizan espalda con espalda para sus Spurs?
Dubs have yet to go through any adversity, and they're not going to win the 69 games they're on pace to win. Let's see how they react when they go on a losing streak or losing a key cog for a period of time before crowning them WC champs...
I didn't think they were contenders during the off-season and during the first half of November, I have to give them respect now, though..preseason predictions are largely meaningless, a lot changes during the season, I can't ignore the level they're currently playing at and their style of play with Kerr..
They aren't contenders without Bogut, though, who has only played in 48% of the available games in the past 4-5 years IIRC..their best player is a PG, too, which hasn't led to a championship in over 20 years of NBA basketball..
A healthy Spurs team is the only real contender in the West, realistically, but they can't seem to stay healthy..
Warriors aren't a two man team. That no weak links really on the offensive end. At the same time they great team defense. Even on the individual level they don't have Tony Parker and Marco level defenders playing big minutes.
Their team defense is extremely reliant on 2 players, tbh, one of them being Bogut..
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