Golden State Warriors

[SpursFan86]

The problem with them being obsessed with 70 wins now is if the coaching staff is going to rest players like Curry for games. Is Curry going to go down with a injury if they are obsessed with playing every game to keep the streak alive? I still believe the Spurs are a better team in a series.

Who is saying they're obsessed with 70 wins? The media? I feel like you're just assuming the Warriors are "obsessed" with that because the media keeps talking about the possibility of it.

Anyways, they have a young team and they've done a pretty good job of limiting minutes. Curry is leading the team with 35.6 mpg, Draymond is in 2nd with 33.7 mpg, and Klay/Barnes are both playing 31 mpg. Everyone else on the team is below 30 mpg. It's not like they're running the team into the ground by playing the entire starting lineup 38 mpg.

[FromWayDowntown]

Who is saying they're obsessed with 70 wins? The media? I feel like you're just assuming the Warriors are "obsessed" with that because the media keeps talking about the possibility of it.

Anyways, they have a young team and they've done a pretty good job of limiting minutes. Curry is leading the team with 35.6 mpg, Draymond is in 2nd with 33.7 mpg, and Klay/Barnes are both playing 31 mpg. Everyone else on the team is below 30 mpg. It's not like they're running the team into the ground by playing the entire starting lineup 38 mpg.

I don't think they're obsessed with 70 wins. I think they are determined to have HCA again throughout the playoffs and as long as Cleveland, San Antonio, and a handful of others are close, they'll play to win on pretty much every night. If it takes 70 wins to get there, they'll make a run at it. If they can get HCA with 64 or 65 wins, I don't think they'll kill themselves to get to 70.

And for what it's worth, I suspect that Pop knows he's got to try to put some distance between his team and the rest of the Western pack and is going to be playing to win much more this season than he has in past seasons. While we've generally thought that HCA wasn't that important to the Spurs, 2015 may have convinced Pop that it's a thing worth having for as long as possible, mostly to have the best chance at a favorable early matchup. If there is a spate of injuries, I think that approach might change, but as long as his team is healthy, I think Pop's rest regime will be more about limiting minutes in games than about sitting key players out in bunches for whole games (other than games against teams that are just completely overmatched or are overtly tanking).

Just a hunch.

[look_at_g_shred]

You must admit that the Spurs vs Clippers first game in 2016 has some marketing appeal now and is getting better.

How? Clippers have been embarrassed twice on National TV already. What a laughinstock of a team tbh..

[look_at_g_shred]

Shouldn't be surprised about Clippers blowing the lead last night after they blew a 3-1 series lead over Houston last year. And I think that game last night says more about the clips than it does the Warriors.

[SpursFan86]

Posted this in the other GS topic and figured I'd leave it here as well...interested in hearing others' opinions:

Out of curiosity, what lineup do you think the Spurs would/should go to in order to combat the Warriors' smallball lineup of Curry/Klay/Iggy/Barnes/Green (probably their most effective lineup)?

Parker (or Mills, depending on what shape Parker is in)/Manu/Green/Kawhi/Aldridge is the first one that comes to mind. Could also play Boris instead of Aldridge, but I like the idea of Aldridge having a height advantage against Draymond. Depending on how much he can exploit that matchup, it could force the Warriors to play a more traditional lineup...something that would work to our advantage IMO.

In that scenario, Parker would likely have to be hidden on Barnes. Obviously you'd rather be beaten by Harrison Barnes as opposed to Curry, but I still worry about sticking Parker on him. That also makes playing Mills hard, because Parker is at least 6'3" and has some weight on him (cue the Porker jokes ). Mills guarding Barnes or Iggy would be a complete disaster.

[I. Hustle]

It's hilarious how butt hurt people get over the Dubs. If the Spurs were dominating like that all we would hear is " Our guys don't have that swagger..."

Get over it. Winners get to do what they want. I think we match up well and can beat them but it's not like they are cream puffs. Dudes can ball.

[rmt]

Games are April 7 and 10th. GSW will be so far ahead of the field for HCA - they'll rest their players leaving these games meaningless.

[Fireball]

you should stop talking about the Clips tbh ...

[FromWayDowntown]

Posted this in the other GS topic and figured I'd leave it here as well...interested in hearing others' opinions:

The answer almost has to be the lineup with Aldridge as the big, but I think that only works if the Spurs can actually push offense to LMA on the block and if he can dominate Green down there to the point that GST either has to bring help or it has to forego that lineup.

The antidote to small ball seems to be a dominating post player on the offensive end who isn't a complete liability on defense against smaller players.

[Mugen]

Spurs are going to need Aldridge to be dominant to win a series against the Dubs. Still early in the season and not yet sure on his ceiling with the team yet... but based on what I've seen so far and what I've seen historically from LMA, I'm not sold on that happening tbh.

[Shastafarian]

Anyone who doesn't think the Warriors are the favorites in the West -- any by a long shot at this point -- is delusional. The Warriors aren't just beating teams. They're destroying them.
More than that, they're tearing credible playoff teams (Rockets, Clippers, Memphis) to shreds at home and on the road. The Spurs, by contrast, have struggled to put away some pretty bad teams (even bad teams playing back-to-backs) in recent outings.

FYI for anyone curious: http://espn.go.com/nba/stats/rpi/_/sort/SOS/order/false

It's true the Spurs have had an easy schedule (second easiest) but the Warriors have as well (at #7). Add in the fact they had two close games with the Clippers and it's not like they've been blowing out playoff teams left an right. They've had a similar early run to the Spurs in that they've let some lesser teams stay with them but also blown some out. Not disagreeing with you on the Spurs but to say the Warriors are destroying everyone is not quite the whole picture.

[Robz4000]

Spurs are going to need Aldridge to be dominant to win a series against the Dubs. Still early in the season and not yet sure on his ceiling with the team yet... but based on what I've seen so far and what I've seen historically from LMA, I'm not sold on that happening tbh.

Don't believe in Diaw 2.0? Shame on you.

[Johnny RIngo]

Spurs are going to need Aldridge to be dominant to win a series against the Dubs. Still early in the season and not yet sure on his ceiling with the team yet... but based on what I've seen so far and what I've seen historically from LMA, I'm not sold on that happening tbh.

Doesn't help that LMA is an overall poor playoff performer. He had one great series against the Rockets but that's about it. Kinda funny that some people on this board likened his arrival to Lakers acquiring Shaq. High expectations much?

Spurs will be in trouble if they're depending on Aldridge to be an offensive anchor in the post season. He has a better chance of success in SA as a complimentary piece I think.

[RD2191]

Kawhi, Tim, Manu won't let us lose to the gy dubs.

[dabom]

Kawhi, Tim, Manu won't let us lose to the gy dubs.

ty Manu vs warriettes.



Also funny that it wasn't drawn for Manu and props for Kawhi for recognizing the smart play.

[dabom]

JJ on that play.

[ceperez]

The best lineup would be Manu, Green, Leonard, Diaw, Aldridge. I don't think Spurs can hide an undersized Parker or Mills.

[Horse]

Aldridge may not have a sparkling playoff record but he is atleast one player GS has no answer for.

[ceperez]

Another article on Curry, Igoudala, Thompson, Barnes and Green lineup:

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysi...ess-Basketball

[Killakobe81]

Another article on Curry, Igoudala, Thompson, Barnes and Green lineup:

http://basketball.realgm.com/analysi...ess-Basketball

great article.

[SpursFan86]

The answer almost has to be the lineup with Aldridge as the big, but I think that only works if the Spurs can actually push offense to LMA on the block and if he can dominate Green down there to the point that GST either has to bring help or it has to forego that lineup.

The antidote to small ball seems to be a dominating post player on the offensive end who isn't a complete liability on defense against smaller players.

Yeah that's why I think you have to go with Aldridge over Diaw. I love Diaw, but he just wouldn't be able to exploit the matchup with Draymond like LMA (ideally) could. Also worth noting that a Kawhi/Aldridge duo would likely have a nice rebounding advantage over Barnes/Draymond.

I guess a Manu/Green/Kawhi/Diaw/Aldridge lineup is a possibility...would eliminate the hiding Parker on D issue, and I'm not sure Barnes is great enough off the dribble to really take advantage of having the slower Diaw on him. On the other end, Diaw could definitely exploit Barnes in the post. Kawhi/Diaw/Aldridge frontcourt would have a huge advantage on the boards over Iggy/Barnes/Draymond too.

[siraulo23]

The spurs matchup the best vs the warriors but its a lot tougher than people think here. Duncan moved as well as he could have at his age and tiago splitter was terrific showing on the screens the last time they played the warriors in the playoffs

Now duncan obviously still an amazing defender but not the same a couple of years and now aldridge we all know is a downgrade in terms of defending the pick and roll and is pretty much a guaranteed score for the other team when he is defending a guard. The spurs will probably have to play small a lot but if they ever face in the playoffs this season, its gonna depend on whoevers playing the 4 and 5 to slow the ballhandler and give enough time for kawhi and green to recover when the warriors run their pick and rolls

[gameFACE]

Meanwhile the spurs are weaker than that 2013 team. Right? Right.

Jury's out on 2015-16 Spurs. No one expected the 2013 Spurs to go to the Finals 10 games into the season, myself included. The Dubs are a much better team than the one in the video above and are playing like it. The Spurs are good on paper. If any team can topple the current champs it's the Silver & Black.

[024]

Spurs fans thinking about the Warriors when they still can't beat the Pelicans.

This thread is filling with more and more bumpable material both sides can use.

[TD 21]

Funny how Spurs fans are usually the ones saying "lol regular season", i.e. Rockets sweeping us in the regular season the other year and Spurs fans writing it off as a non-issue in a playoff series...and now, a lot of these same people are saying "Look, we've done well against the Warriors in the regular season! They wouldn't do against us in the playoffs!"

I mean if you want to argue we match up well with them, that's fine (and for the record, I do think we match up well with them), but don't point to a 3-game sample size in the regular season as some sort of concrete evidence Especially considering they beat us pretty badly in one of those games too - it's not like we destroyed them in every matchup.

Your username should be WarriorsFan86, since you're their biggest cheerleader/defender this side of Strauss and El Hassan.