I was watching the Dubs eek out a win against the Jazz last night, they have been pushing hard all this season and though they are young this has to put a strain on them. They are y and want the notoriety associated with breaking the Bulls record but could this hubris lead them to a collapse like the Spurs suffered in 2011-12? The season the Spurs won the last 10 games of the regular season as well as the first 10 on the post season only to lose 4 games in a row. That is my dream scenario this season with the Spurs playing the role of the Thunderrefs that season with one small exception, that we go on and win theafterwards. I was called out how unimportant regular season wins and records are (sans a le) in another thread and I must admit that is correct because the 2011-2012 season brings me no joy now but at the time, the idea of winning 6 more games and sweeping the playoffs had me giddy as f and if we would have pulled it off I would be still talking about how incredible that team was forever.
Well, hopefully. But I dunno. They've won crazy games they shouldn't have all year, and every jump shooting team has fallen off at some point in NBA history, but they've shown absolutely no signs of slowing down. Sure, their defense is better than most teams like theirs, but they are absolutely freakish in terms of keeping this shooting up.
law of averages..............
Iguodala means a lot more to GSW than people think. Once he's back, they'll get back to beating teams like Utah by 12-15.
Spurs collapsed that season due to being unhealthy. NO one was 100% going into the playoffs.
The Dubs are pretty healthy and coasting to a 1st seed.
If this were last year where the West was loaded, this might have some merit to discuss, but as it stands the Warriors are going to get 4-5 playoff games in the first around as a "tune-up", and that should be all they need to get back to dominance.
Cry I agree with this, the West is very top heavy so no matter how tired you may be, you will have time to get right in the first round.
The reality is that barring an unforeseen injury it's going to be very very difficult for anyone to knock out the Warriors.
Our game 2 with them sorta disagrees. I still feel like we are favourites. And when they get the regular season record, and when things get tough, pressure can amount to a lot. But they do look they are fatiguing out there. They have been pushing for the record since their hot start.
Yes. Warriors are screwing themselves fighting so hard for the record. Clippers with Blake back will be a very tough 2nd round opponent and given the Warriors tired legs after a long season last year and then trying to win every single game this year I expect round 2 to go 7 games. Spurs should get a pretty exhausted warriors team in the conference Finals which in my opinion, really levels the playing field between the two teams.
What scares me about a matchup with the dubs is the spurs getting worn-out and not having anything left for the finals. Meanwhile le bronze cruises to the finals per usual.
I don't think cavs will be cruising. Toronto will be heard from.
Truth.IMHO the Heat can give the Cavs too if they meet.
The Warriors to me are like 80's and early 90's Mike Tyson. Tyson relied heavily on his knockout punches to win fights and the Warriors knock out punch is the 3 point shot. When Tyson could not knock out an opponent that's when he fell apart and lost fights. I feel the Warriors are the same way in this department if you take away there 3 point shooting they will wilt and fall apart. Granted this will be hard to do but I do believe the Spurs can do it.
I wish.. I wish they would get tired for being greedy with the record and the Spurs got them.
Huge story and would improve the Spurs legend.
About the east, as much as I'd like to think there's a team that can beat the Cavs, I doubt it.
Every year some team seems to have a chance to beat Lebron, then come playoff time it's another story.
I hope not. I want the Spurs to kick their fully-healthy asses in the WCF and finish them in Oakland. - Preferably in 5.
No. But on the bright side, the coaching staff has had their opponent identified for months. So, no matter what, the spurs will at least have some plan about what they want to do. It reminds me of 2013 and the first matchup against the heat. Popovich had that series gameplanned almost to perfection.
The Warriors have been winning, but they haven't been playing too well lately. I can see it happening. I just hope the Spurs are the team to do it. As a fan of the game, I can't wait until the start of the playoffs. If the seedings hold, which I think they will, it's going to be a fantastic Western Conference Final Four.
We got this. Nobody matches up better with them than we do. Spurs in 6. Kawhi wants to be in MVP discussions with Curry and LeBron, this is when he has to show up and take it from them...
They are a beauitiful race car that is going to run out of gas, the Spurs are a hurricane gradually building until we make landfall and destroy them. By the way, cannot wait until we expose Draymond Green for being the most overrated player in the league...
Been saying they're in danger of fatigue and injuries, tired legs will affect their 3pt shooting, all it takes is a few of their role players to be off and the Spurs can beat them.
Post all star break their 3pt shooters have fallen off quite a bit:
-Green is down from 42% to just 31%
-Barnes is down from 39% to 30%
-Iguodala started off the year shooting around 40%, his % started to decline as the year went on, currently 38%
-Rush 45% down to just 30%
-Barbosa 36% to 28%
Make no doubt about it, GS is slowing down.
GS has been pretty consistent throughout the year (11.2 netRtg in first 41 games, 10.9 since) and its' W-L record is about the same. Defense has fallen off for GS by 2.4 points, but offense has improved. Spurs have actually fallen off more (14.8 down to 9.6, but still 12.5 vs. 11.0 through season). Defense is about 6.2 points worse, while offense is only a point better.
ORtg DRtg NetRtg W L GSW 1st half 114.2 103.0 11.2 37 4 GSW 2nd half 116.3 105.4 10.9 31 3 GSW total 115.1 104.1 11.0 68 7 SAS 1st half 111.0 96.2 14.8 35 6 SAS 2nd half 112.0 102.4 9.6 28 6 SAS total 111.5 99.0 12.5 63 12
Is this because the Warriors are going full throttle towards 73 wins with little regard for rest? We know they're 25-2 now in games within 5 points inside of three minutes (which is a higher winning % than their overall record - totally unsustainable). And is the Spurs' dropoff because of rest / injury?
Appears that way - Kawhi's share of total possible minutes has fallen from 64.9% to 53.8% from Oct-Jan to Feb-Mar. Duncan is down from 42.6% to 32.5%, and Ginobili is down from 35.7% to 18.4% (injury). LMA is up from 56.0% to 62.6%, but in total, minutes going to the core playoff rotation is down from 83.6% to 77.1% from Oct-Jan to Feb-Mar (starters + Mills + Diaw + West + Manu). That probably explains the drop-off.
The Warriors? Draymond's minutes are up (69.2% to 73.1%), Curry's are up (66.8% to 68.6%), Thompson's are up (64.7% to 69.9%), Livingston's are flat, while Barnes and Iggy - injuries in front half and second half respectively - are down slightly by about 1.5% combined. In aggregate, their core players' minutes haven't moved much if you include Ezeli who's been injured the entire second half.
tl;dr version: Spurs have been coasting in the second half (plus more difficult schedule), while Warriors have been pressing. Their main guys are all eating up significant minutes ... 33 to 35 per night assuming no rest ...
DeJuan, Tiago, Bonner. As much as anything, that's what killed the Spurs in that series. Tiago wasn't 100% (not even close), DeJuan was too busy pouting, and Bonner was Bonner. Ibaka and Perkins were just too big in the middle, and Collison gave them just enough big off the bench. Sad as it is, I think that swapping DeJuan and Collison would have made games 4 and 5 come out the other way. By game 6, the Spurs were just worn down. (Danny Green going blind didn't help - I think he shot .300 from the 3P line in the series? But the series was lost in the low blocks, IMO.)
Barring injury, I don't see GSW collapsing. I'm hoping that the refs will "let them play" like they usually do in the playoffs, and the Warriors will have to deal with a lot more physical play than they are used to. The Spurs of old used to "ugly up" games, and find a way to pull it out at the end. They can't do that if the refs are calling touch fouls in the playoffs. But if the games are called like playoff games, there's a chance of throwing the GSW shooters out of rhythm. I still think that's the best shot at derailing them.
But, no... no collapse.
the Spurs have yet to have an impressive W this season which is unreal considering their great record
The Warriors didn't have an impressive win all of last postseason which is unreal considering their le
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