You want to be reasonable and assume they'll lose at some point, but then you watch them play and lose all skepticism.
There are moments when you sit agape with wonder, pondering whether anything is impossible for Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors.
As Curry pulls up from 26 feet
and swishes another jumper, you wonder whether he's actually the best
player in the league now and for years to come. Whether he's better than
LeBron, better than Durant, better than Davis. As the Warriors toy with
yet another good opponent and win again, you wonder whether 73-9 is
possible. As Golden State bludgeons its first four opponents by a
combined 100 points and ends the Clippers' undefeated start, you wonder whether this is already a young dynasty getting fitted for a fistful of rings.
It's impossible to keep
perspective on Curry and the Warriors while you're watching them because
nothing seems impossible. Curry sitting for the bulk of the first
quarter due to foul trouble seemed like a jape, like Luke Walton turned the difficulty level from "normal" to "hard." L.A. effectively attacked Curry with Chris Paul
and screening action, and it served its purpose early. But it just
delayed the inevitable. Any victory over this team only delays the
inevitable. Ask the Grizzlies, Rockets and Cavaliers about last spring. You do exactly what you set out to do, you succeed and they erase your victory with a snap of their fingers.
The Warriors have flaws. Curry
is an improved defender, but he's still relatively thin and can be
backed down. CP3 took advantage of that early. The Clippers forced
doubles to work Curry, and CP3 finished the first half with 20 points.
The Warriors found a way around it. (Notably, by attacking the short
Paul and getting him into third quarter foul trouble. That
prevented Paul from keeping the pressure on Curry and foul trouble was
no longer an issue for Steph.)
Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes can be erratic, and both Curry and Klay Thompson
can take wild shots. Some of Walton's substitution decisions were
head-scratchers, understandable given his inexperience. But Golden State
is otherwise so damn efficient on both ends that it's all of little
concern in the macro view.Their advantages elsewhere are so great as to
nearly always make those flaws irrelevant.
The Clippers appear at times
uniquely suited to topple the Warriors. In CP3 they have one of the
point guards best poised to punish Curry on one end and disrupt him on
the other. In Blake Griffin they have one of the few power forwards in
the West who can keep Draymond Green on his heels. In DeAndre Jordan
they have a center who can control the boards on both ends if the
Warriors go small, and who can finish cleanly when help defenders
abandon him to chase Paul. (In theory, he's also agile enough to switch
out and challenge those Curry jumpers. It didn't happen on Wednesday: he
guarded against the drive, which is the opposite of what you want to do
against Steph.) L.A. has a coach who masterfully works the referees,
and they have a gunner in J.J. Redick who could challenge Curry in an empty-gym shooting contest. The pieces are there.
But then you see the Warriors
swallow the Clippers' confidence alive in the closing minutes of a
November game and that thought slips away.
L.A. can build on this defeat
to better challenge Golden State the next time around. It has the
comfort of knowing it was the last team to beat the Warriors in a
playoff series. There will be chances back at home, although Doc Rivers still needs to discover how best to use Lance Stephenson and Paul Pierce
in the fourth quarter. (Notably, Rivers ran with his son in crunch time
until Austin fouled out. His defense was good, and he made some nice
cuts to get free, but you have to believe there's more upside in having
Pierce or Stephenson out there. Rivers The Coach has earned the benefit
of the doubt, but these are tricky waters, especially with someone as
notoriously immature as Lance.)
No comments:
Post a Comment