Warrior's to small to be all time Great

[chambers]

What's funny is that Ainge has preached that size and defense is the key to beating the dubs. Having 2 top 5 players helps the Thunder, but their role players are simply killing it.

As for the defending champs...to steal some info from realgm..
Here's who the Warriors have faced in their two runs so far:

2015
Pelicans -- Not a serious team with a first-year head coach
Grizzlies -- Both Conley and Allen had injury issues in the sries
Rockets -- Houston down 2 starters for the entire series
Cavs -- Irving and Love missed most or all of the series


2016
Rockets -- Not a serious team in 2016
Blazers -- Likely only there because Paul and Griffin injured for Clippers in previous series; not a serious team
Thunder -- Here we are


Perhaps the Warriors are not who we thought they were.

That said, they could still win this series and the title this year. They are that good. They're just not at the level we assumed them to be at and they have been fortunate, until this point, in their two playoff runs. I

I'm just not sure if it's because the Thunder are finally healthy/clicking or if the Warriors are just exhausted from such an epic regular season.
The Thunder have now put a beat down on two historically great teams in the Spurs and Dubs...and soon will finish off the Dubs in all likelihood. But it ain't over yet.

Spurs and GSW just exhausted? OKC finally healthy?
Probably a bit of both.


Good bye to Kevin Durant. The dream was sweet.

[tarheelsxxiii]

Curry is hurt. Explains the entire story. Nothing else to see here.

[greece66]

What's funny is that Ainge has preached that size and defense is the key to beating the dubs. Having 2 top 5 players helps the Thunder, but their role players are simply killing it.

As for the defending champs...to steal some info from realgm..
Here's who the Warriors have faced in their two runs so far:

2015
Pelicans -- Not a serious team with a first-year head coach
Grizzlies -- Both Conley and Allen had injury issues in the sries
Rockets -- Houston down 2 starters for the entire series
Cavs -- Irving and Love missed most or all of the series


2016
Rockets -- Not a serious team in 2016
Blazers -- Likely only there because Paul and Griffin injured for Clippers in previous series; not a serious team
Thunder -- Here we are


Perhaps the Warriors are not who we thought they were.

That said, they could still win this series and the title this year. They are that good. They're just not at the level we assumed them to be at and they have been fortunate, until this point, in their two playoff runs. I

I'm just not sure if it's because the Thunder are finally healthy/clicking or if the Warriors are just exhausted from such an epic regular season.
The Thunder have now put a beat down on two historically great teams in the Spurs and Dubs...and soon will finish off the Dubs in all likelihood. But it ain't over yet.

Spurs and GSW just exhausted? OKC finally healthy?
Probably a bit of both.


Good bye to Kevin Durant. The dream was sweet.

chambers, these are interesting data; still it is not rare for first seeds to have an easy schedule until they reach their conference finals.

[Who]

 See what I mean this is OKC Championship to lose now.

What about Cleveland?

[dannyboy35]

I'm loving this. I've been saying Lebrin is the best player in the world still even though I loathe him. I'd like to see him get by Toronto and prove it. But I also love okc. Nba is so about their binkies. Fans that have put down Westbrook are eating their words now.

[wdleehi]

The Warriors work when Curry is playing like one of the top 5 players in the world.


Without him shooting lights out from everywhere, defenses can set in. 




This is one of the reasons I never wanted the Celtics to try and become a Warriors clone.   There is only one Curry and one Green in the NBA right now.  Both are key to this style of play at this level. 

[loco_91]

I think it's not size per se. It's not as though Kanter is beating them up; he played 8.5 minutes in game 4. It's just that Westbrook is outplaying Curry and Adams is outplaying Draymond.

[greece66]

I think it's not size per se. It's not as though Kanter is beating them up; he played 8.5 minutes in game 4. It's just that Westbrook is outplaying Curry and Adams is outplaying Draymond.

Yes, I also would not see this as a 'defeat' for small ball in general.
I do not think jumping to conclusions after a playoff series (which incidentally, is not over yet) does not help much in understanding which direction NBA is going to.
Even if they get eliminated in game 5 today, what GSW achieved so far is impressive; investing so much energy in breaking the Bulls record might have been a mistake (I was wondering why Kerr was not resting players in the last month tbh), but on the other hand, the allure of the record must have been irresistible.
This GSW team will be remembered for a long time.

[RebusRankin]

I think it's not size per se. It's not as though Kanter is beating them up; he played 8.5 minutes in game 4. It's just that Westbrook is outplaying Curry and Adams is outplaying Draymond.

Yes, I also would not see this as a 'defeat' for small ball in general.
I do not think jumping to conclusions after a playoff series (which incidentally, is not over yet) does not help much in understanding which direction NBA is going to.
Even if they get eliminated in game 5 today, what GSW achieved so far is impressive; investing so much energy in breaking the Bulls record might have been a mistake (I was wondering why Kerr was not resting players in the last month tbh), but on the other hand, the allure of the record must have been irresistible.
This GSW team will be remembered for a long time.

If they don't win the title, they will be remembered but not in the way they want.

[greece66]

I think it's not size per se. It's not as though Kanter is beating them up; he played 8.5 minutes in game 4. It's just that Westbrook is outplaying Curry and Adams is outplaying Draymond.

Yes, I also would not see this as a 'defeat' for small ball in general.
I do not think jumping to conclusions after a playoff series (which incidentally, is not over yet) does not help much in understanding which direction NBA is going to.
Even if they get eliminated in game 5 today, what GSW achieved so far is impressive; investing so much energy in breaking the Bulls record might have been a mistake (I was wondering why Kerr was not resting players in the last month tbh), but on the other hand, the allure of the record must have been irresistible.
This GSW team will be remembered for a long time.

If they don't win the title, they will be remembered but not in the way they want.

[This has nothing to do with what I wrote, but whatever, I won't debate semantics, esp. since I was against GSW from the start.]

Back to GSW: you really think GSW they are done for good? I expect them to stay around for a few years more.

And there is no reason whatsoever to dismiss their achievements. They already won a title in a season when they were hardly considered a contender and they broke the wins record the next season. These achievements alone will be enough for them to be remembered as an elite team.

[Moranis]

Are you guys watching the same series as me?  The reason OKC is playing so well is Westbrook.  Golden State just has no answer for him.  And Westbrook isn't even shooting that well, he is just so big and athletic that GS has no answer for him.  Westbrook is basically performing at 27 points, 12 assists, 6.5 rebounds, and 4 steals a game.  That is an all time epic stat line for a postseason series. 

[CroCorvus]

Well I don't really buy this thing Warriors are over, they are too small, they are readed book and all this things people are concluding right now when they playing bad and are two games down. Sure they are playing uninspired bball and the Thunder is taking adventage of all that, but there is a reason for that. First I must say that OKC didn't discover, almost, anything new to their game. They still play their usual pick up hero style of ball. The difference is that Steph is injured and that affects they in very bad vay. First it shows on the offensive end wheres hes attrocious in last two. It affects the play of DGreen because hes not that quality on offense. It affects also the other guys on their team because when Steph plays his best others gets easy or open baskets. It also allows RW to lose less energy in defense which he uses then in offens. So to me this is not all about OKC and their new smart coach but partially injured MVP. When they are all healthy Warriors are the best team in the league (atm).

[Moranis]

Steph is clearly a little banged up, but even in the regular season he only had 1 great game and two well below average games against OKC.  He has always struggled with Westbrook on him.  He did make Westbrook work a bit more defensively however which in turn affected Westbrook on offense.  That seems to be the only real difference in this series as opposed to the regular season.

I was really hoping for a Cleveland/Golden State final, because I wanted to see the rematch with a healthy Cavs team.  That said the Thunder will still make for a great series. 

[LarBrd33]

warriors might need to try playing Bogut more minutes.

Well, I'm not at all surprised they won tonight with increased minutes and a big game from Bogut.   Size still matters in the NBA.  You can't pretend to be 7 feet tall.

OKC has been killing Golden State on the boards.  They cranked Bogut's minutes up to 30 tonight.  15 points, 14 rebounds, 2 blocks and 2 steals.   They tied on the boards tonight.

Unfortunately, I don't know if Bogut can sustain that level of play.  It made a difference, though. 

[chambers]

Are you guys watching the same series as me?  The reason OKC is playing so well is Westbrook.  Golden State just has no answer for him.  And Westbrook isn't even shooting that well, he is just so big and athletic that GS has no answer for him.  Westbrook is basically performing at 27 points, 12 assists, 6.5 rebounds, and 4 steals a game.  That is an all time epic stat line for a postseason series.

Yep I'm with you.
Durant is doing Durant, but Westbrook is that second piece that GSW can't stop. They're both top 5 players and stopping both is impossible.

OKC's big men are killing it on the boards too though.