What happened to the Warriors!?

5-3 now for the playoffs with that ugly, ugly loss by the Warriors. I was watching the game with a couple of friends, and they both said the same thing: the warriors look broken. Whether it be injuries, locker room chemistry, Kerr's migraines (the dude looks like he is heavily medicated) the Warriors are not playing their brand of team basketball. Even worse, they look defeated: hanging their heads, moping around, not chasing loose balls. In fact, they are looking a lot like the team that lost the finals to the Cavs (which is why they went out and got Durant).

And what can I say about KD? I was against that trade when they made it for the very reasons we are seeing today. They have become so dependent on the guy that they now look more like the iso heavy Thunder than the Warriors of old. Gone is the beautiful passing and ball movement, and gone too is Klay and Curry's confidence, both of whom now defer to Durant (the new alpha). Hell, even the coach has deferred to him as he has stopped coaching or running plays: just throw it into KD and let him do his thing. How very sad for basketball fans. Golden State's golden years are now in the rearview mirror. And you can take that to the bank.

Having said all this, the Warriors will likely win this series because of Paul's injury, which is also sad, because they don't deserve to win it. I think they win by dd on Saturday, and unless Paul miraculously recovers, they beat the Rockets in game 7 at Houston. But laying 10.5 points is not my cup of tea. So I will be teasing the Warriors to -5.5 and the Cavs to -2 at a price of -110. I think the Cavs have some newfound hope after seeing what the Rockets did to the Warriors, so they will not give up just yet. Though they might give up after they see what the Warriors do to the Rockets on Saturday without Paul.

The Play: teasing Cavs-2 and Warriors -5.5

Salty behind homer. Rockets may not win it all without cp3 but you just gotta suck it up man. Your re ord ain't 5-3

Cavs and Celtics are licking their chops. 

Kraft dinners messing up the rotation 

Don’t think Cavs are licking their chops over Houston. Houston would gentlemen sweep Cavs easily 

Rockets are playing Celtics in the finals.

It is called building the suspense and drama to lure in even more viewers becuz now people think GS is done and their dynasty run is over with when in reality, they are just setting ip the stage for them to overcome this adversity and then they will win it all.. It is basically 2016 all over against except they dont have HCA and they will win in the Finals not lose..  Having GS run thru every team they play is boring plus if GS won in 5 over Houston, no one is watching the Finals..  They gotta make GS look vulnerable..  Iggy just randomly gets "injured"... 

You have to give some credit to the Rockets' defense that forced the Warriors into play the ISO ball. That is the way to maximize the Rockets' chance to win since the Rockets' ISO efficiency is better than the Warriors'. The Warriors' offense has more Cuts and Off Screen actions than any other team in the NBA. Meanwhile, unlike the Cavs, the Rockets' defense ranks fifth in points allowed per game against Cuts and first in points allowed per game against Off Screens. They upgraded their roster in the summer and have been practicing their defense in the entire regular season for this series. It is not realistic for the Warriors to keep getting many open looks via those off-ball movements throughout an entire series against an elite defense, which is eventually going to figure out and eliminate most of those opportunities as the series progresses. Moreover, more passing means an increasing risk of turnovers, which is also bad in a close series. The Rockets' offense is designed to play ISO ball and eliminate all the extra passes (that do not lead to score) in order to reduce turnovers as well as the transition opportunities which the Warriors are very good at capitalizing on.

Of course the injuries still play a big role in the Warriors' stagnant offense. The Warriors loses a good ball handler in Iguodala, hence limiting the options on the offensive end. Curry is also not 100% healthy after all the injuries during the season.

 

You talk like these Rockets are the 84 Celtics (with four future hall-of-famers in their primes) mucking the game up and getting physical with the showtime Lakers. Come on, man. This Houston team only has Harden and Paul, going up against 4 all-stars and 3 to 4 possible of hall-of-famers. The Warriors are chocking and Kerr is being exposed (that speech to KD about MJ sounded like a desperate ploy by a guy who has lost his team). It is that simple. Let's not make this about what a great defensive mind D'Antoni is or how great a defender Harden is. That is a joke.

don't worry my friend, tomorrow an offensive wave will be unleashed to restore everyone's faith in the system  only wish I was at 1 Rincon Hill to stare out at the Bay and Pac Bell and soak up the points in a mild alcohol stupor as I've done since 2010...funny how it all comes together inn the most obsequious times 

Funny enough, I have a view of Pac Bell park and the Bay from my house and, even with my martini in hand, I live in complete misery. Can't enjoy any of it, at least not until I can overcome my own obsequiousness to the times. Good luck, my friend. But the Warriors rediscovering themselves now that Paul is gone, is pretty meaningless to me, and, I would imagine, to most basketball fans who love true competition.

Good articles on how Durant has ruined the warriors:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/sports/wp/2018/05/25/kevin-durant-is-reverting-to-old-habits-as-warriors-get-pushed-to-brink-of-elimination/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.9f1544336d13

https://deadspin.com/if-the-warriors-are-going-to-die-they-should-at-least-1826322034

 

 

Iggy is a big part of their rotation and defense.  If iggy was not injured, its all over.  Anyway, it doesnt matter. GSW will win both and advance....

This warriors team look nothing like 2015- 2016- Durant is a great offensive player but he doesn’t understand ball movement - all his iso shit is killing GSW offense 

So much BS in this thread... if you really think Warriors win by double digits why the hell are you teasing them. Personally I think Rockets show up in support of Chris Paul.. Rockets have a deep team and players ready to step up...   also not one mention of the MVP who is due for a good game..

The current Rockets' roster has many versatile guys that are good at defending multiple positions. Hence they can switch assignments in most pick-and-rolls without allowing mismatches, which most teams, including last year's Rockets, do not have the personnel to achieve. That is how the Warriors' Hamptons Five lineup has been defending opponents and how the modern NBA defense is trending towards (see https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-warriors-and-rockets-have-reinvented-modern-nba-defense-yes-defense/). For the Warriors, this is literally the first time in the postseason they face a defense that has so much versatility as well as well-organized (if they face the Celtics in the Finals I expect to see the Celtics doing similar stuff to them). This defense, with some added tweaks, is capable of disrupting many off-ball opportunities (see https://www.theringer.com/nba/2018/5/23/17383758/rockets-defense-warriors-game-4). BTW, as melossinglet pointed out, D'Antoni is not coaching the Rockets' defense and I have heard him stressing the defense several times in multiple occasions. Their defensive mastermind Jeff Bzdelik had battled against the Warriors in their first championship run and his defense got 2 wins for the inferior Grizzlies team in that series. Harden is not an elite defender but he has improved to an above-average one this season (see https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/22669488/attacks-james-harden-defense-mostly-unfair). Although in the matchup against the Warriors he may still be the weakest link on the defensive end, he is not as bad overall as one might think.

Now talking about the Warriors. They can definitely still find more ways to attack the Rockets but a passing-heavy offense is not going to become their primary offensive option in a series like this because that will not be able to consistently generate an efficient offense against a super-switchable opponent. That can be played for a stretch of game time to take the Rockets off-guard and score a few points here and there. But all in all they will have to play more ISO ball than they would like to. A problem of the Warriors lineup is that they do not have as many capable 3pt shooters as before to space the floor. Both Iguodala and and Green have regressed in 3pt shooting compared with earlier seasons and Kerr does not trust Nick Young's defense enough to give him more minutes. Without that extra space, the defense can better clog the driving and passing lanes to create more turnovers and missed shots.

As for KD, in this matchup he is an obvious mismatch against any Rocket player so he is going to take a major role in scoring. The problem for him in the last two games, as far as some commentators and I see, is that he was hesitant between passing and ISO, thus affecting his rhythm on offense.

Playing Looney over McGee is a mistake.

Draymon thinking its cool to be careless and turn the ball over is also a mistake.

 

Nothing wrong, they’ll be back next year 

 Nope....

The problem is Kerr playing Looney over Livingston .....Bell and Looney you don't have to guard so Kerr needs to figure it out soon..