Golden State Warriors: Too Good for the NBA?
by Eric Storms
One year later, and the NBA Finals matchup remains the same: LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers vs. unanimous MVP Steph Curry’s Golden State Warriors. The Warriors took home the title in six games last year, but this season,year LeBron has his full cavalry behind him. Kevin Love missed the entirety of the Finals last year with a shoulder injury, and Kyrie Irving was sidelined for the Finals after being injured in overtime of Game 1. Most attributed this to the Cavaliers’ lost.
However, as the first two games have shown, the health of the Cavaliers might not be enough to take home the title when taking into consideration the as the Warriors’ play a unique style of basketball. Their strategy is no secret: It’s all about the three-pointers. Steph Curry and Klay Thompson (collectively known as the “Splash Brothers”) have been firing away three-pointers at ridiculous rates — a. And they’ve been making them.
In the Western Conference Finals against the Oklahoma City Thunder, both players broke the previous record of 28 made three-pointers in a series, with 30 by Thompson and 32 by Curry, according to bleacherreport.com. The duotwo isare a threat to take any all games, emphasized by over by catching fire from deep such as Thompson’s ridiculous Game 6 performance against the Thunder in whichwhen he made a playoff-record 11 threes.
And the duo doesn’t just hit any old three-pointerthrees. They can hit deep ones, off-balanced ones and even ones with defenders right in their face. The most famous example is Steph’s monster 38-foot shot that he made look easy in an overtime win over the Thunder in the regular season.
But even though those two steal much of the attention, the core of the team also lies with power forward Draymond Green, who averages nearly a triple-double eacha game with 14 points, 9.5 rebounds and 7.4 assists, according to espn.com. Small forward Harrison Barnes also averages double digit points with 11.7 a game. And who could forget last year’s Finals MVP Andre Iguodala who has only averaged 7.0 but can easily have an all-star performance any night. As we saw in Game 1 of this year’s Finals, when backup point guard Shaun Livingston carried the team with 20 points, the Warriors don’t need a big performance from the Splash Brothers to win.
Many have argued that the Warriors have found the “cheat code” to basketball, as their three-point barrage with a versatile supporting cast has seemed to leave all other teams behind in the dust. This leaves many wondering whether this new style of play is helping or harmingruining the NBA.
Of course, it does place an emphasis on shooting the deep ball rather than ball movement and trying to score in the paint. It would also appear to be a three-point contest where as soon as they get open they launch a three. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban has even expressed interest in moving the three-point line back to discourage teams from following the Warriors’ leaddoing what the Warriors are doing, according to espn.com. If the NBA just becomes a bunch of guys standing around the three-point line waiting to shoot, certainly the game would have a much different feel. A game of simply launching up three-pointers and seeing who can make the most is not the the style of NBA basketball that so many know and love. ISo it’s understandable why many think the Warriors’ style would be detrimental to the game, if other teams followed suit.
While some have said the Warriors’ utter domination has made the NBA boring, many others beg to differ. The Warriors set a new NBA record for local TV ratings and are the only NBA team in history to show a growth in local ratings for six consecutive years, according to the SportsBusiness Journal. Nationally televised Warriors games have set records all season as well. Game 1 of this year’s Finals was the most-watched opener in history, according to bleacherreport.com. Other than watching their favorite team, many — , including myself — , have only watched other NBA playoff games when the Warriors are involved them.
I think everyone needs to understand that three-pointers are just part of the game. There’s the old saying that teams that live by the three, die by the three — if the shots don’t fall, they’ll certainly lose. But the Warriors haven’t lost much at all, even when the shots don’t fall. I don’t even see noa problem with teams just solely shooting threes all game long. If you have players that can make the shots, they should take them. If your favorite team can’t keep up with their three-point barrages, then they aren’t good enough at basketball to win. Three-pointers are part of the game for a good reason:; Tthey’re hard shots to make.
The two shooters’ dominating performance is reminiscent of recent team’s domination in other sports, particularly in the NFL. But stopping the Warriors is unlike trying to stop Cam Newton’s mobility, Tom Brady’s accuracy or the Seahawks’ or Broncos’ defense. There are so many moving pieces to a football team, while in basketball it is much easier to compose a team of 10 with a few stars who can do everything exceptionally, well. That’s just part of what the NBA is, as we saw so many years ago with the Chicago Bulls’ dynasty.
The game is only evolving for the better as the Splash Brothers draw more and more fans in and bring a new excitement and strategy to the NBA. So you might as well sit back and enjoy; after three games of this year’s Finals, it doesn’t appear the Warriors will stop winning titles any time soon.
