Warriors Reminding Us How Unbeatable They Are
Sorry everyone, these Warriors might run the table
The Golden State Warriors completely destroyed the Portland Trail Blazers on Wednesday night by a score of 110–81. This gave the reigning Western Conference champions a 2–0 lead in the series, all without Kevin Durant thanks to a calf injury.
The Blazers might not get a win in this series, but they shouldn’t hang their head too much. Nobody is taking down these Warriors. They have the most talent and play a beautiful style of basketball that is very difficult to beat. Golden State is playing their best basketball of the year, which is a scary thought for the rest of the NBA.
Portland kept things close in the first half, but just couldn’t keep things up for a full game. Golden State had an offensive rating of 106.7 in this game. That’s a pretty good number, but their defense is what made this game a joke.
Portland only scored 12 points in the third, and 35 total for the second half. Golden State’s defensive rating was 78.1. I repeat, 78.1. That’s beyond elite, and is the potential of this Warriors team. They can shoot you out of the building and strangle you on defense. They switch everything on defense, and swarm on close outs better than any team in the NBA. The Blazers had to work extremely hard for every basket.
This was after Damian Lillard and Cj McCollum combined for 75 points in game one of the series. The Warriors won by 11 points, but they wanted to keep Portland’s back court in check. On Wednesday, Lillard and McCollum combined for just 23 points. Once the Warriors get some film on you, they’ll completely take you out of your comfort zone on offense. In a seven game series, this makes them nearly impossible to take down.
This isn’t a new development for Golden State. They closed out the year with a 15–1 record after dropping three straight games in early March. Stephen Curry has been the main reason for this. Struggling with his shot after the All-Star break, Curry got back to where he was a season ago as the unanimous MVP:
Offensive Rating/3P% February: 116/37.8%
Offensive Rating/3P% March: 115/38.5%
Offensive Rating/3P% April: 132/55.4%
Curry’s April numbers include the playoffs so far, and as you can see, he’s playing like an MVP again. Draymond Green is a likely Defensive Player of the Year candidate, and Durant is back. The Warriors are a ridiculous combination, where they have three of the best scorers in the NBA (Curry, Durant, Thompson) along with three elite defenders beside them (Thompson, Green, Iguodala).
Their offense is so different from any other team in the league. It isn’t different in style, it’s just run to perfection. The Warriors move the ball so well and so fast. Sure, they have the most talented roster we’ve probably ever seen, but they play such a great style of team basketball.
The biggest threats to the Warriors are the San Antonio Spurs and the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Cavs don’t play a sustainable style of basketball. They are 3rd in the NBA in offense, and 22nd in defense. Golden State is the best offensive team in basketball right now, and the Cavs terrible defense will be no match for the fire power that the Warriors bring.
Last season the Cavs were able to beat the Warriors based on star power. Cleveland doesn’t do anything special on offense. They either give it to LeBron James and have him score, kick it to a shooter when the defense collapses, or put Kyrie Irving in pick and rolls. It works because of star power, but Golden State has more star power this time around.
In the last three minutes of game seven of the NBA Finals last year, the Cavs ran nothing but isolation plays to close the game out. You could count on one hand the amount of passes they made in the half court.
Golden State couldn’t capitalize because they themselves fell into that isolation game. They should have been moving the ball more, but when the game slows down it’s hard to do that. Now if the game slows down, they have enough star power to get them to the promise land.
San Antonio is their biggest threat. The Spurs play a similar type of team basketball, and they are the only team to have a better defense than Golden State. However, Kawhi Leonard would have to play out of his mind to lead the Spurs past Golden State.
Unfortunately for the rest of the NBA, there is only one team that has a sufficient claim to this year’s championship. They are playing at a high level and barring injury nobody will beat them in a seven game series. Maybe we’ll see them run the table. This team is that good.
