Sixteen Chapel

I thought the Warriors-Blazers series was over right after game 1. The Blazers came at the dubs in game 1 at Oakland with everything they got. Their best 2 players, CJ.McCullum and Damian Lillard, were both sensational the entire game and ended up scoring 75 combined points. They outplayed the famed Warriors back-court convincingly, especially in that first half. At the end of the day, the Blazers lost that game by a dozen points. That told me all I needed to know about the ceiling of the 2 teams. The Blazers' ceiling was basically about 15 points behind the Warriors. I can't even say that fourth quarter was the Warriors ceiling, but was definitely Draymond Green's magnum opus. Thats what makes the dubs a true super-team. You would think Draymond is their fourth wheel, but he is actually a superstar who does everything except score for this team. When he takes over a show like he did in game 1 on the defensive end and kills the Blazers independent of what his 3 superstar buddies did on the other end, you know this team is scary good. There is a block of Dame Lillard in that game that I would advise everybody to look up on YouTube. Draymond is guarding somebody on the perimeter on the strong side not far from Dame. Dame drives on his man from the same side and goes to the hoop. Somehow Draymond decides to chase him down and is right there to block his shot at the rim. Dray had no business being even in that TV frame, but he was there waiting for Dame. It captured not just his effort and his deceptive athleticism, but also his high basketball IQ. Long story short, the Blazers had no shot in the series, and when they fell short after their best effort in game 1, I knew they can't win this fight. I thought they may steal 1 in Portland if the Warriors fell asleep, but not so surprisingly, the Warriors put them away even without Durant in a convincing sweep. 

Of course every round of the playoffs become increasingly difficult and it's not uncommon for us fans and media to fall in love with a team after round 1 only to see the team struggle in the next round and lose in the round after. Even within a series, fortunes can swing big time. Ask the Warriors about the finals when they lost after leading 3-1 or Durant about his Thunder team losing after dominating the Warriors to a 3-1 advantage in last year's Western conference finals. So lets not get carried away and award the finals to the Warriors and the Cavs after their respective first round sweeps and hand the ring over to the Warriors yet. With all that said, the Warriors are the best team and the prohibitive favorites to win it all this year. There are several ways to look at this team and explain how it is one of the most historic collection of talent in one roster. I am not a basketball historian, but I can't think of another team where 4 of the top 20, may be even top 15, players in the entire league playing for the same team in their early or peak primes of their careers. Thats the other scary part. Klay and Draymond are probably still getting better. But the clear proof that the dubs are a scary good super-team has been in display the last several weeks and in this Portland series. Kevin Durant is a top 3 talent in the league today and is arguably the Warriors' best player. And they are a true contender without Durant suiting up. That blows my mind. If Durant sits out the rest of the playoffs, their odds will drop, but they will still be the favorites in Vegas to win it all this year. Thats like the Cavs being the favorites even without LeBron or the Rockets without Harden. Those teams sure don't have the talent or depth to pull that off. 

All of this brings us to the key question. Can the Warriors go 16-0 in these playoffs? This may sound presumptuous, but this questions is definitely making the rounds in the Bay Area and elsewhere and rightfully so. I have to say the dubs won't go 16-0 because it's hard to do. Also, the history says no as no team has done it before - only the 2001 Lakers came real close with a 15-1 run. Plus this dubs team could have a bad shooting night and lose one on the road. They do have a shot if Draymond makes it his mission to get to 16-0 like he wanted the 73-win season last year. If they make a commitment and go after it, we might see it, but I wouldn't bet on it. And the main reason they may not make it is the sad story of coach Steve Kerr's health. Kerr has had some major ups and downs in his life, but his health complications from the botched back surgery is really a depressing story. He has a team of a lifetime in his hands and is seriously staring at a legendary run that would rival the Phil Jacksons and Gregg Popovichs of the world if everything breaks the way we expect it to over the next few years. This is hard to walk away from and he might have to. Given his situation, his continued health and wellbeing is way more important than what happens with his coaching career. I wish him the best and would love to have him back, but if he can't coach again, I sure hope and pray that he can at least live a normal, healthy, functional life. But Kerr's potential absence might be the biggest challenge to the dubs going 16-0. The dubs are a well-oiled machine and I like coach Mike Brown, but I am not a big fan of Mike Brown's X's and O's capabilities. Not having Kerr on the sidelines is going to cost the dubs a game or 2. Thats usually a big deal in the playoffs, but when we are talking about a tram going 16-0, losing a game is not the end of the world. But this does mean I don't expect the dubs to go 16-0. With a healthy Kerr and Durant, it will still be a tough deal, but they may make it interesting and get real close. If they do, it's going to be another cherry on top of this amazing playoffs. This year's playoffs has been very entertaining and hoping the stories only get better. We don't need any more of these Blake Griffin injury, and Steve Kerr's ailment, and Isiah Thomas's sister's passing. But bring on the sweet sixteen!

Unanimous!

Stephen Curry has impeccable timing and a flair for the dramatic. He had one week for the ages. He came back from his injury on Monday and after looking rusty through the game, just took over and dominated the overtime to the tune of 17 points in 5 minutes. That flurry clinched game 4 for the Warriors and hence the series. They sure could not have won that game without Curry. Van Gundy was wondering during the previous game if Curry and Dame were just about the same and I guess he got his answer. Seventeen points in 5 mins became the biggest news in sports right in time for his MVP coronation the next day. The voting ends with the regular season - it's the regular season MVP after all, and nothing would have changed, but we might have heard some murmurs about Curry's MVP'ness if he was still injured and the dubs were doing well without him when the announcement came out. How valuable can he be for the league if his own team barely misses him? It's not a fair question because this is one of the deepest and versatile teams in the league and it's a credit to that team that they can manage without him. But some talking heads are stupid enough to misconstrue this playoff run as proof that Curry is not all that he is made out to be. Curry put an end to all that talk even before it started by showing up, setting a historic OT record, and totally showing the world what he can do even when rusty.

Even Charles Barkley on TNT was left speechless. He bumped this Curry performance over LeBron's 29 out of the last 30 points against the Pistons in the 2007 playoffs. I saw both live on TV and I have to say, despite me being a bigger fan of Curry than LeBron at this point and any possible recency bias, I have to give a slight edge to the 22-year old LeBron's performance in 2007. May be I am spoiled by the 15 to 20 point scoring binges Curry and even Klay routinely go on with this dubs team. Regardless of how we rank these, we are lucky to be watching these exemplary performances. I do have to say it's easier to enjoy this type of greatness when we support the team and the player or at least are neutral and have no dog in the fight. I can't even imagine how the Portland fans felt when Curry went that crazy! I guess owner Paul Allen's expression said it all. Blazers did fight all the way to the bitter end as it took another awesome dagger 3 by Curry at the end to wrap up game 5 at home. He did it on the night he was presented with the MVP in front of the home fans. It was an unanimous MVP award and deservingly so.

There were a few murmurs about the unanimity of his selection. Tracy McGrady somehow took that as a sign that the league's talent is watered down. League's talent level fluctuates. Of course when Michael Jordan was playing, the peak was at it's highest and then when he retired, the peak dropped. But then again the depth of top talent might be a different story to analyze.  I don't know if I have all this calibrated except to say MJ was the best ever, and neither has Tracy McGrady. There is a little bit of a dip in the talent right now as LeBron, Wade, and Carmelo are beginning to slow down and Kobe and Tim Duncan are completely done. The younger ones like Dame Lillard, Wiggins, KAT, and Anthony Davis are barely developing. There is still ample talent in it's prime and Durant and Westbrook come to mind along with LeBron. But Curry is the best of the best right now and there can be no argument against his unanimous selection. It's not his problem that some nut-job reporter or 2 in the past years screwed up unanimous selections of Shaq and others. All we can say now is, Curry's unanimous selection is well deserved. He led the league in scoring, which is the primary MVP stat, and also steals per game. The team won a record-setting 73 games.

Playing for the best team - check. Best player in the best team - check. Best player in the league right now - check. Most exciting player in the league - check. A ridiculous, record-setting 405 3-pointers in a season - check. Thats an unanimous MVP to me. Not sure what more TMac wants. LeBron then came out and said a few things about the differences between the best player in the league and the MVP of the team, etc. I was a little confused and I am not even sure if he was dissing Curry, but these things are always going to be misconstrued and it is being interpreted as anti-Curry, at least in the Bay. There seems to be some resentment of Curry's accolades among players and ex-players and it's hard to understand. MVP votes are cast by the writers. They are a key stake-holder and so are the players, coaches, and fans. Each group has their own perspective and we have to respect them all. But I do think the player's perspective is too skewed in favor of athleticism, one-on-one skills, and individual scoring ability. Curry is not the raw athlete that these players are used to looking up to. The players are good in judging things like the dunk contests and I am happy they are not voting for the MVP. No wonder they voted for James Harden - a player who doesn't even try to play defense, over Curry in their poll last year. The coaches' and even the writers' perspective works better for awards like the MVP and the writers unanimously picked the right one this time.

All this doubting and chatter make it doubly important for the dubs to win it all this year to legitimize Curry's awards as well as the 73-win record. That chapter continues next week with a fascinating series against the Thunder.

Dame Dolla on Fire

Stephen Curry was not available for the Warriors this weekend for game 3 in Portland. But there was somebody who looked awfully similar to him on the court who was scoring at will. Unfortunately for the dubs, it was the Blazer's Damian Lillard. I am a big Dame Dolla fan. The kid from Oakland who wears 0 for the O always plays well against his home town team. He is not the shooter that Curry is - nobody is, but when his three is falling like it was in game 3, he is not that different. He has the handles, quickness, and even plays a more traditional point than Curry. And he showed us in this game that he can also take and make long-range, off-the-dribble threes like the MVP. Even Jeff Van Gundy on ESPN was very impressed by his off-the-dribble shooting and was loudly wondering if Lillard and Curry could be traded for each other without either team missing a beat. Thats high praise for Dame. Klay is a good defender and he tried his best to contain Dame, but he had no shot on this day. This is how folks must have felt defending Curry all season. 

Aside from the Oakland angle, Damian also has the "all-star snub" chip on his shoulder, especially against Curry and Klay who were both western all-stars ahead of him.  That explains the Blazers faithful yelling "over-rated" at Klay during the game. Dame and CJ are also in the running for the best back-court in the league crown that firmly belongs to Curry and Klay today. Mix in the narrative of Klay being a 2-way star and shutting Dame down in game 2, you had a potent cocktail that probably drove Dame sky high in game 3. He showed up, stepped up, and locked up a win. Now the Curry injury saga is back again on the front-burner. It's amazing how good the Warriors are that they can stage manage their best player's return even in the second round of the western conference playoffs. With each win, people assume Curry will be rested one more game and with each loss, people wonder if Curry will be inserted into the next game. Lets see if we finally see the MP3 in game 4. 

Curry-Klay versus Dame-CJ is going to be a fascinating rivalry for years to come. But then again, such projections about future greatness are always a hit or miss. Reminds me of a game in 2003 between the dubs and Suns featuring a young Gilbert Arenas, Jason Richardon, and Antawn Jamison on one-side and a young Amare Stoudemire,  Stephon Marbury, and Shawn Marion on the other. Everybody was talking about how this might be the two young, fast, fun teams of the future. The dubs couldn't retain Arenas and that was the end of that short-lived era. The Suns let go for Marbury too, but they did improve with Nash. But a rivalry, it was not.  I was salivating about a LeBron-Wade rivalry before LeBron killed it and became Wade's Scottie Pippen for 4 prime years. Ironically, they might renew their rivalry in the senior citizen mode in the next round if Miami wins against Toronto - a big IF. The Cavs have looked really impressive after 2 straight sweeps. Their 3-point shooting has become more of a news in the playoffs than even the Warriors, who are without Curry's threes so far. 

It's going to be an interesting matchup if the Cavs and dubs meet in the finals again. The Cavs are a very different team from last year and both teams are going to be shooting threes all night. You would think nobody can beat the dubs in that game, though the Cavs are becoming a trendy pick for the championship. They have definitely looked good and the big-3 are finally playing with some confidence and chemistry. Ironically, LeBron is shooting bricks, but the rest of the team is shooting lights out. Plus LeBron does so many other things, he still is the king. The Spurs-Thunder series seems headed to 7 games with the Thunder winning tonight behind Durant's 41. I still don't trust the Thunder to win the series, but they have enough talent to stretch the Spurs. It pains me to say I don't trust Westbrook. How can an incredible athlete who plays that hard inspire so little confidence? Two words - decision making. Westbrook is hard-headed and a bad decision maker. Him and Durant have not really learned to play together after all these years, not to mention all the other talent on the roster. It's a weird style the Thunder play built around those 2 super-stars and I don't see it surviving past his round.