It's a Long Road Back

I'm so happy these guys won another title.

I've always gravitated towards the teams that shoot a lot of 3s and/or run a lot, so a roster with the greatest shooter in NBA history (Steph Curry), plus one of the other greatest shooters (Klay Thompson) was always going to be my jam. They seemed like a team that had so much fun. When they'd get some stops and turn them into fast break dunks or open 3s for Curry or Thompson, and that would start the avalanche.

Suddenly, one of those two couldn't miss and everyone on the team was encouraging them to just keep shooting and going nuts as the shots kept going in. The Warriors would pull away in seemingly an instant. Their opponent would panic, start trying to hit their own big shots to come back, and it would only get worse. I remember watching them in the playoffs against a solid-if-unspectacular Utah team and midway through the second quarter, the Warriors hit another level and suddenly made the Jazz look completely outmatched. Like Golden State was playing a JV high school team rather than a roster of actual NBA players.

That's an oversimplification of their team, though. The Warriors' success is as much about their defense as the offense over the years. The original "Death Lineup" - Andre Iguodala/Draymond Green/Harrison Barnes/Curry/Thompson - got that name because it consisted of four excellent defenders (plus Curry, who has worked to get better over his career, but is still an easier target), who could guard almost anyone, without requiring a big center who fouled up the spacing on offense. All with Draymond, who seems to understand defense, anticipation, positioning to a remarkable degree, running the show.

It helped that both Iguodala and Green, poor shooters, were smart passers and active without the ball. That's one of the things the Warriors being good for several years did, give me a better appreciation for how basketball works. Or maybe how it can work. Their offense is based on movement. Everybody screens, everybody cuts, everybody gets to touch the ball and be part of the offense. The polar opposite of the crap the Houston Rockets ran when they had James Harden, where he dribbles the ball for 20 seconds while the other four guys stand in the corners and wait to see if he'll pass to them or just jump into his defender to draw a bullshit foul.

(I understood people being tired of the Warriors at a certain point, but the notion of rooting for the Rockets to beat them? Just, no. Actually, NO. Absolutely not.)

The motion requires space. Namely, the amount of space Curry's shooting creates. The moment he reaches half-court, he has to be guarded. Because he's in range already. Dragging one, or even two if they decide to double-team or trap him, defenders out that far opens up so much room for everyone else on the team.

One of my favorite stretches was in the 2019 playoffs. Kevin Durant got hurt, and for the remainder of their series with Houston and the entire series with Portland, there would be times where it was Curry and 4 guys who can't shoot (usually Draymond, Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and Kevon Looney). It didn't matter. Guarding Curry properly created room to move, and all those guys were smart passers, so the Rockets and Blazers were scrambling all over the court, trying to keep up.

It fell apart against the Raptors in the Finals. Partially because Durant came back and then got really hurt, then Klay got really hurt, but also because the Raptors were a much better defensive team than the Blazers or Rockets. They could keep up with the passing and the movement. The Raptors won the title. Kevin Durant joined the Brooklyn Nets. Shaun Livingston retired. The Warriors traded Iguodala to cut the luxury tax payment. 

I was actually excited. I didn't mind Durant deciding he wanted to play with the Warriors, and while I didn't understand not wanting to stay, I was curious to see what would happen. He was gone, but Curry, Green and Thompson won a title without him. I expected they would want to prove they could do it again. Except, Klay Thompson missed all of the next season. Curry injured his hand five games into that season and missed the rest of it. Draymond looked out of shape and disinterested. The Warriors had the worst record in the league.

They were so bad, when the NBA resumed the COVID-interrupted season in "the bubble" down at Disneyland, the Warriors were one of the teams they didn't even invite. The garbage-ass Washington Wizards, who haven't been to a conference finals in over 40 years, were good enough to be invited to see if they could squeak into the playoffs, but the Warriors were relegated to the same category as the NBA's longest-running joke, the Sacramento Kings.

OK, maybe next year. Curry's hand would be fine. Thompson would be recovered from the ACL tear. Draymond would give a shit once those guys were back and they were contending. Then Thompson blew out his Achilles tendon in training camp. Missed another year. The Warriors scrambled to fill the spot with Kelly Oubre, who has never been a satisfactory answer to any problem a NBA team has faced. They managed a winning record anyway, on the strength of a strong finish to the season where they paired Curry with whoever on the roster could play the way the Warriors liked to, but still missed the playoffs.

Consistent title contenders usually have a core group of guys throughout a run, but there comes a point where they drop off. Age-related decline, injuries, retirement, guys leave in free agency, whatever. Once they do, the team doesn't come back until there's an entirely new core in place. The Celtics made it to at least the conference finals (meaning they were one of the last 4 teams standing) 7 of 8 years from 1980-1988. They won 3 titles, made the Finals 2 other times. After that, they didn't make the conference finals again until 2003. From 1980 through 1991, the Lakers made it to at least the conference finals 10 of 12 years. Won 5 titles, lost in the Finals 4 other times. After '91, took them until '98 (and having Shaq and Kobe) to get back to the conference finals. The Bulls in the 1990s made the Finals 6 of 8 years, won every time. They've made the conference finals once since 1998. It took them 7 years to even get back to the playoffs at all. 

The Cavaliers and Heat both dropped off after Lebron left. The Spurs did the same once Kawhi decided he didn't want to be in San Antonio any longer. The Lakers had a solid shitty decade after the Kobe/Pau Gasol/Lamar Odom group fell apart, and needed Lebron James to pull them from that tailspin. Considering they've only escaped the first round 1 of the 4 seasons he's been there, it's fair to question if he really succeeded.

So I wondered if injuries and time got the Warriors, and they wouldn't be able to make it back. But I hoped to be wrong, and they started the season well, 18-2. Neck-and-neck with the Suns for best record, and Klay was supposed to be progressing nicely, scrimmaging and everything. But they never could get everybody on the court together during the regular season. Klay came back, and Draymond almost immediately was out with a back injury. He came back, Curry's foot got rolled over and he missed the last two weeks of the season. They just held onto the #3 seed ahead of the Mavericks.

But maybe these guys don't need any reps to mesh. They've been teammates so long, they already know what to do. They basically smoked the Nuggets in the first round, even with Curry coming off the bench for four games as he worked back from the injury. He still scored 34 points in less than 23 minutes in a Game 2, 20-point beatdown. But the Nuggets were minus anyone other than Jokic who could reliably do anything on offense, and they weren't much on defense, either. 

The Grizzlies were going to be another matter. Young, athletic, tough, full of confidence and not shy letting the opponent know about it. The Grizzlies won Game 2 behind 47 points from Ja Morant, and suddenly there were all these articles about how would the Warriors be able to stop him, and boy, they're in trouble. Seemed like an overreaction considering the series was tied, the Warriors had home court, and the Grizzlies only won by 5. If Morant scored 40, they would have lost. He scored 34 in Game 3, and Memphis lost by 30.

And he got hurt, which improved the Grizzlies' defense, but they had no one who could get them a bucket when they needed it. It turned into a slog for the Warriors, but they made it hard for Memphis to score - the Grizzlies didn't break 100 points in Game 4 or 6, both of which they lost - and Golden State was able to find the cracks in the defense at the end to score just enough. In Game 6, Memphis grabbed a 2 point lead, 89-87 with just under 7 minutes left. From there, the Warriors went on a 21-3 run in the next 5 minutes and put it away.

On to Dallas, who had just humiliated the Suns and made Chris Paul look like a chump (though they're hardly the first to do that in the playoffs.) The Mavericks tried to take away 3-pointers from the Warriors. So the Warriors attacked the rim constantly. Got their own misses and tried again. The Mavs had no big men who could discourage that or grab enough rebounds, and so the Warriors shot over 50% from the field in the series.

The Celtics were supposed to be the toughest test. They were being picked to win by many, although there was a weird contradiction in how the Celtics were discussed. They were treated as this great team, who only beat themselves because of their tendency to make dumb turnovers. Which they do, a lot. But if they were a great team, they wouldn't be beating themselves multiple times in every series. If they were really that much better than Milwaukee or Miami, they wouldn't have needed 7 games to win. More likely the Celtics were very good, and so were the Bucks and the Heat. The Warriors were better than Dallas or Denver, and they (mostly) played like it. They beat them each in 5 games, and the one game they lost in both series was after they were up 3 games to 0 and the series was effectively over.

The longer the Finals went, the more the Warriors seemed in control. Outside of the Celtics' big comeback in Game 1, the Warriors seemed to know how to slow them down. The Celtics did make several turnovers that were just inexplicably dumb passes, but the Warriors also knew how to cut them off, how to anticipate, how to funnel whoever had the ball to a place he didn't want to be. And when the Celtics turned the ball over, the Warriors ran with it.

The Celtics gummed up Golden State's offense frequently, taking the approach to not help when guarding Curry in an attempt to keep him from finding open teammates. It mostly worked. Nobody was getting easy shots. Except Curry, you know, the most dangerous guy on the team. After he torched the Celtics for 43 points to win Game 4, they finally lost their resolve and started double-teaming him. And it worked, Curry had a terrible shooting night! But the thing Boston had been worried about kicked in. The other Warriors got easy shots, the Celtics were out of position to fight for rebounds, so the Warriors killed them on second-chance points. Andrew Wiggins had a great night, Klay Thompson scored 21, they got points from Jordan Poole and Gary Payton II off the bench. The Celtics got nothing from their bench.

The Celtics came out desperate at the start of Game 6, but the Warriors took their best punch, and after the first three minutes of the game had them down 14-2, went on a 52-25 run over the next 21 minutes. The Celtics tried to make a few comebacks during the game, but every time they got within 8, the Warriors either got an open shot off an attempted double-team on Curry, or Curry hit a shot, or the Warriors' defense forced another turnover. They withstood every push the Celtics made. 

Maybe because the Celtics were tired from playing more games, or for not having a better bench to lessen the load. Even when the non-Curry Warriors weren't scoring, they were helping. Wiggins was making Jayson Tatum's life miserable. Kevon Looney was grabbing rebounds like crazy. Gary Payton II and Klay were active on defense and making just enough shots. Draymond was doing a little of everything in the last couple of games, which is his specialty. 

Or maybe it was because the Warriors have done this before. After facing Lebron James in 4 consecutive finals, Jayson Tatum and Marcus Smart probably don't seem too terrifying. It was weird, but even if I worried about if the Warriors would win individual games, I was never worried about them winning any of these series. It helps that, other than being down 1 game to 0 and then 2 games to 1 to Boston, they were never behind. But even when Boston was up, I still felt like Golden State could come back and win. And they did. So maybe I'm better at predicting sports than I am at predicting resolutions to comic book plots.

I don't know if they'll be able to do it again next year. It'd be cool if they could, but there's never any guarantees. The Bucks probably figured they were going back to the Finals this year, and then Khris Middleton hurt his knee in a first-round series against Chicago. The Bucks could beat the Bulls without him, they couldn't beat Boston. The Suns talked about this as their revenge tour for losing in the Finals last year, and then Dallas beat them like a drum in Round 2. The Warriors' last couple of seasons are maybe the best example. Nothing went the way they expected. But at least this season, they made it all the way back to the top this year.