Can’t wear crown until you win it
If the Golden State Warriors are interested in winning their second NBA title in three years, they would be wise to cease concerning themselves with the 2001 Los Angeles Lakers.
The portions of the world still interested in basketball probably exclude most Green Teamers, who are now fixated only on the upcoming NBA draft and the Celtics’ hold on the overall No. 1 pick. But the remaining hoop holdouts have often brought up lately the remarkable ’01 Lakers, who set an NBA record run to the championship by going 15-1 in the playoffs and, technically, swept every series.
How can one lose a game and still sweep a series? Well the Lakers stormed through the first three rounds of the playoffs like the Warriors did this season, going a perfect 12-0. Then they lost the first game of the Finals to the 76ers. After which they swept them as well, winning the next four straight.
Talk of the Warriors’ possibilities only heightened in ESPN’s circle of influence (which is shrinking along with its job force but still sizable) after the Warriors blasted the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday night, storming to a 113-91 victory in Game 1 of the Finals with nearly total dominance of the paint, the arc and all the real estate in between.
No NBA team has ever gone unbeaten throughout the playoffs. And considering the deep well of talent the Cavaliers possess, it would seem unlikely the heavily favored Warriors will either, but that has become a growing secondary topic of conversation for some time. Yet if the Warriors want to beat LeBron James’ Cavs for the second time in three years in the Finals, that’s where they must keep such thoughts — a secondary topic.
That will not be as easy as it might seem, however, because the Warriors are made up of human beings after all. They read the papers — or at least Twitter — and are as susceptible as the rest of us to letting their reach exceed their grasp. They are not immune to a momentary failure to stay in the moment, and certainly are not unaware of the historical feat within their reach.
Yet to seek that historic moment is to put the Warriors in danger of a repeat of what the Cavs did to them last season, when Golden State blew a 3-1 Finals lead and succumbed to the LeBrons, much to the astonishment of Steph Curry & Co. Last year they wore the crown before they won the crown, an almost always fatal misstep, and thus lost it.
Thursday night the Warriors did not look likely to repeat that collapse, however. Curry was fully healthy, which he was not a year ago when suffering from the lingering effects of a sprained knee. He poured in 28 points and combined with new recruit Kevin Durant to break down Cleveland’s suspect defense all night long.
Cleveland appeared to have no answer for Durant, who drove by anyone who tried to jump out on him (as six first-half dunks made clear) and shot over anyone who tried to play back. That one-man mismatch allowed the Warriors to score 21 baskets in the paint in the first half, and that’s despite missing a stunning 15 layups. If that continues, Cleveland fully understands, its season will soon be over.
The mismatches Golden State created with the addition of Durant are considerable, and how Cavs coach Tyronn Lue intends to solve them is beyond me. If they are also beyond him, it is not beyond the realm of possibility the Warriors could surpass the 2001 Lakers. But they won’t do it if they fixate too much on it, a fixation that could result in losing the larger prize — the NBA title itself.
The Warriors are the better team, but so what? They were the better team a year ago too, even with Curry limping, yet found a way to lose when the oddsmakers gave them a better chance of winning after going up 3-1 than the Atlanta Falcons had in the third quarter against the Patriots in the Super Bowl. Of course, that’s why they call them odds, isn’t it?
Lue seemed peevish after Game 1 when the talk turned to how great the Warriors looked and it seems likely his players will feel much the same tonight when the two go at it again at the Oracle in the East Bay. At one point Lue characterized thusly: “They’re the best I ever seen.”
The sarcasm was dripping from his lips as he spoke, and understandably so if you have LeBron, Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving on your team. Is it likely Cleveland will turn the ball over 20 times and shoot 34.9 percent in four straight games? No it is not. Are they not the defending champions, not the other guys? Indeed so.
None of that means they win but it means there is not 22 points difference between these two teams and the Warriors need remember that even if ESPN’s and ABC’s talking heads may forget it.
The Warriors need to be careful to remember that tonight and when they head to Cleveland later in the week for Games 3 and 4. They need also remember LeBron and his teammates are a proud lot who actually believe it when they say, “we can play better.” They can and they will, but that doesn’t mean the Warriors couldn’t still sweep them out of the playoffs.
It only means if the Warriors start thinking about something as esoteric as that, they may suddenly find themselves where they ended up a year ago. Which is to say, a team that left the floor holding a participation trophy instead of the Larry O’Brien Trophy.
“They are a high-powered offensive team,” James said. “They can shoot the ball from the perimeter, they can get into the paint. They do everything exceptionally well, if not great.”