For Golden State, it won’t matter who wins Sunday
You imagine the Warriors gathered around television sets Sunday, and you wonder about their preference. Would they like to see Houston win Game 7, knowing they dominated the Rockets all season? Or would they prefer the Clippers, because eliminating that team would feel so damned good?
A quick breakdown from the peanut gallery:
The Warriors saw a slightly different cast of characters every time they played Houston this season, but the result (4-0) was the same: a double-digit, no-worries victory. Dwight Howard played in two of those games but was largely ineffective. James
Harden had one big shooting night (34 points Dec.10) but shot 35 percent (20-for-57) in the other three losses.
Everybody’s making a big deal
out of the Howard- Josh Smith partnership that dates to their youth in Atlanta, but after surviving the Memphis series — and knowing that Andrew Bogut is healthy — this matchup looks tame. It’s also significant that point guard Patrick Beverley, who loves the challenge of guarding Stephen Curry, won’t be available.
As for the Clippers, aren’t they a bit too emotionally fragile to be taken seriously, especially because the Warriors have had their number of late? Striking recollections come to mind: Draymond Green getting inside Blake Griffin’s head, Chris Paul brought to his knees by one of Curry’s devastating fakes, Dahntay Jones lamely (and intentionally) bumping Green from behind during a postgame interview. And the bench. That awful, almost nonexistent Clippers bench.
Then again, that’s all in the past. Come to an NBA game with a notebook full of research, and you’re likely to trash it by halftime. It’s all about right now, and either of these teams could turn the psychological edge in their favor.
It’s just not likely, that’s all. I can’t imagine the Warriors losing a home game to either one of these pretenders. If you’ve made plans for the Finals, there’s no reason to back off now.
Maybe it’s good the Clippers got out of town. L.A. Times columnist Bill Plaschke wrote of an “omen” late in the first quarter of Game 6 at Staples Center: “Just when it appeared that this was the night the Clippers would shine the brightest, the darkest parts of their history walked into the building. Amid much fussing, Shelly Sterling took her seat at midcourt. For now, the Clipper Curse lives.”
And think about it: How depressing would it be for the Clippers to advance no further in the playoffs than last year, under the dreaded and deposed Donald Sterling?
No pressure, Doc Rivers, but if your Clippers lose Sunday, you’ll be the first coach to blow a 3-1 series lead twice (his 2003 Orlando Magic held that edge over Detroit before losing in seven).
Dream scenario: Before Sunday’s game, Rivers has a brief chat with Houston head coach Kevin McHale. “How about this?” he says. “How about we ditch the intentional-foul hacking nonsense and play real basketball today?”
What could revive the Clippers: Jamal Crawford, one of the league’s deadliest shooters, emerges from a horrendous slump in which he has shot 36 percent from the floor and 23 percent from three-point range in 13 playoff games.
The NBA’s replay system wore out its welcome Friday night in the Hawks-Wizards Game 6. Right at the buzzer, Paul Pierce hit an electrifying, off-balance three-pointer to send the game into overtime — and that’s exactly how it would gone down in bygone years. Instead, everything stopped for an interminable delay, Pierce eventually crestfallen upon learning he released it about a tenth of a second too late. Sorry, but games just aren’t meant to end that way. Reader Tom Richardson calls it “the watch-off win. That is not the spirit of live sports.”
Unbelievable: ESPN’s Chris Broussard blurted “talk about” twice during his postgame interview of Atlanta’s DeMarre Carroll. Can’t we find some sideline reporters who know how to ask an actual question?
Also annoying: Hubie Brown, who should know better, has joined the “score the basketball” crowd. Come on, Hubie, you go too far back to fall for that nonsense.
LeBron James, on going from a Cleveland lineup including Anderson Varejao and Dion Waiters to a fractured group missing Kevin Love and stifled by the injuries to Kyrie Irving, Tristan Thompson and Iman Shumpert: “I just said, ‘OK, this is the unit we have. I’ve got to be very patient with them.’ I’m just not sure if I knew we could be this good right now.”
The call here is for Cleve- land over Atlanta in six. Asked about the prospect of being labeled an underdog, LeBron replied, “Huh? Underdog? Me? I would never be an underdog. I’m going five straight times to the Eastern Conference finals, man. That doesn’t happen all the time.”
The daily Matthew Dellavedova report: USA Today reported that he’s a disciple of Steve Nash, having sought out the two-time MVP point guard in 2012 at the start of his senior season at St. Mary’s. Armed with a list of questions about nutrition, playing defense, pick-and-roll execution and other technical matters, Dellavedova said Nash “gave me 30 minutes of his time. I asked all the questions I wanted. Sometimes I look back at the interview and reference what he told me.”
And this final Warriors item, from the New Yorker’s Ben Detrick on what makes Curry unique: “There is something almost weightless about his elegantly accelerated play.”