Warriors-Thunder in 1st round? Epic
The Warriors cruised through last year’s playoffs like a steamship through placid waters, going 16-1 and marking their place among the greatest teams in league history. Chances are the trip will be immeasurably more difficult this year.
Or haven’t you noticed that they could draw Oklahoma City in the first round?
As dangerous as they can be — and the Warriors know all about it, having lost twice to OKC this year — the Thunder tend to falter against lesser opposition, absorbing some inexcusable losses and barely squeaking out victories over Memphis, Orlando, Sacramento and Dallas in recent weeks. They’ve slipped to seventh in the Western Conference, and at the start of Friday’s play, the Warriors were No. 2.
That’s a multilayered collision course, featuring the Kevin Durant-Russell Westbrook dynamic and whatever OKC might have planned for
Zaza Pachulia (hint: burly bruiser Steven Adams would be involved) after Pachulia’s awkward tumble last Saturday and Westbrook’s claim that the Warriors’ center is a “dirty player.”
It goes without saying that the standings could shift dramatically, and it sounds as if the Warriors are planning a high-gear run to the No. 1 seed. Gaining the home-court advantage over Houston is paramount, but if it also means avoiding the intensely motivated Thunder — instead drawing Denver, the Clippers or Utah in the first round— it sounds like a good idea.
The Houston menace
Houston just keeps rolling, prompting an ESPN debate Wednesday night. Jalen Rose claimed the Rockets are deeper than the Warriors, saying, “Wait a minute — they’re trying to get quality minutes from
Nick Young?” Countered Paul Pierce, “If you have Kevin Durant, he’s worth at least three players on the Rockets’ bench.” ... After the Cavaliers suspended J.R. Smith for a game, it came to light that he threw a bowl of soup at assistant coach Damon Jones during practice. Smith missed Thursday night’s game against the 76ers, sports sage J.A.
Adande suggesting his box score line should have read “DNP — soup.” ... Giants fans should be inspired by the sight of Ron Wotus in the thirdbase coaching box. Initially, he wasn’t thrilled to lose his bench-coach job to Hensley
Meulens, but his new assignment finds Wotus on the field, in a crucial role. He’s not an entertainer along the lines of
Tim Flannery (who is?), but he comes from the Flannery school of diligent homework, instant decisions and pure instincts ... New Giants third baseman Evan Longoria had many epic moments with Tampa Bay, notably his walkoff home run in the season’s final game to put the Rays into the 2011 postseason. He and Bobby Thomson (Giants, 1951) are the only players to do such a thing, and Longoria’s moment wouldn’t have been possible without Dan Johnson, a former A’s first baseman. Johnson, who had hit just one homer all season, came off the bench to hit a two-out, twostrike, pinch-hit homer in the bottom of the ninth, sending the game into extra innings.
If we get another season of routine flyballs and oppositefield liners that sail into the stands, we’ll hear MLB claim once again that the balls aren’t juiced. And not a single pitcher will believe it. “You never want to make excuses for bad pitching, but yeah, it’s 100 percent juiced,” Houston pitcher Dallas Keuchel told reporters. “This is the game they wanted, and this is what they got.” Meanwhile, the website FiveThirtyEight.com published the findings of an ESPN Sport Science-commissioned study into the composition of baseballs since 2015, revealing balls that are bouncier at the core, lighter in weight, slicker and more compact with tighter seams, and less air-resistant — leading to more than a 25 percent increase in the number of home runs last season. The Astros’ Justin Verlander tweeted this week that, “We’re all using the same balls, so it’s a fair field. My issue is I don’t like being lied to (by MLB). I knew something was different. Century-old records are being broken and numbers are skewed.” ... Strong candidates for the lamest celebrations in sports: sucking on the thumb (apparently there’s a baby involved somewhere, but try something else), flexing the biceps (pathetic; get over yourself ) and fingers to lips as if to the silence the crowd (right, and aren’t you special. Let’s hope you screw up badly and the crowd’s vitriol is deafening.) ... Stanford has lined up a powerhouse group of speakers for its annual Sports Innovation Conference on Wednesday, including Warriors principal owner Joe Lacob, MLS commissioner Don Garber, former Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice and NCAA president Mark Emmert. The event runs 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. at the Stanford Graduate Business School, with generaladmission tickets priced at $95 (www.gsbsic.stanford.edu) ... Try to fathom this speed-upbaseball suggestion, reportedly addressed in executive offices: If your team is trailing in the ninth, you can start the inning with any three hitters you want, regardless of the batting order. Seriously. Somebody thinks this is a great idea. Next up: Remove the baseball altogether and play with a football. Bonus points for pitchers throwing the tightest spiral.