Easy road? Last 8 of 11 Warriors’ playoff foes had injured starters

 

316-1.

Thanks to the ever-trusty stat hounds of SportsCenter, it is revealed that the Golden State Warriors’ 113-111 comeback win over the San Antonio Spurs was Coach Gregg Popovich’s first loss when leading by more than 25 points in a game. In other words, Popovich just suffered the biggest turnaround of his career.

However, the loss has since been mired with controversy after the Spurs’ superstar-slash-machine Kawhi Leonard re-aggravated his lingering ankle injury after landing on the Warriors’ almost-All-Star Zaza Pachulia. With Leonard carried out and not allowed to return, Golden State pounced on the confused Spurs and vaporized their lead via a 46-22 run to end the game.

Although both Pachulia and Leonard believe that Pachulia’s act of putting his foot on Leonard’s landing space which caused the injury was not intentional, fans on social media were up in arms with the angry reactions and inflammatory comments towards the Warriors.

Amid the riotous social media anger, the stat hounds of Basketball Forever were at work and sniffed out another stat: 9 of 11.

According to them, 9 out of the Warriors’ last playoff opponents had injured starters. Yep, you read that right. But they read that wrong. There are actually only 8. Take that for data.

The only teams at full strength that Golden State defeated in the last 3 years were ironically Kevin Durant’s Oklahoma City Thunder at the 2016 West Finals, the Portland Trailblazers at the 2016 West Semifinals and the Houston Rockets at the 2016 West Quarterfinals.

So who were these 7 other teams aside from the 2017 Spurs, and how have their injuries affected their chances against the Warriors? In reverse chronological order:

1. Utah Jazz, 2017 Western Conference Semifinals

Injury: George Hill (starting point guard)

To complete their 8-0 start to the 2017 playoffs, the Warriors swept the scrappy Utah Jazz without George Hill, their sole hope in defending Steph Curry.

With raw prospects like Shelvin Mack, Dante Exum and Raul Neto left to rotate and defend Curry, the two-time Most Valuable Player demolished his matchups en route to a 25.3 points per game average on 46% shooting and 41% from downtown in 3 games without Hill.

2. Portland Trailblazers, 2017 Western Conference Quarterfinals

Injury: Jusuf Nurkic (starting center)

To be fair to the Warriors, this matchup was hopeless from the start. However, we are left with a what-if scenario since the Blazers’ young stud center Jusuf Nurkic was out for the entire series. Entering the playoffs, Nurkic exploded after being traded to the Blazers from the Nuggets with crazy averages of 15.3 points, 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.3 steals on 51% shooting.

We are then left to wonder how the Blazers’ interior defense would be had Nurkic been healthy. Certainly, the slashing crew of Curry, Durant and Draymond Green would have a harder time getting into the paint. Instead, they just clowned to a 4-0 series sweep around the young and undersized Blazer front court of Noah Vonleh and Mo Harkless.

3. Cleveland Cavaliers, 2016 Finals

Injury: Kevin Love (starting power forward)

We’ll keep this simple enough. Kevin Love cautiously returned from injury as a bench player in Game 4. By then, the Warriors were up 3-1.

In Game 5, Love was back as a starter.

Then the Warriors blew a 3-1 lead.

4. Cleveland Cavaliers, 2015 Finals

Injuries: Kevin Love (starting power forward), Kyrie Irving (starting point guard)

This series will always be known as the time when LeBron James carried the entire city of Cleveland.

With Love going down as early as the first round and with Irving going down in Game 1 of the finals, James took it upon himself to die trying to win a ring for his hometown.

However, one man is just too much for the impressively deep Warriors, who had their bench player Andre Iguodala win the Finals MVP award.

James would bow down after 6 games as the only player in NBA Finals history to lead both teams in individual points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.

5. Houston Rockets, 2015 Western Conference Finals

Injuries: Patrick Beverley (starting point guard)

Also known as Russell Westbrook’s worst enemy, Patrick Beverley is a pest to deal with on the court. Despite his low scoring numbers, the scrappy point guard will straight up harass any opposing guard on defense both physically and verbally.

With a 37-year old Jason Terry hopelessly running the point guard spot (as James Harden has yet to unlock his point guard god mode), the Warriors bounced out the Rockets in 5 games.

6. Memphis Grizzlies, 2015 Western Conference Semifinals

Injuries: Mike Conley (starting point guard), Tony Allen (starting shooting guard)

Yet another loss on the defensive end – a huge one at that – Tony Allen was supposed to act as the lockdown defender for the talented perimeter tandem of Curry and Klay Thompson. He didn’t become Mr. First Team All-Defense for trash talk. Meanwhile, Mike Conley is a quality starting point guard with decent scoring and playmaking abilities.

For Game 1, Conley was out. Warriors won.

For Games 2 and 3, the Grizzlies were fully healthy and won two straight.

For Games 4 and 5, Allen was out. Warriors won two straight, with momentum carrying over to a Game 6 clinching win.

You be the judge.

7. New Orleans Pelicans, 2015 Western Conference Quarterfinals

Injury: Jrue Holiday (starting point guard)

New Orleans’ Cinderella story blossomed due to a dramatic tussle with the Thunder. Earlier in the season, star forward Anthony Davis hit a ridiculous buzzer-beater to defeat Oklahoma City. Good moment, no big deal, right? However, both the Pelicans and Thunder finished at 45 wins and 37 losses – both good for the eighth seed. Little did everyone know that Davis’ buzzer-beater would come back to haunt the Thunder again and be the tiebreaker the Pelicans needed to enter the playoffs.

Anyway, with that out of the way, Pelicans All-Star point guard Jrue Holiday went down before Game 1 against the Warriors and then they got swept in 4 games. Whoops. Cue the cricket sounds.

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Noting these injuries is not meant to discredit the Warriors’ strengths. In fact, they are still and will always be ridiculously strong as long as their core remains together.

However, the lingering thoughts of what-ifs just creep up on you when you think of all the teams the Warriors trumped who should have had a fighting chance. Maybe they still wouldn’t have a ring by now, who knows? At the end of the day, these are the Warriors we’re talking about. They eat hate for breakfast. – Rappler.com