The mere existence of the Golden State Warriors means that, to even have a chance at championship contention, you must be nearly impossible to stop and nearly impossible to exploit. Four years, to be exact. They don’t think that they have a chance at winning it all with the Warriors in the way. We have seen Golden State (pre-Durant) both come back from and surrender a 3-1 series lead in the same postseason. For a team that has been underwhelming all season long, LeBron has shown the doubters once again exactly why you just can’t bet against the King during this time of the year. I know, they’ve won a championship two out of the past three years, and last playoffs lost only one game. “He’s been out since the first quarter of Game 1, so it’s like, do we even know who they would have (become)?”
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Now the Warriors rank as the top defensive squad in the play-offs just ahead of the Rockets.
How aggressive are the Warriors against Houston’s mediocre shooters? Mbah a Moute missed the first round and made just two of his 10 3s versus the Jazz, but the 31-year-old did hit a career-high 63 three-pointers in the regular season, despite missing 21 games to injury.
CP3 was actually part of the last team to have knocked the Warriors out of the playoffs before the finals with the Los Angeles Clippers in 2014.
Defending the Warriors presents a multitude of challenges, starting with Durant.
“Physically, other than (backup guard) Patrick McCaw’s injury, we’re in good shape”, Kerr said.
“He demonstrated firsthand what it takes to be great in this league, and it was a nice little eye-opener for me that summer”, he said.
“We’re confident because we know if we’re doing what we’re supposed to do, we’re going to beat them”, Capela told ESPN. “And we’re definitely threatened”.
The Warriors struggled with sustaining motivation throughout the season.
The same players have been performing well for Golden State all season long.
When Stephen Curry entered the 2009 NBA Draft, he worked out with Chris Paul who served as a mentor.
Golden State Warriors vs. The Rockets countered with an effective field goal percentage (56.0) above their season average (55.1) against a team rife with stellar individual defenders, meaning Houston will continue to do what comes so efficiently.
“It’s not the norm, but I like it”, said Livingston.
However, I think the 2015-16 Cavs are the toughest team Golden State has faced under Steve Kerr. You try to pick him up early, you try to get physical.
Houston Rockets fans – can you believe it?
The Rockets fell to the San Antonio Spurs in the conference semifinals past year.
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This will likely come down to how well Capela defends when the Warriors go small. “That’s it, man. There’s nothing else to it but to go down there and handle business, right? But we’re not going to change up a whole lot of what we do”. “We did win 65. At the end of the day, you’re playing basketball, and you control what you can control”. And we, of course, will wear Warriors gear *if* their team wins. “You’ve got to be careful with that. We’re not about to run off talking about how bad we want to play somebody”, Green said. It follows us on the road.
