Curry and Warriors make fifth straight NBA finals
The Golden State Warriors have advanced to their fifth straight NBA Finals after a destruction of the Portland Trail Blazers in just four games. The Warriors are the only team to make five straight finals since the ‘60s Boston Celtics dynasty and more recently, LeBron James led teams appeared in eight-straight finals from 2011-18.
Golden State will be waiting for either Milwaukee or Toronto, who are tied at 2-2 in the Eastern Conference Finals.
The Warriors played phenomenally in the second half against Portland, overcoming three 17-point deficits in the final three games of the series. All of it without Kevin Durant.
Golden State has reminded us of the 73-9 team it produced before Durant came around. The Warriors are showing us they can still play with off-ball movement and a million different passing combinations. They are giving teams, the Rockets and Blazers, vastly different looks than they do with Durant on the floor.
Stephen Curry put up an astounding 36.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 7.3 assists per game against the Blazers in the conference finals. Curry went back to his pre-Durant scoring ways, but was helped by some notable changes head coach Steve Kerr made.
Curry was put into a ton of pick and rolls with Draymond Green against Portland, allowing him to come off screens and shoot wide open three-pointers due to the Blazers dropping the screen-defender. Curry hit nine threes in the first game of the series after getting a wide open three to start the game because Portland was dropping a big man and leaving the guard on an island.
Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry, left, puts up a shot as Portland Trail Blazers’ Meyers Leonard, right, and CJ McCollum, center, look on during the second half of Game 4 of the NBA basketball playoffs Western Conference finals, Monday, May 20, 2019, in Portland, Ore. The Warriors won 119-117 in overtime. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
Another thing that aided Curry in his scoring was a scorching usage rate. This is an estimate of the percentage of team plays used by a player while he was on the floor. Curry topped 30% just once in the playoffs until Durant got hurt, then had four-straight games over 30%, one against Houston and three against Portland, before finishing with 26% usage in the closeout game against the Blazers.
Curry has been great all playoffs, but simply having the ball in his hands more is what it takes for us to realize that the dude is still really good.
The team the Warriors are waiting on could be really good, or just kind of good. Truthfully, I don’t think Toronto is very good aside from Kawhi Leonard and at times Pascal Siakam. Watching them play backs my thought up.
Nobody on the Raptors seems to want the ball in crunch-time. If you watched the last three minutes of their game-seven against Philadelphia, everyone on the floor would pass it to Leonard and get out of the way. In theory, most people would agree that you want the ball in your best player’s hands. But somebody other than Leonard needs to be willing to step up when given a good look.
Milwaukee has a bunch of players who want to shoot the ball. Khris Middleton has taken several game-tying or winning attempts while guys like Eric Bledsoe, George Hill and Malcolm Brogdon have all been shooting a ton.
The Bucks are clearly the better overall team. Leonard has carried the Raptors to this point, but they should be winning a game in which Giannis Antetokounmpo scores 12 points and goes 5-16 from the field by more than six points in double-overtime.
The Raptors may have tied up the series, but I would be very surprised to see them in the NBA Finals starting at the end of the month. My prediction is the Warriors won’t need to update their passports because they’ll be traveling to Milwaukee for a showdown against the Bucks on May 30.
Twitter: @ajlars13