I don't buy that.

OKC is just beating them. I don't think it has anything to do with their trying to get 73 wins.

The Bulls were an older team than GS and they got 72 wins and rolled through the playoffs.

GS is a pretty young team, being tired should not be an issue.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Don't know what the final tally is but OKC has pounded them on the boards. G.S. has to gang rebound in order to secure rebounds. That is hurting their running game. OKC's length is also bothering them too. Those back door cuts are being challenged at the rim now.

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A lot of times GS does not even try to offensive rebound. They make a lot of bad assumptions on jumpers. It looks cool when they are falling, but when they aren't it looks really silly.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Wasn't the Bulls 72 win season Jordan's first season back after a couple seasons of vacation from the NBA?

Curry and the Warriors played into June last season; 73 Wins this season....watch em play, they look out of gas.

Also, first round was only 3 wins back then.

Yeah they're losing because OKC is playing awesomely, not because they're tired from playing harder for a handful of regular season games. Honestly I think some of these Chicago media people have had the minutes garbage from the Bulls front office beaten into their heads so much that they're now eager to blame other teams' failures on the same thing. When all you have is a hammer...

I'm referring to Defensive rebounds. They are sending 3 to 4 guys just to battle Adams.

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One player, and the Bulls were an older team in their 72 run season.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

But they are at least need to send a few guys to the glass on the offensive end. A lot of times even their bigs just turn and run back on their long jumpers.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

to get to 73 wins, you're playing hard, every night, every game. Once the team started thinking about the wins record, every game becomes like a playoff game, at least for them. And possibly for whatever team they're playing that night, as they get up to play and maybe beat the Warriors in their effort to get to 73 wins.

Look at the Cavs, 57 Wins in a weak east. Think LeBron couldn't go out and roll up a 70 win season? He doesn't and ends up slacking so much in effort at different points throughout the season, that the CAVS don't even post 60 wins. 57 wins in the weak ass East? That's like .500 in the West.

yes, one of the role-players.

Never said it was a role player.

And it wasnt like Jordan was sitting around resting for two years. He was working at trying to play baseball.

I just do not buy your argument. The Bulls were older and they were not tired after going for 72 wins.

Saying GS is tired is taking away from what OKC is doing. They are flat kicking their ass right now.

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

"working at trying to play baseball"
you're killing me, stop.

keep making excuses for the poor tired Warriors.

They are getting their ass kicked right now

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

I don't think it's one or the other. Most situations aren't. Yes, the Thunder are outplaying the Warriors, but GS does not look at full speed.

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Kerr should be fired. Wanted the record too bad. Forgot that Curry aka Miller 2.0 ain't MJ. Glorious night.

Teams played as well as the Thunder have against the Warriors, many even better, and still lost to the Warriors in the regular season.

Warriors in the regular season had another offensive gear that allowed them to overcome even their opponent's best offensive game. Thunder themselves scored 118 and Durant had 40 and Westbrook 27 and 13 assists etc--Thunder still lost that game to Golden State, 121-118--in OKC, in OT. Just one of the Thunder's 3 regular season losses to the Warriors.

as the season wore on and Golden State made it clear they were targeting 73 wins--defending champs AND they are going for the season wins record--teams brought their best against the Warriors night after night during the regular season. For the Warriors to match that night after night and get to 73 wins?

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"He is a loathsome, offensive brute
--yet I can't look away."

Not buying the fatigue argument. Houston series was a cake walk and Portland wasn't exactly grueling either. G.S. also has point differential that was off the charts during the regular season. Curry sits out a number of 4th quarters. OKC is an extremely talented team. Forget about records. When you match them up 1-8, they are more talented. Playoff ball is simply different. Suddenly that free flowing offense doesn't look so mind boggling. They are able to lock in on them game after game now. It's making a difference.

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Because this is the first time this GS team has been this far in the playoffs? Yeah, defending NBA champ Golden State doesn't know how to win in the post-season. That's the ticket.

Warriors were already showing fatigue at the end of the regular season, dropping 2 at home back to back to the Celts and T-Wolves.

Golden State looks tired. Some of the bench players for Golden State have been providing a spark, actually. But their main guys, Curry/Green/Klay, all looked gassed before the 1st half was even over.

I'd say a team that just barely gets into the playoffs is probably more fatigued than a team like GS which more or less just cruised into the postseason, record-chasing notwithstanding. The mileage from last year is a legitimate concern but Cleveland, SA, LAC, etc., had the same issue.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

what team left in the NBA playoffs "barely got in"? East is the 1 and 2 seed, West is the 1 and 3 seed

As far as "crusing" into the post-season...

Golden State only lost 9 games all season....4 of those 9 losses came in the last month, 2 of them came at home in the final week or so of the season. Against an also-ran East team and to a lottery East team...GS was clearly going for the record in those games, expanding max effort til the end, showing fatigue.

Curry looks tired because he has to check Westbrook. Westbrook is relentlessly attacking the guy. It makes a difference. Green has to bang with 7 footers all game long. It has an effect. Big bodies. They aren't trying to go small. They are making G.S. pay for playing a 6'6 guy at PF. G.S. has to work too hard simply to secure rebounds.

They got extremely lucky during the playoffs last season. They were helped tremendously by the injuries suffered by other teams.

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Like Curry was some sort of shut-down defender in the regular season....

Curry's been shite on the offensive end is the problem. Curry's clanking wide-open looks and his lil scoop layup falls short now. Not that Westbrook is lighting him up. Westbrook lit up Curry during the regular season, and Curry and the Warrirors still managed to win by out-scoring the Thunder.

I think it takes more than luck to win an NBA title, in any season. Warriors were down 1-2 in a couple of series last season and managed to fight back and win em. This Warriors team looks too tired to make that effort.

Another sign that Curry's tired: during the season, he regularly shot from 25 foot plus and made em. Curry during the season seemed to rarely shoot anywhere within a foot of the 3 point line. These recent games, Curry's hugging the 3 point line so close he's hit a couple of 2 pointers on accident.

It's not really about whether or not he is a shut down guy. He is rarely attacked the way Westbrook is going at him. It's affecting his offense. I have actually been hoping to see this type of aggressiveNess from anyone. Whenever he guards Westbrook he is either posting or driving. Curry has a guy that's going to come at him now. It makes a difference.

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This is not a fatigue issue, Hussra. It's a matchup issue. Teams look tired when they're getting stomped.

Some are making it sound like GS is the only team that's even played basketball in the past year.

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so in the course of winning the NBA title last season and winning 73 games this season, GS hasn't faced the same matchup issues? Again, they swept this same Thunder team in the regular season series. Westbrook went off for the same points/assists he's putting up in these games. Durant average something ridiculous like 37 in those games vs Golden State--Thunder played great; Golden State, esp their offense, were better is all.

That's not the case here. GS's offensive punch is MIA. OKC rested guys regularly throughout the season, GS didn't. I think that explains OKC looking better at this late point in the playoffs than GS, considering GS has faced and conquered similar challenges in the past.

You don't win an NBA title and set the record for wins in a season and then trip over 'match-up' issues. If that were the case, GS never wins that title and certainly doesn't post a 73-9 record.

Matchups didn't matter when Steph Curry was draining 25 footer's like it was no thing and Draymond Green was playing like a cross btw Magic Johnson and Dennis Rodman. Green's lost his energy, Curry's lost his shooting range.

Maybe if GS were losing these games in OT, or by a bucket at the end; but they're not even competing for most of these games.

The comment about barely getting in is more general and not specific. What I mean by it is that I think a team whose playoff fate is in question day in and day out near the end of the season is more likely to enter the postseason fatigued than a team like GS due to more sustained exertion over a long period of time. You reference GS chasing 73 during the last month of the season but don't mention the seven or so months before that stretch where they basically played three quarters of ball before resting everyone in the fourth quarter.

In any case I don't think the fatigue argument is totally implausible but I just don't think it weighs all that much in the grand scheme of things. Plus it kind of smacks of confirmation bias.

_________________
Successful calls:

Kyrie Irving will never win anything as a team's alpha: check
T.rubisky is a bust: check
Ben Simmons is a liability: check
The Fields Cult is dumb: double check

2013 CSFMB ROY

I think they were getting hit with the best the other team could bring most every night once they lost a few games but still seemed to be going for the record. They got wake up calls in January, losing to the Pistons and someone else. Then they ramped back up on winning streaks. Telling that they lost 4 or 5 of their 9 games in the last month of the season. A time when usually teams out of contention don't even bother putting up a fight.

Also: Golden State looks tired and they are not just losing by bucket but getting blown off the floor with Curry clanking open 3's and not finishing on drives. Draymond Green looks like he wants a month-long nap.

That their coach wanted to rest em at the end backs up the idea that they're gassed. No way Kerr, a member of the 96 Bulls team, pulls rank and forces his starters to rest back in the regular season.. The players wanted to go for it and so Kerr had to go along with their choice. But he had to have seen this coming to have even brought up the question of rest with his players.

One of the reasons they won the title last season is due to the fact that Love and Irving didn't play. They struggled against Cleveland even without those two playing and LeBron James playing shitty. Curry didn't play particularly well and was outplayed by Irving during the one game that Irving played.

The playoffs are a different animal. G.S. avg margin of victory vs Houston was 23 points. How much energy is being exerted in a series that lopsided? Curry also missed about 4-5 games during the playoffs. Shouldnt he have been rested? G.S. was blown out after being on 3 days rest Sunday. They were routinely resting guys all season long during games.

OKC just got finished playing San Antonio. That was a much more grueling series than anything involving G.S. If G.S. was as tired as you suggest, it would have showed against Houston.

OKC is by far the most talented team that they have had to face in the two yrs that they have been contenders/best team.

Teams have been swept during the regular season only to be beaten in the playoffs before i.e. Heat/Bulls from several years ago. I don't know what San Antonio and OKC's regular season record was this yr but I'd venture to say that San Antonio won the season series. In addition, for what it's worth the Bulls also swept the Thunder this past season.

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