2016-17 Running NBA Thread

What can I say, ya done got me.

 

Waiting on Aldridge (HOF)

 

These are the Warriors we thought they would be. 29 for KD in first half, use 22-3 run to take 68-43 lead over Thunder at the break in Oakland.

 

Luke's Lakers leading his old Warriors dudes by 11 after three quarters.

 

Lakers by 18 midway through the fourth. Curry 0-9 from three, 157-game streak in jeopardy.

EDIT: Lakers win by 20. Curry streak ends. Back end of a back-to-back, so not huge concern. Lakers seem to have some pieces though.

 

Looked awful beyond the arc. That's where the back-to-backs rear their ugly head.

 

I'll be really curious to see how the season unfolds for the Warriors, because this is a really flawed team. They have no rim protection at all. Yes, it was the back end of a back-to-back and they couldn't hit from outside, but they were completely dominated under the basket by Julius Randle. They're really going to miss Bogut.

 

Cmon.

 

I think the "rim protection" excuse is overblown. It's not like Bogut was indispensable before. In their championship season, he averaged less than half a game's worth of PT and barely played in the Finals. Their most effective lineup BY FAR in that title run was the small ball "lineup of death" with 6'7" Draymond Green as the de facto center, a lineup which all but ignored the rim protection factor entirely. And it was the same story when they rolled to that 73-9 regular season record last year.

The real story is that their stars simply aren't playing the same way. Curry has been missing the magic ever since he went down with that injury in Round 1 of last year's playoffs. When he struggled in the semis and Finals last year, I figured it was something that a summer of healing and recovery would fix ...but damned if he doesn't still look out of sorts ...has his shot ever looked worse than tonight? And then Klay has just been in an awful slump, and Draymond not quite the same either.

When in sync those three have damn well proven they can run roughshod over the league with no need for a rim protector. But, for whatever reason, that "sync" has been an elusive thing ever since about Mid-May of last year.

 

He went 0-10. Had nothing to do with rim protection.

 

Hard to draw comparisons between this year's Warriors and last season's. Different players and a different chemistry. Plus a different dynamic on the bench with Kerr on the DL for most of the first half last season. A more valid comparison may be to the Wade-James-Bosh Heat team of last decade, which took about a quarter of the season to meld. And, like LTL said, back end of a back-to-back, first B2B situation this season, and Kerr may need to learn how to rest this group, although I'm sure he would have had fits trying to get Durant to sit vs. his old team.

Not only Curry cold, but W's as a team were 5-32 from 3-point land, and we know how much the 3 means to their game.

 

Two losses in 6 games. Last year second loss came in 31st game.