Re: Pass Nikola Jokic an Oxygen Mask, Please
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As you can see by the number of posters being tagged above, the Houston Rockets accomplished the impossible: they sort-of made the Golden State Warriors the babyface team for a playoff series again. :lmao :lol
As Draymond Green called it, Game 6 in Houston was a "throwback" game of sorts, with the Warriors having to go back in time and go back to the future in deploying a bench that many considered untrustworthy (not I! I always knew that they were trustworthy! ...don't look at my previous comments on this matter!), fill the void of Kevin Durant's gargantuan absence, defy the expectations, the Las Vegas odds-makers, oh, and the Houston Rockets.
Buffy The Vampire Slayer already supplied the thread with a most-admirable game recap.
Will merely attempt to cover the emotional response to this series and this game. Enduring the Houston Rockets fan-base's continual wailing over Chris Paul's hamstring injury, their--in many cases--complete disrespect toward Andre Iguodala, who had already suffered an injury which :kerr correctly told Mike D'Antoni was responsible for extending that series to the point at which Paul experienced his injury anyway. Good for :kerr setting the record straight.
Oh well, surely Daryl Morey has the Houston Rockets winning the analytically-proper Game 7 somewhere, probably 147-97.
Seriously, this was cool of Morey, I suppose:
This may be recency bias talking but this was unquestionably, as far as this Warriors fan is concerned, one of the Warriors' finest hours.
Perhaps cumulatively, everything following the Durant injury Wednesday evening--from that moment onward, for roughly 62 minutes of NBA playoff basketball--the Warriors were sublime to watch in their own zany way. They truly did go back to the Pre-Durant days of lore.
Some comebacks have been superlative. The wild finish to Game 2 vs. the Rockets some time back. The game in Portland that went to overtime with Steph Curry losing his mind. The 3-1 comeback vs. the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 3-2 comeback vs. the Houston Rockets.
This is special, though, in its own way because of the reasons listed by others in media, mainly due to the Rockets' big mouths and all of the narratives concerning the Warriors, Durant, Curry, their bench, and the health disparity between the two teams with the Rockets about as physically well as they could be outside of James Harden's eye which was clearly all right for a while in the face of the Warriors losing Durant, the Splash Brothers both having ankle injuries from Game 6 versus the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round, the aging wise men Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston both being listed as questionable for at least one game with apparent leg- or hip-related matters, one half of the Splash Brothers--Steph Curry--sustaining a dislocated finger that is still troubling him to one degree or another, DeMarcus Cousins having been lost perhaps for the entire playoff run in the opening minutes of the tournament's second game for the Warriors, and many, including diehard Dubs fans, having grave concerns over the state of the team's bench, partly due to these same health alarm bells.
The Rockets had their roster, from what an outsider can tell, at least, at full strength and with no significant health-related concerns. The Rockets had, for Game 6, home court, a fine chance to force a Game 7 at Oracle Arena in Oakland Sunday. It was not to be.
So... Has there ever been a clearer case of a story of two 24-minute stretches than Steph Curry's Game 6? In the first half he was in serious foul trouble early, had to sit on the bench for it, had nothing going on for himself. He went 0-5 and zero points. Yet it needs to be reiterated that Curry's scoring is only perhaps half of his contribution to the game. Maybe even less than half of his contribution to the game. The game he ruined. Or so they say. Anyway, not to get on another tangent...
Curry's gravity was a major asset as usual. Unfortunately he could only be on the floor so long in the first half with his foul trouble, having three fouls called on him, and losing a fair number of minutes of play for it.
What saved the Warriors in that first half which saw Curry play so poorly in so many regards?
Well, firstly, the bench was outstanding. Yes, the bench.
Just when it looked like the Rockets would pull out the Warriors' heart by exploiting weaknesses derived from the thinness of the team's depth, the tables were turned. The Warriors' bench outscored Houston's 33-17.
The Warriors bench deserves so much credit. From Andrew Bogut who was technically not on the bench Friday night--being tapped for the start by :kerr--providing approximately 12 minutes, compiling a +3, winning the opening tip, and, Bogut, that hockey assist to :dray was simply marvelous... :clap excellent minutes from Bogut... So he started but I'm giving him credit as a bench player even if he was not on the bench so just bear with the incongruity of all of this... Bogut called Friday night's series-closing victory the greatest game win he has been involved in as a Golden State Warrior... :mj2 Okay, to the real technical bench... From Bogut to Jordan Bell, who was buried so deep inside a six-foot grave in which a casket rests inside of a vault, all of this within the domain of Steve Kerr's personal doghouse... Kerr, to his credit, made the major adjustment--even if it was only a small piece of the puzzle, it was critical--and tapped Bell to jump into the fray. Bell rewarded his coach by putting together a magnificent defensive stop contesting a James Harden drive to the basket, and was immediately rewarded by :dray on the other end of a fast break following the stop, receiving the lob for the dunk. Bell would score 4 crucial points in this slugfest. Bell was out there for 11 major minutes, in a total reversal from Kerr's treatment of him for what feels like eons, and he was a +2. To Jonas Jerebko who gave the Warriors some good minutes, scoring 2 points on a jumper and helping the Dubs to spread the floor, which is a major matter due to the Warriors rearranging their offensive attack against the Rockets' defense. Also Jerebko probably provided the Warriors with the hardest-committed foul, clobbering someone on the Rockets to allow the Dubs to reset their defense, which was cool. To Quinn Cook, who scored one bucket and, while his shooting percentage is nothing to write home about, his shots were clean and mostly decisive, and he looked good out there, only getting torched on the other end of the floor a couple of times in his minutes chiefly designed to, once again, spread the floor. To Alfonzo McKinnie, whose reliability in the realm of rebounding was significantly demonstrated once more, even if only briefly... Also, poor McKinnie... Typical Rockets filthiness. :no:
As someone commenting on that said, if it is :dray performing that nasty hit, it is probably a "Flagrant 3." :lmao
...Am I done with the bench? Oh, no way am I done with the bench.
Saving the best for last from the bench:
KEVON LOONEY and SHAUN LIVINGSTON. :mark: :mark: :mark:
Looney is a godsend. What was with that drive from the top for a layup through three Rockets defenders? He can do that now, too? Is there anything he
can't do? Kevon Looney... Will never forget seeing his NBA game debut. Will never forget the progress he has made at the NBA level and the obvious intelligence with which he plays, all while expanding his game ostensibly every game. Looney was, once again, hungry: he wanted rebounds in the worst way, and he was happy to collect them. He is giving the Dubs a continual "shot in the arm" to use a most-tired cliche on the boards, and he was abusing Clint Capela (but then, who wasn't? wasn't Capela a series-worst -47 for the series? :lmao and this dude wanted the Warriors? :lmao )... Also he scored points, and points are good when they are scored by the team for which you are rooting.
Speaking of that fool Capela, LIVINGSTON forced the issue and dunked right over him! :mark: :lmao THE OLD MAN LIVES! :mark: I knew he still had "hops"! :mark: :side:
Have been down on Livingston in terms of pondering the breadth of the utilitarian angle in playing him as of late, but he made me rethink everything in Game 6. Livingston was a +14 with 11 points to his own name. He defended reasonably well, and he seemed to simply move better than he has. That dunk will remain a playoffs highlight for the Warriors this run no matter what happens. It all started with Livingston's buttocks knocking that loose basketball to Looney so Klay could hit the dagger layup in Game 5, obviously.
I do not deserve you, Shaun Livingston. None of us Dubs fans do! :mark: :bow
Pretty sure that Andre Iguodala was paying attention to the Rockets' fans incessant whining about Chris Paul's hamstring injury from these teams' most recent playoffs encounter, and their casual dismissal of Iguodala's injury as being borderline meaningless. Iguodala has been, predictably, massive in this series. Less predictably, more spectacularly, he hit five three-pointers in Game 6, going 5/8 from beyond the arc en route to 17 points in all. :mark: IGGY! :mark: Just gotta make your free throws, man. :side: Oh well, it does not matter! It is hilarious that Iguodala's three-pointers, which the Rockets were almost allowing as a matter of "pick your poison" ended up perhaps being the offensive difference in the game when you look at the entire box score for both teams. (It is a silly bit of phraseology since there are so many variables and so many "differences" that this is hyperbole but Iguodala putting together a performance like that is typically a good sign for the Dubs.)
"Game 6 Klay" is truly real. Not a myth. The man went off for 27 points, 21 in the first half, and hit 7 three-pointers out of 13 attempts. It was he who individually "carried" the team's offense in the first half while his Splash Brother struggled with his fouls and missed field goal attempts. Klay was spectacular, reminiscent of a previous Game 6 vs. Oklahoma City, even if it was not so dramatic, nor were the shots as difficult. Early on the Rockets kept collapsing the defense on Curry, who kicked it out and the ball moved like a whirlwind, never gracing the presence of the floor during the possession in a complete polar opposite showcase from Hardenball (dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, dribble, look to draw a foul) and consequently the most dangerous second option was Klay, who was feeling it with his shot. Klay, rather clearly finally recovered from the ankle sprain in terms of his wholly fluid, comfortable shooting mechanics from the feet up with his legs in Game 5, feasted on these opportunities as the Splash Brothers drowned the Rockets.
In the second half? Well, many events transpired.
However, after what would traditionally be considered a dreadful first half for Curry, #30 for Golden State scored 33 points... All in the second half... One of the greatest second half performances in the history of the NBA playoffs, and it is particularly impressive that he scored 33 points in 34 minutes of total play for the game. 23 of those 33 points were attained by Steph in the 4th quarter with two enormous three-pointers in the last minutes of the game.
Curry's second-half performance did not even feel herculean. Granted, it felt like the Curry we have all known, with the behind-the-back dribbling and the dribble penetration, the ISOs, the kick-outs, but it was the always-deadly and only sparingly-utilized Draymond-Steph pick-and-roll ball screen plays where the Warriors went for Houston's jugular in the 4th quarter that made this win truly possible. Again and again Green would slip the screen and roll toward the basket as Curry made one correct decision after another. Just as the Rockets began to overcompensate for Green penetrating so deep as a dunk threat, Curry would pull up and shoot, and vice versa. Clint Capela was particularly grilled by his coach D'Antoni for going under the screen rather than over it in pursuing Curry. Later several Rockets struggled to find any solutions, and it seemed as though D'Antoni was excessively stubborn in playing so many bigs, who Curry could beat on the dribble following well-executed Warriors screens. But there was something surreal and seemingly effortless about Curry's fourth-quarter explosion. As though it were a natural outpouring from the combination of physical properties or chemicals. He and Klay truly eviscerated the Rockets down the stretch after Klay's monster first half, with Steph out-monstering him in the second half.
I sure envisioned Magic Effin' Johnson congratulating the Warriors for being a team of champions and one of the most entertaining teams to watch ever when I was attending about two hundred Warriors losses to just about everybody growing up. :mj2 :lol
Tremendous post above,
Legit BOSS. You are correct about the historical ramifications of this team and their run, and how it may be coming to an end one way or another in a manner of weeks now.
Before the game I watched some of the local Bay Area coverage hyping the game and several broadcasters were, somewhat jokingly, saying that the Splash Bros. needed to go for 60 in this game for the team to have a shot at winning. That was the number that I had been thinking myself... And, lo and behold, that is effectively what they pulled off. In fact, I thought Curry scored 33 and Klay 27, which would be 60...? Nevertheless, it is highly impressive! Seeing the added emphasis on ball movement with fewer isolation plays with Kevin Durant obviously out of the lineup certainly has its advantages. Seeing the team play that splendidly together like that is a genuine, exhilarating "treat," of sorts... And credit to D'Antoni for acknowledging that the Warriors defeated the Rockets in Houston back in mid-March without Durant (though they did have Cousins... should be noted that Damian Jones was the starting center way back at the beginning of the season, but unfortunately he sustained a torn pectoral back in November).
WARRIORS :chefcurry :klay :dray :boogie (for his aforementioned moral support, and apparently he screamed while heading toward the locker room with his teammates at Rockets players only a few short minutes after Game 6 concluded, evidently, "I know that sh** hurts! I know that sh** hurts!" :lmao)