Golden State Warriors: 5 Midseason Takeaways
1. Win The West, Win It All?
Speaking of San Antonio, isn’t it safe to say that the Warriors and Spurs are in a complete league of their own? The Cleveland Cavaliers will easily breeze through the East to the conference finals, and the Oklahoma City Thunder are an excellent team when Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook are both healthy.
But at this point, it really feels like whichever team emerges from the West would be heavily favored in a Finals matchup with the Cavs.
More from Hoops Habit
- 7 Players the Miami Heat might replace Herro with by the trade deadline
- Meet Cooper Flagg: The best American prospect since LeBron James
- Are the Miami Heat laying the groundwork for their next super team?
- Sophomore Jump: 5 second-year NBA players bound to breakout
- NBA Trades: The Lakers bolster their frontcourt in this deal with the Pacers
It’s not that the Cavaliers aren’t elite; it’s that they aren’t an otherworldly colossus like the Dubs and Spurs are. If the Warriors and their historic 74-win pace didn’t exist, we’d be tripping over ourselves to put money on San Antonio to win the title since they’re on pace to post the largest point differential AND best defensive rating in NBA history…en route to about 70 wins.
However, since the Warriors do exist, a Western Conference Finals clash seems inevitable (barring some sort of freak injury). The Thunder are elite when they defend, but the same old questions about crunch-time offense and three-point shooting become even more prevalent on the nights when the defensive effort doesn’t show up.
The Cavs are almost certainly Finals-bound, but Kevin Love and Timofey Mozgov are rendered useless by the Warriors’ high-powered offense and small-ball lineups, while Gregg Popovich is far too smart to NOT capitalize on Love’s inadequacies on defense. Pop will run Love through pick-and-rolls until David Blatt’s head explodes, as the Spurs did late in their home victory over Cleveland last week.
More hoops habit: NBA Power Rankings: Midseason Grades
You can only put so much stock in regular season games in an 82-game season, since all that really matters is what happens in the playoffs.
But between the last four times last year’s Finals opponents have played and Golden State’s 34-point curb-stomping of the Cavs — in a game where Cleveland was at full strength and had all the motivation in the world thanks to Curry’s champagne comments — it’s becoming clear that if the Warriors can emerge from the West, they’d have a more favorable matchup waiting in the Finals.