Golden State Warriors: How Their Historic Season Slipped Away

5. Injuries

I can feel the Cavaliers’ fans torches approaching, so here’s a quick disclaimer: Injuries are a part of the game, they aren’t an excuse for the Warriors dropping their 3-1 series lead, and you certainly won’t find any sympathy for the Dubs considering how Cleveland played last year’s Finals without Kevin Love and with Kyrie Irving for only one game.

But if the “Cavs would’ve won in 2015 with Irving and Love!” crowd wants to acknowledge the undeniable role that injuries can play in a playoff series, it’d be downright hypocritical to ignore their impact on this year’s Finals as well.

For starters, Andrew Bogut‘s absence wound up being huge over the final two and a half games of the series. Though he had posted a -5.0 plus/minus leading up to his season-ending knee injury, the Warriors desperately needed some rebounding, rim protection and the basic ability to catch the ball and finish in the lane out of the center spot.

With Kerr — for some unknown reason — resisting small-ball lineups, Bogut’s minutes were auctioned off to Festus Ezeli and Anderson Varejao. Bogut may not have been effective for most of the Finals, but he was a hell of a lot better than what Ezeli and Andy V were able to provide.

Ezeli, who started Game 7, was an unmitigated disaster in keeping with an ongoing postseason trend. He was bullied by Kevin Love in the paint, failed to provide rim protection and finished with a God-awful stat line of zero points and one rebound on 0-of-4 shooting for a -9 plus/minus in 11 minutes. YEESH.

Varejao was just as bad, putting up one point, zero rebounds and a -9 plus/minus in eight minutes of action. The Dubs needed 15-20 minutes of passable play from their centers without Bogut. They didn’t get it, and Kerr’s refusal to go small wound up costing Golden State the series.

There’s also the small matter of Curry’s ongoing knee issue after he missed two weeks of the Warriors’ postseason run with an MCL sprain

Though his 17-point overtime in his second round return to the court made it seem like the MVP was fully back, and although Curry wouldn’t make any excuses for his poor play in the Finals, injuries don’t rob players of their peak performance; they rob them of their consistency.

This was never more apparent than the championship series, when the Warriors watched their MVP’s numbers plummet on basketball’s grandest stage:

• Regular Season:  30.1 PPG, 6.7 APG, 5.4 RPG, 2.1 SPG, .504/.454/.908 shooting
• NBA Finals:  22.6 PPG, 3.7 APG, 4.4.9 RPG, 0.9 SPG, .403/.400/.929 shooting

In his postgame presser, Curry said surgery wasn’t on the docket for his summer, but he also won’t be playing for Team USA in the 2016 Summer Olympics. There’s no question that the grind of an 82-game season takes its toll on everyone, but having to shake off rust mid-playoff run was undoubtedly a factor in his up-and-down play following his return.

Keep in mind, Curry’s two-week absence was originally projected as the best-case scenario. An MCL sprain — no matter what grade — is not an injury you can just shake off in a little over a month.

Again, no one’s making excuses for the Warriors, who had more than enough to win this series regardless of Curry and Bogut’s health. But it’s also impossible to ignore the minor factors of Bogut’s absence and Curry’s inconsistency following the MCL sprain.

Next: No. 4