In addition to injuries, some people say that the Warriors are lucky because they did not encounter the Clippers and Spurs!
The Spurs were the team ranked second only to the Warriors last season. Historically, they also won the championship last season and are quite strong.
The Clippers have introduced several good role players, and Griffin and Paul have also rarely stayed healthy. Their ranking is not low, third in the Western Conference, and is considered by many experts to be the team most likely to snipe the Warriors.
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Historically, because the Warriors were very young, the outside world unanimously believed that the Spurs or Clippers were the most promising teams in the Western Conference to advance to the finals!
Others say that the Spurs were the team that the Warriors feared the most this season in history. The two teams met three times in the regular season. The Warriors had 1 win and 2 losses, and the two losses were by more than 10 points. And the Spurs were also defeated.
The Warriors are the only team to lose two games to their opponents this season!
Many people in history have said that the Clippers have a high probability of advancing if they beat the Warriors. In the 13-14 season, the Clippers and the Warriors met in the first round, but the Clippers eliminated the Warriors.
It was also for this reason that the Warriors fired Mark Jackson and hired Steve Kerr.
The Clippers were significantly stronger in the 14-15 season, so many people thought the Clippers might defeat the Warriors.
But historically, these two strong teams met in the first round and reached the tiebreaker. At the last moment of the tiebreaker, Paul hit a quasi-win, eliminating the Spurs.
At that time, many fans said that this series was as intense as the finals!
I have to say that there is some truth to what these people said. After all, judging from their past records and the reputation of their stars, the Clippers and Spurs were indeed very strong at the time.
However, this is just people's inherent impression, just because the Warriors are a young team, and Curry has not yet become famous at that time.
The fact is that historically, if they faced the Warriors, the Spurs had a very high probability of losing.
First of all, the Warriors' defense is very good, at least not worse than the Clippers!
The Clippers have DeAndre Jordan and Griffin inside. DeAndre Jordan is okay and has no problem guarding the penalty area, but Griffin has always been a loophole. Due to his wingspan, he is often targeted on the defensive end.
The Clippers only have Paul who is a good defender on the outside. Redick is pretty much a vulnerability, and Matt Barnes can only be said to be average.
The Clippers' substitutes are even more mediocre. Only one Crawford can score, the efficiency is not very high, and the defense is even worse.
With the Clippers' configuration, it won't be a big problem against the Spurs. After all, the Spurs are an old team and their individual abilities are not very strong. Their best thing is teamwork.
Coincidentally, the defense led by Rivers is also good. The team's two stars, Paul and Griffin, are young and have sufficient offensive firepower.
The Clippers' defense is good, the Warriors' defense is better!
You know, the defensive ability of this Warriors in history was proven in the finals!
James' ability is definitely much better than Griffin and Paul. The Cavaliers have big men and his favorite one-star lineup, but in the end the Warriors won the series.
Although there was a bit of luck in the Clippers' victory over the Spurs, this result also shows that the two teams are close in strength and this year's Spurs are much weaker than last year.
If last year's Spurs team, the Spurs team that has won the championship in history, played a series with this year's Warriors, the result would be really hard to say.
But this Spurs will definitely not be able to do it this year!
In the absence of injuries, the Clippers were defeated by the Rockets in the second round. This result also shows that the Clippers' strength is average and they have nothing strong on both offense and defense.
Even if a Clippers team like this can reach a tiebreaker with the Spurs and beat the Spurs, what kind of capital does the Spurs have to say they can defeat the Warriors?
Isn’t the Warriors’ offensive firepower better than the Clippers?
Isn’t the Warriors’ defense better than the Clippers?
The Warriors' bench is also better than the Clippers'!
So the idea that the Warriors won the championship because of good luck is all self-deception, just to put money on the face of their home team!
They couldn't even beat the Clippers, who were killed by the Rockets, so why are they talking about beating the Warriors?
Where does this courage come from?!
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When the first round of the Western Conference playoffs ended, the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs also ended.
The Hawks, the number one team in the Eastern Conference, faced off against the Nets, and finally eliminated their opponents with a huge score of 4:2.
The score of the first game was 99:92, and the Eagles won by 7 points. The score of the second game was 96:91, and the Eagles led 2:0.
The characteristics of the Hawks are very obvious, that is, everyone is united and shoots a lot of three-pointers. The problem of the Nets is that the star Deron is not good enough. He scored 13 points in the first game and only 2 points in the second game!
In the third game, the Nets returned to their home court. Deron still played poorly and scored 3 points in the game, but the Nets defended very well and everyone else stepped up. In the end, they won the game 91:83.
In the fourth game, Deron finally found his feeling. He scored 35 points and led the team to win the game 120:115, and the big score became 2:2.
In the fifth game, Deron returned to his underwhelming normal and scored 5 points again. The five starting players of the Eagles all scored in double figures, and the team also won the battle of Tianwangshan 107:97.
In the sixth game, the Hawks did not give the Nets any chance. They scored 36:23 in the first quarter, and even scored 41:21 in the third quarter, which directly killed the suspense of the game.
Although the Hawks eliminated the Nets, it also made people see their problems.
It's so difficult for the Hawks to deal with an unfavorable Nets. You can imagine how difficult the road ahead will be.
There was no suspense in the series between the second-placed Cavaliers and the seventh-placed Celtics in the Eastern Conference. The Big Three performed well, while the Celtics were weak and had no strength to fight. In the end, the Cavaliers won with a big score of 4:0.
Sweeped the opponent.
However, something happened in this series, which had a great impact on the rest of the series.
That was the incident where Olynyk eliminated Love.
It happened in the fourth game. The Cavaliers had led 3:0 in the previous three games. As long as they won the fourth game, they could complete the sweep of the Celtics.
About 7 minutes into the fourth quarter, Love got tangled up with Celtics defensive player Olynyk's arm while grabbing a basketball. In this case, all it takes is for both parties to let go, but Olynyk
I don’t know whether he felt unhappy in his heart or on purpose. He clamped Love’s left palm tightly with one hand, then held Love’s left palm with his right hand, and then used the strength of his shoulder to twist sideways, causing Love to
The shoulder was dislocated, accompanied by a rotator cuff tear and bone contusion.
After the game, Olynyk expressed his apology to Love to the media and said that he did not intentionally injure Love. He said that he is also an athlete and hopes that Love will recover as soon as possible. He also hates injuries. Olynyk said
, "Now I can only hope that Love can recover and return to the team as soon as possible, and hope that he can continue to help his team. But I really didn't mean it. It was just a coincidence. I think it was just a common foul."
This incident had a great impact on the Cavaliers. Irving and James had to go all out in the subsequent series. The physical exertion was not ordinary, which ultimately indirectly led to Irving's injury.