The Epic Warriors, the Warriors' Epic

 

In winning the Western Conference Finals at home in the fifth game, the Golden State Warriors displayed all aspects of their team character and their particular style or game.  So now before the Finals start--even before their opponent is known (the East series is going to a 7th game) there's time to reflect on their epic journey--and I use that word "epic" for a reason.

In post-game interviews, Warriors' players and Coach Kerr all knew the story. Three seasons ago, on the brink of winning their third championship in a row, with their finals' star Kevin Durant coming back dramatically from injury, the story took a sudden, Greek drama turn.  Durant suffered an even more serious injury and was out for the decisive games.  But in the sixth game, Klay Thompson rose to the occasion and was driving the Dubs to victory--when he fell to a serious injury, and did not return.  The Warriors were spared a 7th game blowout when Steph Curry missed a 3 point shot at the end of the game.

Then Kevin Durant decided not to return to Golden State.  Then after recovery and rehab from his injury, Klay Thompson suffered an even more serious injury.  Then Steph Curry broke his hand.  The odds against all this happening in this way are so astronomical that it qualifies as a weird kind of fate.

Then the Warriors made it through their worst season, leading the league in losses when just a few years earlier they'd led it in wins.  Then after more personnel changes they struggled through another Covid year, but started to jell in the last 20 games.  In another year, they might have squeaked into the playoffs but the league was trying out a new "play-in" system, and they lost those play-in games.  (Oddly, something similar would happen to the baseball San Francisco Giants.)

All through this the Golden State team culture was tested but held together.  Individuals (Klay, Draymond, and surely others who don't talk about it) had their doubts, about the team, about themselves.  Dark nights of the soul. 

 Klay Thompson, universally popular among fans and NBA players and the media, slowly worked his way back.  When he returned this year, Draymond Green was already injured and would be out for weeks.  When Green came back, Steph Curry was injured in a game with Boston on a play that Coach Kerr thought was questionable.  For awhile it looked as if the struggle to get to the playoffs might come up short.  But then the team started winning, and at the very end, the core players--Steph, Draymond and Klay--were on the court together, not just for the first playing time this season, but the first time in over two years.

They discovered themselves in the playoffs--that is, the team that is now, with the new arrangement of castoff veterans and young players, including two not yet twenty years old.  One virtue of the fractured year or two was that a lot of players got to play.  They learned, and the coaches learned about them.  In these playoffs, several of them were the difference in specific games, and all of them were important to final victory.  But several of them were also lost to injury from one series to the next, so other players had to step up--either starters like Kevon Looney and Andrew Wiggins--or other young players who hadn't had many minutes.

So now, after all that, the Golden State Warriors are back in the finals for the sixth time in eight years.  The style they play now based on their personnel is as much fun to watch as their 2015 and 16 teams. But their game of those years, which changed the NBA (so they now face teams that take more 3 point shots than they do) has itself changed, become even more dynamic.  

This climb, this return, this redemption, at this level is our version of the epics of heroes that support the cultures of the world.  They may not be those kinds of heroes exactly (though they serve important social and cultural functions; for it was Steve Kerr, after all, who made the most watched, most passionate statement on the Texas school shooting nightmare, over any political figure) but this epic story also has the virtue of being true.

Either East opponent looks formidable, particularly the Boston Celtics, with their bullying style.  But the Warriors have momentum (and will be more rested) and they may well be the healthiest all year--all the players who missed games in the playoffs could well be available for the finals.  They seem to be peaking as a team.  And they will have home court.

But even if they don't win the championship, this season is already a success--an epic story, and for a change, a heartening one.

On Their Way

 With three victories in the first three games in the Western Conference Finals, the Golden State Warriors are discovering themselves as a team of championship potential.  They have neutralized the Mavericks' advantages and are playing at a tempo and with an intensity that matches the moment.  They dominated the first game with offense and rebounding.  They came from 19 points behind in the second game with smothering defense and offense at the basket.  

By the time they got to Dallas, they were imposing their will.  The Mavericks tried to win the second half of the second game with the sharpshooting of 3s that won the first half, but couldn't do it.  So for the third game, the first at home, they were determined to go inside more.  But that didn't work either.  The very impressive Luka Doncic could get 40 points a game, but the Warriors were just disruptive enough--and rebounding those misses--to get their offense going at their own pace.  If Dallas came out to stop 3s, they went inside.  If they clogged up the basket area, they shot threes.

Kevon Looney was the rebounding hero of the closeout game against the Grizzlies, and had a career high 21 points in the second game against Dallas.  In the third game Andrew Wiggins added to his stellar defense on Doncic a big night on offense, with 27 points and the monster dunk of the playoffs.  Both got player of the game honors, but the thread of excellence that runs through these three games is Stephan Curry, now very likely to receive the first conference finals MVP.

Perhaps the most heartening stat for Warriors fans in the third game was only 10 turnovers, their one conspicuous vulnerability.  The Warriors are 3-0 in this series, without spectacular games from Klay Thompson or Poole (yet both hit key shots.) Either of them can explode at any time.  The Mavs have no big man answer, and Looney is dominant on the defensive end.  

While a sweep is likely, and no more than a five game series very likely, the Eastern Conference Finals look very much like they could go 7 or at least 6.  Both Miami and Boston have already won a game on the road, so home court may not be much of a factor.  It looks like it's game by game.