Old playoffs games on NBA TV

[wco81]

Game 1 GSW at San Antonio.

Curry goes for 44/11 but they lose in double OT on wide open 3 by Ginobli.

They had 14 point lead with just under 4 minutes in regulation. They obviously blew this game. Klay was having a good game, got into foul trouble in the third and eventually fouled out.

Curry cooked in the 3rd, just pulling up over Parker and Joseph. Spurs started trapping him and then down the stretch put Kahwi on him. Steph tried to dance but he couldn’t hit a pull up over him the rest of the way. Jackson played him without sitting him.

Maybe once they stayed in the game and even got a double digit lead into the fourth, he was scared to take him out.

If they don’t blow this game, maybe they beat Spurs and at least get to the WCF.

Maybe then, they don’t fire Jackson. If they kept him, he would have overworked Steph, play ISO at the top of the key.

[Warriors Analyst]

Game 1 GSW at San Antonio.

Curry goes for 44/11 but they lose in double OT on wide open 3 by Ginobli.

They had 14 point lead with just under 4 minutes in regulation. They obviously blew this game. Klay was having a good game, got into foul trouble in the third and eventually fouled out.

Curry cooked in the 3rd, just pulling up over Parker and Joseph. Spurs started trapping him and then down the stretch put Kahwi on him. Steph tried to dance but he couldn’t hit a pull up over him the rest of the way. Jackson played him without sitting him.

Maybe once they stayed in the game and even got a double digit lead into the fourth, he was scared to take him out.

If they don’t blow this game, maybe they beat Spurs and at least get to the WCF.

Maybe then, they don’t fire Jackson. If they kept him, he would have overworked Steph, play ISO at the top of the key.

This series is fascinating to me. So much of the dynasty years is foreshadowed here; the Warriors were the only team in the west that beat San Antonio in the playoffs and we did it twice! But Jackson, much like Kerr, wasn’t able to create good offense without Steph on the court, but rather than rest Steph, he’d stick him in the corner off ball while Jarrett Jack handled the ball... Pop figured out halfway through the series that he could take the ball out of Steph’s hands by putting a smaller defender on Barnes, which would get Jackson to go full ISO mismatch hunting without a moment’s hesitation. Of course, other teams figured that out next year and it turns out Jackson really did like chasing ISO mismatches...

[wco81]

Game 3 GSW at NOP.

Pels came out with a lot of energy but Klay was 3/3 from 3 and Steph 2/2. But Tyreke Evans, Norris Cole and Ryan Andersen had huge games. Pels came back and took a one possession lead at end of 1st quarter and the built the lead to 15 and 11 at half.

They kept cooking in the 3rd, in particular Andersen on Dray. Then AD got going. Lead was 20 at the end of 3.

Klay got hot again and of course Steph. Livingston had good scoring game. They chipped away but still down 4 under a minute. Of course Pels did a horrible job managing the clock and they let Warriors keep taking 3 rather than fouling them and prevent a 3 attempt.

On that last play, Steph gets a look, not a great look, then Speights rebounds and kicks it into the corner and we know what happened. Team went crazy, Dell and Seth went crazy in the stands. Steph yelled something back.

Probably complaining about getting fouled on that 3.

[ILOVEIT]

Game 3 GSW at NOP.

Pels came out with a lot of energy but Klay was 3/3 from 3 and Steph 2/2. But Tyreke Evans, Norris Cole and Ryan Andersen had huge games. Pels came back and took a one possession lead at end of 1st quarter and the built the lead to 15 and 11 at half.

They kept cooking in the 3rd, in particular Andersen on Dray. Then AD got going. Lead was 20 at the end of 3.

Klay got hot again and of course Steph. Livingston had good scoring game. They chipped away but still down 4 under a minute. Of course Pels did a horrible job managing the clock and they let Warriors keep taking 3 rather than fouling them and prevent a 3 attempt.

On that last play, Steph gets a look, not a great look, then Speights rebounds and kicks it into the corner and we know what happened. Team went crazy, Dell and Seth went crazy in the stands. Steph yelled something back.

Probably complaining about getting fouled on that 3.

Yeah....he got absolutely bowled over by AD on that play. Very clear and they were very lucky that wasn't a 4 point play to win the game. Strange how calls like that don't get called because of the magnitude of the moment....like ref's check out or something.

[wco81]

Games 2 and 6 of the 2015 Finals.

Curry really struggled and the Warriors lost by a couple of points in OT after being down like 13 with 4.5 minutes to go.

Klay had started out hot but got into foul trouble and didn't play enough of the first half. Then got into foul trouble again early in the fourth quarter. By the time he came back, he fizzled.

Curry hadn't really adjusted to Delladova in game 2. The catch and shoots didn't work. He hit a couple of 3s late in the game when they made a furious rush to tie it and go to OT. Those were off the dribbles including one in Lebron's face.

Of course we know that in the following season, the unanimous MVP season, he scored a LOT on pull-ups that year, including some insane percentage on pull-ups from like 30-35 feet that year.

Then a year or two later, after KD had joined the team, we had this discussion about whether Curry should be going for higher percentage catch and shoot or the "flair" of creating for himself.

In the playoff series, Cavs successfully slowed him down, even in this first series, by switching on all the off ball stuff, especially the baseline screens.

I think if we looked at the shot charts of all the Finals series, we'd see that he scored much higher relative to the regular seasons in which he won the MVP by creating off the dribble.

Kerr keeps emphasizing the higher percentage catch and shoots and maybe the analytics back him. But in the playoffs, where the officiating allows a lot more holding, it seems they have to mix in individual matchups off the dribble.

As we know from this series, Steph finally started cooking Delly off the dribble and by game 6, he wasn't the main defender on him any more. They had Shumpert try to muscle him more and they went back to trapping him around the top of the key so Steph got a lot of hockey assists while Draymond was the beneficiary of those actual assists on the scoreboard as he recorded a triple double.

Even Klay got a lot of scoring surges both before and after Kerr by putting the ball on the deck to attack closeouts and just shoot over smaller guards, off the dribble or on post ups. He cooked Delly in game 2 until he got into foul trouble.

My recollection of the last championship is that Curry had this huge game 2 where he set a record for 3s and then didn't do so hot in game 3 and KD won the second Finals MVP.

In any event, going forward, it will be interesting to see how effective off-ball shooting opportunities are. We don't have the same cast who screened so well from 2014-2018 any more, no Iggy to run the offense.

Of course, Curry is older so will he be as quick off the dribble? The thing is, in 2016-17, he was at his athletic peak, as they talked up all the training he had put in for years, increasing his core strength as well as quickness.

That was 5 years ago so maybe he can't sustain that kind of 2016-17 form for most of the season. He did get gassed in the 2019 Finals, trying to carry the team by himself in that one game and then he wasn't able to do much the following game.

I also wonder if after winning the second ring whether he was training as hard in the offseason, as their seasons ended well into June and he had a lot of business demands, like touring China every summer for Under Armor and having other commitments, including a growing family.

[ILOVEIT]

Watching the illegal defense give Barkley 50 points against Warriors in first round against Suns lol.

What a bunch of offensive talent Warriors had...man.

But the illegal defense was made for the round mound of pound pound pound....sigh.

[cdubbz]

1993 Warriors vs Suns.

My goodness Warriors had some good players throughout the early 90s and blew it all up right when I started to watch.

Spree Mullin & Cwebb.

[wco81]

30 minute doc on the 73 win season. One of the games they feature is at Clippers, where they were down 50-27 at one point.

They come back and win.

Would like to see the full game of that.

[wco81]

Game 4 GSW at Portland, leading 2-1 in the WC Semifinals. This is the “I’m Back” game. Curry had been out with knee and ankle injuries. Livingston started, Curry was suppose to play at most 25 minutes.

Blazers get out to 16-point lead in the first quarter but Warriors chip away, with Mo Speights hitting two 3-pointers which gets all the starters up off the bench. They get as close as 3 points but Blazers lead at half 67-57.

Livingston gets ejected for complaining about non call. So Curry starts second half and while scoring, doesn’t shoot well. He’d miss his first 10 3PAs. But Klay and Draymond score a flurry and Warriors are up 86-85 at end of 3.

It’s back and forth for most of fourth quarter. Curry finally hits his first 3 pointer with under 5 minutes. In the last two minutes, Curry is creating off the dribble and the high pick and roll. Hits another 3 but they tie T end of regulation — Steph misses chance to win on last shot.

In OT,they go back and forth but in the last 3 minutes, Warriors defense and Curry scoring first 9 points for Warriors in OT seals the game.

[cdubbz]

Watching James Hardens Rocket debut in 2012 and forgot how SKINNY he was.

[wco81]

Oh I've only recorded the Warriors team, and this team, not the We Believe or older teams.

I'm going to try to archive some of them because I think once the pandemic is over, NBA-TV and ESPN won't be running so many of the Hardwood Classics of the Warriors.

[ILOVEIT]

Watching Warriors come back against Thunder in WCF down 3-2. Watching Klay go off....amazing.

The great thing about this was that is the same Warriors team we are running back next year …. with the main exception of Iggy. He was so defensively clutch in the final 2 minutes of that win...wow.

I'm very hopeful that, if we keep Wiggins, he will be a clutch defensive player (as well as an legit offensive option).

[wco81]

Iggy's ability to strip ball in key moments is uncanny.

He gets called for it a fair number of times but never recall him being in foul trouble.

I guess he built up a good reputation from years of being one of the best defenders in the league so he gets strips that would get whistled for other players.

That and a lot of the clutch plays he makes, I think he benefits from the refs swallowing their whistles in the closing seconds.

He really will be hard to replace, because he's also pretty fearless as a rim runner or attacking on fast breaks and often shoots above his career numbers from beyond the arc in the playoffs.


I'm hopeful that Curry and Klay will just do better than they did at times in the last couple of years in the playoffs where they'd get off to a slow start and would defer to KD as he was going off. In a couple of games against the Cavs, they just let him go one on one for large parts of the game, such as game 3 in 2018 when KD scored like 43 or 44.

[Mylie10]

Just heard Bob Fitzgerald say, "These are the turnovers that can come back to bite you in the second half!"

Lol.... Golden..... Like Solid Gold..... You guys cant handle it.

[wco81]

2019 GSW at Toronto Game 5, the last game KD would play for the Warriors.

Warriors lead most of the game, holding as much as a 14 point lead in the second half. They hit their first five 3s but Raptors start out hot too 60% shooting. Then they draw a lot of fouls, go to the line 10 times in the first quarter. Klay, Dray and KD with two fouls each.

KD moving gingerly, could tell he wasn’t trying to push. He hit one pull up midrange but shoots one air ball and another one on the front rim so he didn’t have his normal lift. On defense he wasn’t moving well either. One time Siakam tries to back him down and Dray comes and doubles real quick.

Warriors were up 5 when KD gets hurt early in the second quarter, push the lead up to 13 but ends the half up only 62-56.

They are outshooting Raptors, especially from 3. But I’ve up several second chance points. They pushed out the lead to 14, ending up with 20 3 pointers made for game.

Cousins had good offensive game but he was a huge liability on defense. No lift, no foot speed, couldn’t stop quickly. Lowry and Kawhi hunted for him in second half. Lowry especially got a lot of easy uncontested shots because Cousins was getting beat off the dribble. I think they saw it and really went to it in game 6.

Down the stretch, Warriors played the death lineup with Cook instead of Iggy and Cousins instead of Livingston.

Warriors shot so well from 3 but lack of a playable big man hurt. Remember that Looney got a chest injury in game 2 from collision with Kawhi or punch by Kawhi. He was in too much pain, couldn’t lift right arm and was ruled out for most of 4th quarter.


So they really need a 5 who can switch out against PGs. They don’t have to shut down perimeter players but not give up layups or short shots in the paint. They also need a wing who can space hit the corner 3s so Klay and Curry don’t get blitzed, like the Raptors we’re doing. That is why Cook got minutes even though he’s a defensive liability.

Of course GSW won’t have Iggy next year, who did pretty well vs. Kawhi, stripping him a couple of times.

But they also need replacement for Livingston, who wasn’t scoring like he did in the 2017 and 2018 playoffs. Though not sure why Kerr stopped using him as much, as he still old switch on several players, set up the offense, finish under certain circumstances.

[ILOVEIT]

I was watching the Toronto documentary and a couple of things stood out.
First...we split the first two in Toronto...without KD. Clearly a sign Warriors are better even without Durant.
THEN...and I forgot this...Klay goes down with a hamstring and Toronto beats Warriors in game 3....Warriors without Klay and Durant. lol

Then Warriors looking like they would win game 6 with Durant back...and even after he goes down Warriors look like they are going to win...and THEN Klay goes down too.

Warriors would have swept Toronto or at least beat them 4-1....Toronto...wow....they really got lucky.

And no it's not like the Cavs in 15 because Cavs didn't establish they were better than the Warriors before Love and Irving went down. It would have been a tough tough series...but Warriors were clearly in control of the Toronto finals without Durant.

[wco81]

No Warriors lost games 3 and 4. I don't recall if Klay played in either.

But down 3-1, KD and Klay both started game 5 at Toronto. That is the game I watched the other day.

This is where KD goes down and Warriors manage to pull it out anyways when it looked like Toronto would end it.

Warriors were up most of the game, with lead around 10 points in the third and 4th. Then Kawhi scored like 10 straight and Toronto took a 6-point lead with 3 minutes left. Then Warriors ran off like 8 points to take a small lead with under 30 seconds but they held on.

Like I said, they made 20 3-pointers, should have won easily. However, Lowry and Kawhi started hunting for Cousins on the pick and roll and scored way too easily. Cousins scored well and had some good passes but he was a negative on defense. Kerr didn't even bring in Cousins until after KD got injured in the second quarter.

Looney was hurting from his chest injury. He played some but he probably would have played a lot more if he could stand the pain.

[wco81]

2019 Game 6 Toronto at GSW.

I’d forgotten how this game played out. First Lowry was red hot, 15 points in first quarter. Warriors trailed most of the half. Warriors played zone with Cousins in the game to avoid him being in pick and roll defense.

I have to say Ibaka and Gasol aggressively showed out on Curry and did pretty well switched up against him. While Lowry would shoot 3s if Looney didn’t jump out, he would also drive into the lane, getting layups but more often setting up dunks for Raptors big men.

But Warriors caught up because Klay was red hot. He shot 57% from 3 in the Finals, with KD mostly not playing. He was arguably better than Curry in this series, despite missing game 3. Most definitely deserving of a max deal.

Raptors trapped both Curry and Klay a lot, without a third scoring threat. They knew to let all other players shoot. Kerr played Cousins because he had no other choice. Yet Klay still got off.

But then he blows out his ACL with 2:30 left in the 3rd, Warriors up only 83-80. Klay makes the FTs and it is 85-80. Warriors would only score 110, lose by 2. Curry had a look to win it from the right wing but shot didn’t go.

Raptors played box and 1 on Curry. Kerr put in Cook, still not enough of a threat.

Iggy got a lot of open looks most of the game. Siakam and Van Vleet joked that Iggy would either hit some 3s or shoot air all’s.


Warriors need another scoring threat out there. Probably hard to replace Iggy’s defense, especially against players like Lebron and Kawhi. But a more credible scoring threat wing would help. Maybe Wiggins could be that guy if he kept averaging 20. But if he gives away a lot on the defensive end, it may not mean much.

Warriors became limited offensively with KD out, because it was a top heavy roster with little scoring off the bench. Yet it was still good enough to win the West and if Klay doesn’t miss game 2 and gets injured in game 6, maybe the series goes another way.

[ILOVEIT]

2019 Game 6 Toronto at GSW.

I’d forgotten how this game played out. First Lowry was red hot, 15 points in first quarter. Warriors trailed most of the half. Warriors played zone with Cousins in the game to avoid him being in pick and roll defense.

I have to say Ibaka and Gasol aggressively showed out on Curry and did pretty well switched up against him. While Lowry would shoot 3s if Looney didn’t jump out, he would also drive into the lane, getting layups but more often setting up dunks for Raptors big men.

But Warriors caught up because Klay was red hot. He shot 57% from 3 in the Finals, with KD mostly not playing. He was arguably better than Curry in this series, despite missing game 3. Most definitely deserving of a max deal.

Raptors trapped both Curry and Klay a lot, without a third scoring threat. They knew to let all other players shoot. Kerr played Cousins because he had no other choice. Yet Klay still got off.

But then he blows out his ACL with 2:30 left in the 3rd, Warriors up only 83-80. Klay makes the FTs and it is 85-80. Warriors would only score 110, lose by 2. Curry had a look to win it from the right wing but shot didn’t go.

Raptors played box and 1 on Curry. Kerr put in Cook, still not enough of a threat.

Iggy got a lot of open looks most of the game. Siakam and Van Vleet joked that Iggy would either hit some 3s or shoot air all’s.


Warriors need another scoring threat out there. Probably hard to replace Iggy’s defense, especially against players like Lebron and Kawhi. But a more credible scoring threat wing would help. Maybe Wiggins could be that guy if he kept averaging 20. But if he gives away a lot on the defensive end, it may not mean much.

Warriors became limited offensively with KD out, because it was a top heavy roster with little scoring off the bench. Yet it was still good enough to win the West and if Klay doesn’t miss game 2 and gets injured in game 6, maybe the series goes another way.

Well it doesn't really matter who they have if two of those starters go down.... But certainly if Wiggins is playing along side Curry instead of Iggy, who can score but is not a reliable scorer by any means, Raptors might not get away with box and 1.

Bottom line is Warriors looked even, if not better, JUST with Klay & Curry. And btw....Klay getting hot to bring the Warriors back should no longer look like a fluke. It's apparently what he does when called on

This bodes very well for the Warriors 2021 team...as Curry, Klay, Green, Wiggins and whatever they get would have been enough last year to get to the finals and likely win it.

[ILOVEIT]

Ahhhh….watching another Warriors dominating Houston or Clippers highlight Ya know...if you have to watch playoff playbacks for your team...this is about as good as it gets. Two bad moments and one was because the starters were injured.