The Warriors were too great for their own good

The Golden State Warriors can only look in the mirror when addressing what went wrong in the NBA Finals.

I don’t think I’ll ever watch a replay or even highlights of the 2016 NBA Finals.

For one, it would be unbearably painful. But it goes beyond that. To do so would be to relive the improbable downfall of the infallible Warriors, the demise of a 73-win juggernaut that — and there’s no other way to put it — choked away a championship like none other.

I’m not ready to accept that. It’s been a few days, and I think I’ve moved past “denial” and “anger” and on to the “bargaining” part  of the five stages of death. To be the team that set history in every which way while fending off and clapping loudly at doubters who called them “lucky” and screamed “Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving weren’t healthy” all season long, to be the team that had all but been crowned champions when they took a 3-1 lead on the Cavaliers — and blow the damn thing? Depression and acceptance will have to wait a bit.

Mark Purdy’s column in the Mercury News is titled “Warriors save worst four minutes of the season for the last four minutes of the season.” Yes, the game was tied at 89-89 for an eternity and there for the taking. Yes, the Warriors missed their final nine shots despite having some awfully good looks. And yes, LeBron James recorded the chasedown block of his career, Kyrie Irving scored the biggest points in Cleveland sports history and in the end, Stephen Curry couldn’t even beat Kevin Love.

But it was much, much more than the final four minutes of the game. It was everything leading up to it, and the belief that this team was so good and invulnerable that a championship was going to be a given. And throughout the season, all the way up to the championship round, it worked. They responded when they were down, punched back when they were pushed. Any deficiencies they had were completely masked and tossed aside, because how could you complain about a team that was having the best season in NBA history?

Therein lies the problem: the Warriors were either too great for their own good or wasted so much energy being great that they ran out of gas in the tank. The latter could be true — Curry was clearly not himself, Andre Iguodala had a bad back and Andrew Bogut suffered a season-ending injury in Game 5. But that’s no excuse to be the first team ever to blow a 3-1 lead in the Finals.

Sports Illustrated’s Lee Jenkins wrote a piece after Game 7 with fascinating anecdotes from the series. One note offers a look into the overconfident mindset of the team:

"After the Warriors won the championship in Cleveland last June, they toasted the title at Morton’s The Steakhouse, and in these Finals they convened for five team dinners at the same spot. They were reenacting a moment instead of creating a new one.  When the Warriors returned to Cleveland for Game 6, head coach Steve Kerr felt as if players were trying to fast-forward the series and skip to the celebration. “It doesn’t just happen,” he told them during a film session at the Ritz Carlton. “It’s harder than that.”"

Apparently, those words were either ignored or spoken too late. In the piece, one assistant coach — my money’s on Ron Adams — griped about the Warriors messing around during halftime warmups because they were “certain they’d find their groove.”

You can say that it was karma, that the Warriors had it coming for them. But at the same time, you can’t really blame them. It’s true that the Warriors were arrogant and cocky and more than wiling to spout their accomplishments, but they could do that because they backed it up by winning. Fans had no problem with it either. The hashtag #ArrogantSZN became a collection of moments of the Warriors gloating and celebrating and having so much fun at the expense of their doubters.

It was so glorious to be a fan of this team. You could walk around puffing out your chest, and nobody could do anything about it. You’d see the Warriors trailing by double-digits in a game and say with the utmost confidence, “They’ll have the lead in a few minutes.” And with a Curry flurry, a couple of treys by Klay Thompson and a ear-splitting roar from Draymond Green, they had control of the game in no time.

The one game I covered this season was at Staples Center on Nov. 19 when the Warriors made that 23-point comeback against the Clippers to begin the season 13-0. I remember the Clippers starting the game on fire, the Warriors not able to buy a basket, and the hostile crowd going wild, hungry as ever to hand the defending champions their first loss. I had a lead written by halftime on the Warriors’ perfect start being snapped in blowout fashion … until they came roaring back unlike anything I’ve ever seen live. They had gradually chipped away at the lead before erupting in the midway point of the fourth quarter, making that patented demoralizing run they usually make to squeeze on the throat of an opponent.

Here is what Green had to say after the game:

"With six minutes to go in the first quarter, I told the guys, ‘We have 42 minutes left in the game.’ That’s a lot of time. We continued to fight. Even when they were hitting everything, it still never felt like they were just controlling the game. And when it’s like that, you’ve got a shot.”"

Based on the improbable heroics on the court and the confident oozing from the team in the locker room, I walked away that night thinking this team might not ever lose this season. I was wrong — they lost nine times in the regular season — but they had the right response to every defeat: a victory. You couldn’t even get out the words, “What happened to the Warriors last night,” before they ripped off another blowout win and set the world back on its axis.

Again and again, they relied on the prophecy of destiny, of being the team that can’t be, won’t be beat, and if they somehow were, they would unleash fury unknown to man on their next opponent.

Apparently, this prophecy only lasted up to Game 5 of the NBA Finals. It almost ended against the Thunder, but Thompson saved them from the depths of despair. Against the Cavaliers, there was nothing. No answer after Cleveland stole Game 5 or after the Warriors were demolished in Game 6. No answer after the Cavaliers matched them stride for stride in Game 7 and pulled away in the end.

There’s a reason why the Warriors didn’t lose back-to-back games all regular season long and hadn’t lost three straight games since 2013: they have an answer for everything. But in waiting for their greatness to carry them instead of bringing their greatness to the table, the Warriors took a hard shot to the gut by the Cavaliers and never recovered.

Not all fairytales have happy endings in real life. In the end, the team that scored more prolifically and efficiently like few others in history could not even make a single shot to save their season, and they have no one to blame but themselves. The Warriors essentially had the championship signed, sealed and delivered, only to lose the check on the way to the mailbox. And right now, I don’t think anyone is ready to call the bank and explain what the hell went wrong.