The Golden State Warriors won their third title in four years in a 108-85 victory in Game 4 in Cleveland on Friday night. This quite possibly might be the most earned title of this four-year run for Golden State.
Luck is almost always needed to win an NBA championship and the Golden State Warriors apparently needed some luck to win their championships in 2015 and 2017.
The Warriors had a bit of luck in winning their “Cinderella” feel-good title in 2015. The opposing point guard on each team the Warriors faced that postseason was either injured or hobbled.
Everyone remembers Kyrie Irving slipping and falling against the defense of Klay Thompson in Game 1 of the 2015 NBA Finals, and eventually, was diagnosed with a broken kneecap, putting him on the injured list for the rest of the Finals.
Along with Irving being out for the rest of the series, Cleveland forward Kevin Love was out with a dislocated shoulder from the previous series against the Boston Celtics.
Fans and the media put an asterisk on the first title the Golden State Warriors won because of all the injured players that the Warriors did not have to face in their charge to the title. These players included Jrue Holiday, Mike Conley, Irving and Love. Don’t let those first two names fool you. Holiday and Conley are solid, underrated point guards in the league.
Luck was apparently needed for the Warriors during their stampede run to the title in 2017. In the Western Conference Finals against the San Antonio Spurs, Warriors center Zaza Pachulia appeared to slide his foot under Spurs star Kawhi Leonard‘s foot and his ankle tweaked.
Leonard headed back to the locker room and did not play another game in the series. At the time, San Antonio was up by 25 in the game and appeared to secure a shocking road win before Leonard’s injury occurred.
The Warriors would go on an 18-0 run after Leonard went down and win game 1, 113-111. They would go on to sweep the Spurs with the media and NBA fans questioning whether the Spurs would have won the series if Leonard was healthy. It is quite possible that the Spurs do win the series, but it will be one of those unanswered “what-if” questions.
An asterisk will almost undoubtedly be put on this year’s 2018 repeat title. With Chris Paul nursing a hamstring injury he suffered in game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, one of Houston’s main playmakers and best players was sidelined for games 6 and 7.
If he was out on the floor, would the Rockets have won the series and eventually the championship? It’s a difficult question to answer because one of the Warriors key pieces in Andre Iguodala went out late in game 3 after banging knees with James Harden and did not return to play in the series.
Now, obviously Paul and Iguodala are two different players playing on two different offenses, but their impacts were felt on both sides. It’s another “what-if” question that cannot be answered, but more speculated.
Injuries to opposing players played a part in how the Warriors won their titles, but it was the injuries to the Warriors players and the recoveries that make this year’s title run so special and feel earned.
The Warriors’ Core Four of Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, Draymond Green and Thompson only played half of the regular season together (41 games). As a four-man unit, they shot 54 percent from the field, including 45.4 percent from beyond the arc, while grabbing 16.6 rebounds per game and dishing out 13.6 assists per game. (via stats.nba.com).
The point is the health of the team’s best players was not at peak condition. Curry missed a significant amount of time with ankle injuries and a sprained MCL that kept him out of the first round of the playoffs. Durant missed time with a rib injury. Thompson missed a couple of weeks with a fractured thumb. Green missed time with a shoulder injury and a midsection injury.
It was not just the stars who dealt with injuries. The injuries from the Warriors came across the board. From Iguodala’s knee contusion, David West having a cyst in his arm to Pat McCaw’s fractured left wrist and scary lower back injury.
Here is the scary injury of McCaw, which basically encapsulates the injuries the team had to deal with for much of the season.
A scary scene in Sacramento as Patrick McCaw is injured after taking a hard fall pic.twitter.com/1QpxFXPG92
— Ball Don’t Lie (@Balldontlie) April 1, 2018
It was not just injuries that plagued this team, but also, a disengagement in several of the games. They had to battle complacency and disinterest in their quest for back-to-back titles, which is not easy for a team as great as this. The Warriors know they are on a level only they can reach, which is why the boredom and complacency set in.
In most games during the regular season, they would start out slow in the first quarter, and sometimes, in the first half, before they decimate their opponents in the third quarters like how Daenerys Targaryen’s dragon burns all of the Lannister army in Game of Thrones season 7. (spoiler alert).
The complacency and knowledge that they could make up deficits in a blink with the three greatest shooters in the history of the game on the team was their biggest challenge hurled at them this season and they passed.
Next: Should Steph have won Finals MVP?
Whether you like it or not, the injuries and overcoming the lack of motivation in the regular season helped this 2017-2018 Warriors team to an earned championship and with that, a new dynasty was born on June 8, 2018.