Why the warriors and wooden woods are the perfect measurement sticks of the compression of title for each other
The Golden State Warriors won a series of first somewhat unusual rounds on Sunday. Although Houston's Rockets had overwhelming forces, such as their size, rebound and defensive physique, their inability to generate an offense of half a loud was one of the most blatant weaknesses of a team in the field of the eliminatory series. They took them seven games, but the Warriors finally managed to exploit this weakness enough to go to the second round.
There, they will face a team from the Minnesota Timberwolves who won a first round match just as unorthodox against the Los Angeles Lakers. Like the Rockets, the Lakers were a team led by an overwhelming force (in their case, the creation of individual shooting), but bogged down by insurmountable weaknesses. The Lakers had neither size nor depth. Although the last three games were all decided in the last minutes, the Timberwolves sent the Lakers to each of them and won their series in five games.
These victories are not exactly devoid of meaning. The Rockets were the seeded n ° 2 of the Western Conference and the Lakers were the favorite of the bets. But if you operate under the dominant wisdom, the playoffs are finally defined by the ability of a team to exploit the weaknesses of an opponent and to hide his, they simply did not tell us a lot about the place where the Warriors or the Timberwolves are in a more traditional eliminatory setting. Lakers and Rockets had flags that were so blatant and obvious that any team with real championship ambitions should have beat them. We cannot yet know that the ambitions of the Golden State or Minnesota championship are still legitimate.
In a sense, that makes it perfect opponents of second round for each other, before, presumes, the winner faces almost impeccable thunder during the final of the Western Conference. In some ways, they reflect each other. In others, they reflect the opponents they have just won, only without these obvious gaps.
The Warriors and Timberwolves started the season slowly. The Warriors, due to their inability to exchange stars during the offseason, were in 10th place in the West Conference until February 12. The Timberwolves, largely due to the adjustment problems which arose from their successful execution of a star trade, were in 10th place in the Western conference on the sidelines 1. The Warriors finished the season on a race of 21-7, because they managed to acquire Jimmy Butler. The Timberwolves ended the season on a race of 17-4 because the big name they acquired during the offseason, Julius Randle, returned from a month's absence and understood how to integrate into the structure of a pre-existing competitor.
The Warriors just beat the Nba Pre -eminent intimidation ball team, but the Timberwolves come only from a complete series of intimidation balls against the Lakers. Between Randle, Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid, they have a three -headed front monster that just helped them display the second best rebound rate in the first round, just behind Houston, against the Lakers. The Rockets have ahead of 74 -point warriors in painting in their seven -game series. The Timberwolves outstripped 76 Lakers in their five -game battle. The Warriors went from a huge physical opponent to another huge and physical opponent.
The difference is that it is much less limited. The Rockets ranked 27th at the rate of attempts at 3 points. The Timberwolves ranked sixth. Houston had no singular superstar to generate an offense half in the field. Minnesota does not have such a problem with Anthony Edwards in place. Houston had no real stylistic pivots. Timberwolves can comfortably use a large man or two. They can prepare their players from the attack to the attack (more Donte Divincenzo and Mike Conley) or the defense (more Jaden McDaniels and Nickeil Alexander-Walker). They can adapt. The Rockets could not.
The Timberwolves just beat the NBA team The most defined by the small ball. The Lakers practically abandoned Jaxson Hayes at the end of this series hoping that Luka Dončić, LeBron James and Austin Reaves could simply create an easy blow after an easy blow with an spacing of five outings. The defense of Minnesota was maintained against this attack, but small ball warriors are another matter entirely. When Stephen Curry and Jimmy Butler were on the ground with Draymond Green in the center during the regular season, they scored 125.1 points per 100 points per 100 possessions, according to Cleaning the Glass. The Lakers wanted to be a small elite ball offense. Warriors are one.
And yet, since the butler's trade, they have been so much more. These curry-kitten-vert in central alignments? They draw 27 free throws for 100 possessions, an almost incredibly high figure for a team that does not compose on the big traditional or the penetration of the guard. Jimmy Butler has taken an offense that does not generate any on -board pressure to that which creates more than sufficient, and unlike the Lakers, who have fallen with the same five players on the field to almost every time, they can make significant training changes. They threw Kevon Looney as a curve to slow down Houston's rebound and, in match 7, he gave them good minutes. They can rely on Gary Payton II or Moses Moody for Defense or Brandin Podziemski or Buddy Hield to offend. All four have experienced important moments in the Houston series. Again, they can adapt. Lakers couldn't.
The deeper you go, the more puzzle pieces start to adapt here. The Warriors are the old team here. They just played seven exhausting games against the Rockets, and now have to turn around and start the Minnesota series on Tuesday. They will not have an additional day of leave before the two-day break between matches 5 and 6. Can they manage the physical requirements that accompany the end of the playoffs? Timberwolves are not exactly inexperienced. They made the Western Conference final a year ago. But Karl-Anthony Towns is now a bibelotant, and before the Laker series Julius Randle had been a disaster of the playoffs. Can the team still find themselves against the most experienced and self-confident duo throughout the field of the playoffs?
In two weeks, one of these teams will always be standing and will most likely be preparing to play against a Thunder team that stood their heads and shoulders above the western conference all year round. Usually, we would now have a good idea who is really equipped to challenge them. But because of the tidal wave of the players' movement and unusually unbalanced clashes in the first round that the Warriors and Timberwolves have just survived, we do not really do it yet. For everything we know, one of these teams is only here because of a single favorable match.
But on paper, these are much more balanced teams, versatile and adapted to the playoffs than those they have just put out of service. This makes it a much narrower approximation of thunder than anything that has seen so far, and therefore the perfect measurement stick for the other with the seed n ° 1 which is looming on the other side of the support. If you want to win the West and reach the final, you must be able to beat multidimensional opponents. This is what thunder is. This is also what warriors and wood wood looks like on paper. Now there is the chance to prove it against a worthy adversary.
