1. Can anyone beat the Golden State Warriors?
What I Said Then: Yes. Someone will beat the Golden State Warriors this season. They will not go 82-0. They could probably go 82-0. But history and logic says they wonāt. That said, history and logic said a team with 73 regular season wins and the unanimous MVP wouldnāt blow a 3-1 lead in the Finals.
But no, no one will beat the Warriors in a seven game playoff series.
This year should be a bigger challenge for them. No one will beat the Warriors in a best-of-7 series, but they wonāt go 16-1 in the playoffs. In fact, I think theyāll lose at least one game in the second round of the playoffs.
What Iām Saying Now: The jury is still out on this one. The Warriors werenāt as good as we all thought theyād be in the regular season, but they didnāt care about the regular season. On top of their attitude, injuries to Steph Curry and Kevin Durant forced them to āplay healthyā over āplaying competitiveā in the second half of the season.
People are already writing about the demise of the Warriors. Letās pump the brakes.
Even without Steph Curry, they have three All-Stars, including the guy who every said was the best player in the league after he won Finals MVP last season. The Rockets are very good, but what have they won? The whole knock on the Rockets is that theyāre led by two players who canāt make it out of the second round.
Next: Is Donovan Mitchell ready for the Oklahoma City Thunder?
As long as Curry is back in the second round, the Warriors remain a tough team to beat. Even if heās not 100 percent. According to Warriors fans, he wasnāt 100 percent in 2016 and they still should have won the NBA title. A 75 percent Curry plus Durant, Klay Thompson, and Draymond Green remains the best team in the NBA.
But Iām pretty confident that my ātheyāll lose a game before the Finalsā prediction will hold up.