After the Dubs’ loss in Game One, here are some notes to help you participate in mass anxiety while maintaining an air of (fake) confidence.
Simply put, the Mission Bay Dubs (AKA the Golden State Warriors), played Thursday night’s fourth quarter like they were San Francisco’s Department of Public Works: sloppy, disrespectful, late and letting the trash pile up. Dubs fans could do little more than avert their eyes and hold their noses.
A history lesson
In their previous five Finals appearances, the Dubs lost Game One just one time, in 2019, on the road to Toronto. They lost the series in 6.
In that Toronto game, the Dubs (and Draymond Green in particular) did not respect a role player named Pascal Siakam, who scored 32 points. Thursday night, they (particularly Green) did not respect role players Al Horford and Derrick White. And wow, did that “dynamic duo” make them pay, especially in the fourth quarter. Horford and White out-splashed the Splash Brothers, making 11 three-point shots (also called three balls and threes) on 16 attempts.
Despite their record, the Dubs have had Game One problems in the past. In 2015, they benefited from an injury to a key player, Kyrie Irving, late in overtime, which the Dubs won 108-100. They subsequently lost Games 2 and 3, but ultimately survived.
In 2016, the Dubs won Games One and Two, but in both those games, Curry and Thompson were pushed around by a pugnacious Cleveland defense, a pattern that persisted through the seven-game series.
A slideshow of results for the NBA finals
2015 NBA finals. It took six games before the Warriors had their four wins. Prepared by William Reutter. 
2016 NBA Finals. A full seven game series. The Warriors finally take it in the final game by 4 points. 
2017. Life got easier in 1017 with the Warriors taking the series in the fifth game with a comfortable lead. Prepared by William Reutter. 
2018 NBA Finals. What a year for the Warrriors who swept the series in 2018. 
2019 NBA Finals: A tough year for the Warriors, losing to the Raptors in six games. Prepared by William Reutter.
The 2016 Western Conference Finals
The worst Dubs’ playoff Game One defeat came at the hands of the Oklahoma Thunder in the 2016 Western Conference Finals. After being ahead most of the game, they scored only 14 points in the fourth quarter and lost, not unlike their showing on Thursday night.
The Thunder were big, long, and athletic. They played a physical in-your-face defense, though not as good as Boston.
The Dubs won Game Two of that 2016 series at home, then got shellacked twice in Oklahoma City. Down 3-1 in the series, the Dubs easily won Game Five at home. But they had to return to Oklahoma for Game Six.
Entering the fourth quarter, the Thunder led 83-75. Less than a minute into the quarter, Klay Thompson hit a 25-foot, three-point shot and never looked back. He scored 19 of his game-high 41 points in that quarter, leading the Dubs to a tight 106-100 win. That’s when Thompsom was christened “Game Six Klay”.
Back in what was then the Golden State, the Dubs won and advanced to the Finals.
What do the Dubs have to do to win Game Two?
Stop giving the Celtics wide-open shots when playing defense, and put the ball in the basket when playing offense. For all the media coverage and endless chatter, basketball is a fairly simple game; conceived to keep kids busy, not make adults rich.
Including Thursday’s loss, the Dubs have only lost five games over the course of these playoffs, never losing two games in a row. At their best, the Finals are roller-coaster rides and we have learned, watching the Dubs over these years, what goes down usually goes back up. Enjoy the ride.
William Reutter contributed to this report.
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The big trend for this years playoff, Warriors are beating teams in the paint, and second chance points.
For Faux fans the paint is the area inside the lane lines from the baseline to the free-throw line.
go warriors
I just don’t get the writing “style” where the writer, in attempting to insult one person, randomly insults another, for the lolz, I guess. Mohammed Nuru aside, DPW employees do a lot of hard, unglamorous work to keep the city clean in the face of an avalanche of filt