To be described as being ‘unconscious’ in the NBA does not refer to one having to lie down after hitting one’s head on the boards, it refers to a shooter that seemingly cannot miss.
And up until game five of their absorbing first round playoff clash against the Denver Nuggets, the Golden State Warriors had been like a group of ball playing unconscious zombies.
The Warriors were a ravenous horde filling up on cotton flesh from nets constantly being snapped by precision jump shooting on their way to 3-1 series lead.
When the Warriors are on, there is not a better shooting team in the NBA.
Now officially minted as a ‘superstar’ http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1599856-its-time-to-admit-stephen-curry-is-officially-an-nba-superstar Steph Curry is basketball’s Doc Holliday, with his lighting quick release and deadly accuracy he is the fastest gun in the west(ern conference).
And with partners in scoring crimes Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes and Jarret Jack this posse of sharp shooting hombres had laid waste to the Denver Nuggets in the past three games of the series.
They were as hot as pistols.
However game five saw the Warriors suddenly wake from this blissfully entranced golden state to find Denver had formed a somewhat more brutal posse of their own, and had blazed their way to a 17 point lead.
Curry and his young guns had gone as cold as the other side of the pillow, shooting blanks and failing to adequately contend on that ‘other’ side of the basketball court, the defensive end.
Worse still the teams enforcer, their Wyatt Earp, Andrew Bogut, had gone from Aussie mongrel destroyer with offensive production, to just an Aussie mongrel with offensive behaviour (truth be told, I did guiltily enjoy his throat push on the ‘manimal’ Kenneth Faried).
Suddenly the Warriors would have to battle their way out of a conscious nightmare, a task that they tackled admirably with the shooting posse briefly catching fire only to come up short.
Game 6 looms as coming of age for these young Warriors. A potential closeout game at home against a more fancied rival is the kind of dime novel romantic sports story that America loves to latch on to.
It even has the all American hero in Steph Curry with his band of heroes, trying to stop the big mean intruders coming from the mountains.
It will be another fascinating contest between two teams and game plans that are the antithesis of each other.
Where the Warriors blaze away in a gunfight, shooting there way from outside and often out of sight, the Nuggets seem to prefer an old-fashioned close quarters knife fight.
Remember the ‘Greek’ in the TV show The Wire. He was a mild mannered looking man that would order a throat cutting as he stirred sugar into his ‘kafeh’.
Denver Nuggets centre Kostas Koufos is Greek, looks mild mannered but will try to kill you if you enter his area of the paint.
The ‘Greek’ and to a lesser extent JaVale McGee are defensive presences that the likes of Andrew Bogut and Warriors rookie Festus Ezeli will again enjoy locking horns with, contests that will go some way to determining the result.
And Denver is quick.
Andre Iguodala and the aforementioned ‘Manimal’ Kenneth Faried are awesome in the open court, like missiles zeroing in on a target have being launched by their pilot in point guard Ty Lawson.
It is a common belief that Curry was mugged of an all-star spot, but Ty Lawson could also be listed as a victim of similar selection crimes; such has been his level of play through out this season.
This Warriors v Nuggets series has been the most surprisingly entertaining and unpredictable match-up in this playoff series.
And at home in game six, The Warriors with their deadly gang of unconscious sharp shooters will be favourites to move on in the Wild West.
But if like in game five their aim is slightly off, they will wake to another running Nugget nightmare that they can’t escape from.
Build your own ultimate team! Pick your key players and take a shot at big cash prizes every day with Draftstars. For great odds on NBA games every day head on over to PlayUp. Imagine what you could be buying instead. Set a deposit limit.
A Serbian, a Canadian, a Slovenian and a Greek fellow walked into a bar … Well, they’ve actually walked into the NBA and now…
Nikola Jokic has scored 32 points and grabbed 12 rebounds to lead defending NBA champions Denver past LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers…
There will undoubtedly be upset results here and there in the NBA playoffs but there’s an overwhelming sense of fait accompli that Boston will…
LeBron James is going back to the Olympics for the first time in 12 years. Steph Curry is headed to the games for the…
The only realistic threat to Boston’s chances of strolling through the Eastern Conference is a team that could still end up in the play-in…
Australian guards Dante Exum and Josh Giddey have both come up big for their NBA clubs in crucial wins in the lead-in to the…
