Warriors beat writer Danny Emerman shares his thoughts on the NBA playoffs and beyond.
After losing Game 3 of their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves on April 27, Phoenix Suns guard Bradley Beal said, “I’ve never been swept in my life. … I’ll be damned if that happens.”
Cut to a media session after putting up a dud in Phoenix’s Game 4, season-ending loss.
“I’ll be damned, man,” Beal said.
Sweeps are a point of pride in the NBA; if the best players in the league can’t even will their team to a single win in a series, that tends to follow them around.
But almost every NBA great has been swept at one point or another. By Beal’s standards, nearly every superstar is damned — every superstar except Steph Curry.
Curry has never been swept out of the playoffs in his career. In fact, the shortest series his Warriors teams have ever lost ended in six games. There are caveats — the Warriors with Curry are 0-3 in play-in games — but in the modern game, that’s an unprecedented level of rising to the occasion.
Kevin Durant, Beal’s teammate, has now been swept out of the first round twice in the past three years. In each, he was grossly out-played by a younger, more dynamic wing in Jayson Tatum and now Edwards.
Magic Johnson was swept twice, Larry Bird once, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar three times, LeBron James twice — both in the Finals, one of which came in 2018 by Golden State, Kobe Bryant three times, and Shaquille O’Neal an astounding six times.
Tim Duncan, in 19 years and 100 more playoff games than Curry, was swept twice.
Even Michael Jordan, the greatest champion of the modern era, was swept twice by Boston — in 1986 and 1987 — before he embarked on his pair of three-peats.
The only other pantheon-level player besides Curry to never get swept out of the postseason is Bill Russell. He spent most of his career in a league with just nine teams and won 11 titles in 13 years. That should say a lot about Curry.
Curry is already known as the greatest shooter ever. Some believe he’s the best point guard ever, over Magic. Everyone knows how much he influenced the game, and that’s probably the weightiest factor of his legacy. But perhaps he should get more credit than he does as an all-time great winner.
An all-time closing team
The 2016-17 Warriors were the best team of the century, and there’s not really much of a debate. In Durant’s first season in the Bay, they went 16-1 in the postseason and came the closest any team has to solving basketball.
The Nuggets feel like the 2016-17 Warriors at closing games.
While other teams freak out and go into their apocalypse bunker, isolation offenses down the stretch, Nikola Jokic seems to generate a great look every single trip down. He never gets rushed and plays like he has the answers to the test.
Oh, and he has Jamal Murray, too, who becomes an ice-cold assassin in the playoffs. Murray drilled two game-winners to beat the Lakers: a ridiculous fadeaway over Anthony Davis in Game 2 and the dagger in Game 5 while playing on a bum calf.
Every game in the Nuggets-Lakers series, Denver fell behind early only to creep back and execute in crunch time. At no point were the Nuggets ever out of a game. The defending champs have the Patrick Mahomes level of inevitability. Until someone somehow kicks them off the throne, pick against them at your own risk.
Karma power rankings
Before the Warriors lost to the Kings in the play-in round, Steve Kerr said he believed the Warriors had built up some good basketball karma. They’d overcome adversity like the death of assistant coach Dejan Milojević, moved past Draymond Green’s early-season drama, and developed strong locker-room chemistry.
Good vibes don’t always lead to winning in the postseason, but sometimes the basketball gods reward those who earn karma, the thinking goes.
So, for the remaining nine teams in the postseason, a power ranking of karma, from worst to best.
9. Cavaliers
They won the lottery, like, every year, and they’re still paying off their karmic debts for Dan Gilbert’s letter to LeBron. Sorry, Cleveland, somebody’s got to be last.
8. Mavericks
Kyrie Irving and Luka Doncic have been fantastic together, but it’s hard to shake a sense of uneasiness with the former.
7. Nuggets
Nikola Jokic makes the game more beautiful, and the defending champs have the swagger that comes with it. But when it comes to karma, we might have a Von Erich situation brewing with the Porter family.
6. Celtics
Boston built a juggernaut the ethical way, like the Warriors once did. A historically great regular season team, anything less than a Finals trip is a failure. That’s a lot of pressure.
5. Magic
The “ahead of schedule” teams always seem to have better vibes. The public hasn’t known them long enough to turn against them. Paolo Banchero’s 21 and an absolute stud, and Orlando’s got some Knicks-lite defenders around him.
4. Pacers
Another early arrival, this time with a flashy young point guard in Tyrese Haliburton. Props to Indiana for pushing chips in at the deadline with the Pascal Siakam move.
3. Thunder
This team is set up to run things in the West for years to come. Whether or not they can start their reign this year, as the second-youngest team in the league, is the question. And they only bottomed out for a couple years to get here.
2. Timberwolves
Anthony Edwards is a sensation. Watching him take over games and grow into a superstar in real time might be the biggest joy of the playoffs. Can he will them to their first Finals?
1. Knicks
The Villanova bros are the grittiest group in years. And the longer they last, the more Sidetalk videos grace the internet. Basketball is better when the Knicks are good.
Warriors broadcast crew gets an ‘F’
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The Warriors’ announcing crew of Bob Fitzgerald and Kelenna Azubuike ranked dead last in Awful Announcing’s poll of hundreds of fans. Sixty percent of respondents gave Fitzgerald and Azubuike an “F” grade. The NBC Sports Bay Area broadcasting is stale, homerific and at times condescending (shoutout “Santa Clara Jalen Williams”).
The world’s most valuable basketball franchise has a second-rate broadcasting team. Is there a third Eagle they can call? Does Greg Papa still have their number blocked? Could they convince Dave Flemming to give up his place as heir to Voice of the Giants? Is there enough money in the world for a Dell Curry-Mychal Thompson booth?
Running back the Fitz and Buike broadcast tandem might make even less sense than running back the Warriors’ roster. But, like with the team, it appears likely.