The Jock Blog is not minimizing the scare.
The Jock Blog is cognizant that things are teetering.
But until we see with our very own Friday night eyes otherwise — I just can’t buy Steph, Klay and Dray losing Game 6 at home to the suddenly-invigorated Memphis Grizzlies.
These are the Steph Curry Warriors. The Draymond Green Warriors. The Klay Thompson Warriors. They’ve already done the hard work of grinding out a win on the road, and surviving a rugged effort in Game 4. The work is almost done, and now they will finish it.
Call it conditioned behavior. Call it homerism. Call it denial, conveniently ignoring the elephants in the room named Steven Adams and Jaren Jackson Jr and Brandon Clarke on the offensive glass.
But as a man who has “lived a little” — shout out G-Rad in the Bentley — I am here to say that, until we see Steph, Klay and Dray flop on the big stage in a best-of-7, I’m going with the champion blood. Even if the doctors couldn’t find the DNA in Game 5.
(And yes, I am ignoring Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, because there shouldn’t have been a Game 7 because Draymond Green should not have been suspended, but that’s another Jock Blog for another day.)
When I say the doctors could not find the champion blood in Game 5, the key phrase there is “Game 5”. It was one game. And if the NBA playoffs teach us anything, it’s that these games are stand-alone dramas. Each one is a feature film. This is not ‘As the World Turns’, where one soap opera episode bleeds into the next and storylines from Monday become storylines from Tuesday which become storylines from Wednesday.
What, your Mom and grandma weren’t ‘As the World Turns’-heads? Shout out Kim and Mike.
Remember Boogie Cousins told us his grandma liked to watch her ‘stories’? Shout out Boogie, who was on a Denver Nuggets team that was flattened by these very same Warriors.
Everything we know about these Warriors tells us they will close it out at home.
We saw it in Game 1, when Klay Thompson hit the 3-pointer with 36 seconds left, then helped defend Ja Morant just enough to force a miss at the buzzer.
We saw it in Game 3, when the Warriors unleashed their full 142-point force on the Grizzlies, shooting 53% from beyond the arc.
And we especially saw it in Game 4, when the Ja-less Grizzlies went bigger and slower and caused all sorts of trouble — until Steph scored 18 points in the 4th quarter for a squeaker of a 101-98 win.
So, yes — the last two games have shown us the Warriors struggle to score against the Morant-less Grizz. Believe it or not, Memphis may be a tougher matchup without Ja. It will take a special night of individual scoring to overcome the aggressive Memphis defense, which is looking to run at the Warriors on the 3-point line, and dare them to go at Adams and Jackson in the paint.
Breaking: this is not Steph’s first rodeo.
Breaking: Klay Thompson likes Game 6.
Breaking: Draymond was last seen dancing to “Whup That Trick”, which to me means he will be in turbo-force Day Day Mode come Friday night.
It may not be a night where Jordan Poole plays a huge role. This might be one for the gray-bearded varsity.
Chase Center will play its role. Memphis will feel the heat. “Warriors in six” always seemed like the right call on this series.
And so it shall be.