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The most fun thing about NBA Twitter during this year’s playoff season has been watching people do mental gymnastics to try to somehow invalidate the Golden State Warriors’ accomplishments.
For those who have chosen to preserve their sanity and stay off Twitter recently (I salute you!), the latest line of “reasoning” is that the Warriors have gotten lucky yet again because Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard suffered an injury in Game 2 of the series.
I’ve had bruised/sprained ribs before and could barely breathe. Now add in Dame is getting trapped 30ft away from the basket and essentially neutralized. Wish he was healthy this series. Golden State has always had a fortuitous path against injured opponents in all their runs.
— Chris Manning (@LD2K) May 19, 2019
Lillard has thus far to use the injury as an excuse for why the Blazers are down 3-0 this series, which is refreshing and just one example of why so many of us around Golden State of Mind have such respect for the man. He’s not about that excuses life, unlike our previous playoff opponent whose general manager would write whole memos dedicated to excusing year-old losses with Enron-level mathematical reasoning.
Damian Lillard on his separated ribs, an injury that occurred in Game 2 vs. Golden State: "I don't think it's something that's affecting my game. It's there but it's not something that's affecting anything that I'm doing. Obviously, you feel it."
— Andrew Greif (@AndrewGreif) May 19, 2019
However, it’s the most recent development that really highlights how silly it is that the Warriors have gotten anything resembling luck during this playoff run: Andre Iguodala has been ruled out for Game 4, as reported by Anthony Slater on Twitter.
Andre Iguodala will not play in Game 4.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) May 20, 2019
Brady Klopfer had more about Iguodala’s injury situation earlier today, but the bottom line is that the Warriors are now missing Iguodala, Kevin Durant, and DeMarcus Cousins for tonight’s game. Starting in place of Iguodala will be Alfonzo McKinnie, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo.
Golden State will start Alfonzo McKinnie in place of injured Andre Iguodala tonight at Portland, league sources tell Yahoo Sports.
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) May 21, 2019
Steph Curry dislocated his finger in the last series too, in case you forgot due to the whiny nonsense our previous opponent was trying to dominate the narrative with.
Meanwhile, there are people really arguing that the injuries the Warriors have sustained are actually beneficial.
"For KD this is tough. In the 8-game stretch that KD had after they blew the 31-point lead up until he got hurt: he averaged 39-5-5 on 50/40/90. It's as well as you possibly can play, and the team was 5-3. KD goes down, they're 4-0 since then." — @getnickwright pic.twitter.com/XAdkUjV5KC
— First Things First (@FTFonFS1) May 20, 2019
So let’s get this straight: if the Warriors win tonight and sweep the Blazers, it’ll be because Lillard was hurt. If the Warriors lose without Cousins, Durant, and Iguodala, you know the narrative will be that Steph somehow isn’t good enough because he sucks in the playoffs.
One would think that people can’t possibly continue to invent these counterfactual and sometimes contradictory (s/o Nick Wright) narratives in an attempt to minimize what the Warriors are doing ... yet here we are.
Hopefully, you find a way to enjoy the sweep game, whether brooms are required after the final buzzer or not.