BDL’s 2014-15 NBA Playoff Previews: Golden State Warriors vs. New Orleans Pelicans (Ball Don’t Lie)

How They Got Here • Golden State : Pegged as a mid-level playoff team and dark-horse contender entering the season, the Warriors merely had the best regular season in franchise history and arguably one of the best for any team ever. Their 67 wins are tied for the sixth-most all-time, while their average point differential of plus-10.1 beat the next closest team by 3.5 ppg. Only seven other teams have ever topped plus-10 over a full season, and only one of those didn't win the title. The postseason operates differently than the regular season, but they're not so far away as to keep the Warriors from entering the playoffs as favorites to win the whole thing. It doesn't hurt that they have homecourt advantage throughout and went lost just two games at Oracle Arena all season. Virtually everything went right for Golden State to get to this point, but let's start with the man in charge. Steve Kerr replaced Mark Jackson as head coach last summer, built on the positives from two consecutive playoff appearances, and ramped up pretty much everything else to create a team with no glaring weaknesses. Stephen Curry earned the MVP award he's likely to accept in a few weeks, Klay Thompson went from a very good young player the team wouldn't trade for Kevin Love to a bona fide All-Star, Draymond Green turned into a defensive dynamo who could get the max as a restricted free agent this summer, Harrison Barnes remembered how to be effective, and Andrew Bogut stayed healthy enough to play 67 games. Kerr managed every ego probably, made halftime adjustments with his staff that belie his lack of experience, and even got David Lee, the highest-paid player on the team and a 2013 All-Star, to accept a non-rotation role without causing a stink. The biggest knock against Kerr is that he pushed his key players relatively hard after the Warriors had clinched the conference's top seed, but that's mostly a matter of opinion or approach at this point. Golden State finished with the best defensive efficiency in the league, 0.1 points per 100 possessions off the Los Angeles Clippers' lead for tops in offensive efficiency, and first in a whole bunch of traditional categories, as well. Kerr has never coached a playoff series and zero players on the roster have appeared in the NBA Finals, but this is a team to be feared. They crushed good opponents with regularity and had fun doing it. • New Orleans : The Pelicans entered this season with hopes of a playoff berth but no clear way to get it. Luckily for them, the Oklahoma City Thunder's terrible run of injury luck gave them the opportunity they previously lacked. New Orleans stayed at a steady level of consistency most of the season — their longest win streak was just five games — and took advantage of one of the most improbable buzzer-beaters of the season to win a tiebreaker with the Oklahoma City Thunder after Wednesday's results and make the playoffs for the first time since 2011, back when they were still the Hornets. According to Yahoo's own Adrian Wojnarowksi, finishing eighth saved the jobs of head coach Monty Williams and general manager Dell Demps: Ownership gave GM Dell Demps and Monty Williams preseason mandate to make playoffs to keep jobs, w/ no allowance for injuries. They made it. — Adrian Wojnarowski (@WojYahooNBA) April 16, 2015 Yet this was not merely a case of a team catching all the breaks. The Pelicans still had to seize their opportunity, and they did just that by beating the red-hot and motivated San Antonio Spurs in the season finale. They also withstood their own difficulties during the season, losing starting point guard Jrue Holiday (40 games played), sharpshooting reserve Ryan Anderson (61 games), shooting guard Eric Gordon (61 games) for long stretches. Tyreke Evans stepped into Holiday's starting point guard role and thrived, but the rest of those absences required a team effort. Well, that's it for New — oh, right, there's also Anthony Davis, soon to be named to the All-NBA First Team. Davis, who turned just 22 in March, made the leap from star to superstar this season, and it wouldn't be terribly shocking to see him overtake LeBron James and Kevin Durant as the best player in the world some time in the next couple years. His 30.89 PER led the league, he led the league in blocks for the second year in a row while raising his scoring average considerably, and served as the squad's do-everything hero on most nights. Part of the joy of this series will simply involve watching Davis in the playoffs for the first time, because most everyone figures he's going to be a regular participant for a while.

BDL’s 2014-15 NBA Playoff Previews: Golden State Warriors vs. New Orleans Pelicans (Ball Don’t Lie)

Trending News