2 of those losses were without Durant and Klay in the Raptors series, 1 of them was the Draymond suspension game against Cleveland…
I just don’t think this means much other than the healthy Warriors with KD were completely unfair and destroyed competition in the NBA for 2 years
Yep. Just to nip any "Curry needed KD more than vice versa" memes in the bud:
Playoffs
Durant + Curry 38-10 (.792)
Durant w/o Curry 57-50 (.533)
Curry w/o Durant 51-30 (.638)
Finals
Durant + Curry 9-1 (.900)
Durant w/o Curry 1-4 (.200)
Curry w/o Durant 8-12 (.400) *9-12 if you count the game where KD played 11 minutes before blowing his Achilles
Curry v. Durant playoffs head to head 4-3 (.571)
Steph's been a total stud in the playoffs without KD, especially in the WCF, where he's now 16-5 (4-0 in series) without him. And he's been a stud in 4 of his 5 Finals appearances (and off to a pretty good start in this one), with the one exception being the year where he rushed back from a Grade II MCL strain. He's still the most efficient high-volume scorer in NBA playoff history, with a higher career playoff and Finals scoring average than Bird, Kareem, Kobe, Magic, among others.
Turns out the NBA Finals — whether you're dealing with peak LeBron, peak Kawhi (without your top two teammates, as you note), or these beastly Celtics — are hard.
Anyway, for my own sanity I've been making myself scarce and trying to stay away from too much Finals discussion, but as long as I'm in here, I did want to give massive props to the Cs for an incredibly ballsy and resilient effort in Game One. Ws had them on the ropes 87-72 late in third with a Curry three to put them up 18 ... and the Cs took that punch and threw an epic haymaker back at them. Amazing show.
Onto Game 2. Historically, teams who have lost Finals Game One at home are 0-5 in championships after losing Game Two and 9-3 after winning it, so needless to say, this one is huge.