Warriors join list of teams eviscerated in these NBA Playoffs

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Well, wasn’t that a religious experience? I mean, if your religion runs toward human sacrifice, that is?

The Golden State Warriors, who have been breaking basketball math all season long, were snapped over the knee of basketball math in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals Sunday night, and the best defense Warrior fans have for Game 4 is, “Oh yeah? Well, let’s see ‘em do it again.”

In a beating so hilariously comprehensive that all the halftime narratives were destroyed halfway through the third quarter, the Warriors endured their fifth-worst playoff defeat ever, 133-105, to the Oklahoma City We’re Not Screwing Around Eithers.

And now you, couch geniuses, media wizards and miscellaneous railyard tramps, get to explain how a team that wins Game 2 of a conference final by 27 loses Game 3 by 28. You get to do what bad scientists around the world do – reach the conclusion you want to reach and find very illusory data to support your position . . . because that’s how this rooting-with-your-heart-instead-of-your-head stuff always works.

Because, well, no. If there are reasons why these things happen other than one team shoots well and the other doesn’t, or one team is desperate and the other isn’t, or just plain blind-pig game luck, people who wear tall conical hats, sweeping purple gowns rather than chinos and polo shirts, and have wands for smartphones are going to have to do it.

There is no real benefit in breaking the game down except to say that the Thunder broke the Warriors down to sub-molecular level for all but one four-minute stretch of the first half. Oklahoma City has been dramatically better in the postseason than it was during the first 82, and even they opened their series with San Antonio with a smooth 32-point loss.

[RECAP: Instant Replay: Warriors destroyed by Thunder in Game 3]

And maybe that’s the lesson of these playoffs – that anyone is capable of getting its collective brains kicked in on any given night. Of the 72 playoff games played so far, 16 have been decided by 25 or more points, 10 in the West, and there were only seven in the entire playoffs a year ago, including Chicago’s 120-66 win over Milwaukee. In 2014, there were three, four in 2013, and four in 2012.

In other words, this is wack.

The Stanley Cup Playoffs have always had the corner on the old adage, “There is momentum within games but no momentum between games,” but the lesson of these NBA Playoffs is that while home teams thrive and chalk tends to rise, every team (except Cleveland) is capable of putting out a monumental stinker.

And list all the alibis you need, but the fact is that Oklahoma City started fast, caught its breath, and then stomped the Warriors dead flat thin-crust hard the rest of the way.

In other words, whatever you think you know about Game 4, you don’t. And no matter what you want to happen, you have no more educated a guess than the average spaniel.

Yes, the Warrior starters almost certainly will be better in Game 4 than a minus-144, and yes, the Thunder starters won’t play at this absurd a level as a plus-152, but the gap between the two teams in Game 3 was so wide that it obliterated the gap between the two teams in Game 2.

And that’s the thing to remember – THERE IS A GAP OF 55 POINTS BETWEEN THESE TWO TEAMS IN SUCCESSIVE GAMES. No, it doesn’t make any sense to narrative whores, and it renders all pregame shows nothing more than advertising vehicles with some miscellaneous claptrap between ads, but those are the facts.

These NBA Playoffs have been far more loosely structured than most, and while the lower seed has won only two of the 12 series so far (normal), the teams have been so much more erratic from game to game than in years. This is the most flagrant example, I grant you, (with all due respect to Draymond Green’s tribute to the Rockettes to Stephen Adams’ rocks), but the abilities of people to see the future based on the past have taken a riotous beating.

So yes, there will be a Game 4, and both teams need it badly, because Game 4 is like that, but the days of massive adjustments to confuse the other team are over. It’s about players and performances, and deeds rather than trends. There are no more minutes available for outthinking, overthinking, or overarching assumptions. You get what you get, and you won’t know why you get it until you get it.

Which, if you think about it, is a whole lot more fun than what the Cleveland Cavaliers are doing in the Eastern Conference.

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