OAKLAND -- The Warriors don’t run from the challenge of winning a third consecutive championship. They embrace the “three-peat” discussion. They realize its significance and have talked about it amongst themselves.
“We talk about the three-peat just because it’s front of us,” Stephen Curry says. “I don’t think that’s something that’s repeated every single day.
“When we start the season, we lay everything on the table as to what’s at stake in terms of our expectations. And, yes, winning a championship is the goal. How you get there and how you break up that mission on a day-to-day, game-by-game, month-by-month basis is what makes us great.”
Stay in the game with the latest updates on your beloved Bay Area and California sports teams! Sign up here for our All Access Daily newsletter.
No mention of opponents. The Warriors truly believe they and they alone are authors of their fate.
“We understand that winning a championship is attainable if we take care of our business,” Curry adds. “Doing it three years in a row is a tremendous opportunity for us that we should not be afraid to talk about and go after.”
Three teams, however, stand above all others as threats to the goal. We break down each one, assessing its chance of defeating the Warriors in the postseason.
[RATTO: Seven fearless Warriors predictions]
Golden State Warriors
Team: Boston
Why: The Celtics are deep, defend very well and play hard from tip to buzzer.
Who: Kyrie Irving. Ignore his shooting percentages. Irving has the best handle in the league and is a top-5 clutch shooter. He burned the Warriors in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals in Oakland, burned them again the following Christmas Day in Cleveland. Beware of this man in close games.
The history: The Warriors are 5-3 against the Celtics in the Steve Kerr era. Of the eight games, six were decided by a margin of five or less, including a Warriors win in double-OT. Each team’s double-digit victory was in a game where the loser was without an All-Star. The Warriors are 2-2 at Oracle Arena, 1-3 at TD Garden.
No team in the league pushes the Warriors harder and more consistently.
Chance of an upset: 35 percent
Team: Houston
Why: The Rockets crank up the confidence each season under Mike D’Antoni and they fire enough 3-pointers to overcome average accuracy.
Who: Chris Paul. Can’t trust Carmelo Anthony in big games, can’t trust James Harden in the biggest games. PJ Tucker is a load, but he’s still a complimentary players. So it’s Paul by default. CP3 has beaten the Warriors in the postseason (first round, 2014) and believes he can do it again. If he avoids injury, he can make it very tough.
The history: The Warriors are 11-3 against the Rockets in the Kerr era, but 4-3 over the past two seasons. The Warriors lost two of three regular-season games last year, outscoring the Rockets 353-352. Oh, yeah, there was that epic seven-game Western Conference Finals series last May. The Rockets think they can beat the Warriors, but we are convinced replacing Trevor Ariza and Luc Mbah A Moute with James Ennis II and Anthony is a net loss for Houston.
Chance of an upset: 20 percent
Team: Toronto
Why: In a win-win offseason, the already deep Raptors added Kawhi Leonard while shedding the LeBron James barrier in the Eastern Conference.
Who: Kawhi Leonard. Fabulous at defending the perimeter and efficient on offense, Leonard is the best two-way player in the league. He’ll be assigned to Kevin Durant and what will be the most watchable mano y mano battle Imagine, if you will, prime Michael Jordan defending prime Kobe Bryant.
The history: The Warriors have owned the Raptors for most of the last 15 seasons (25-6 dating back to 2002-03) but their 8-0 record in the Kerr era is sheer domination. The average win margin over the last six games is 5.2 points. It was 3.5 points for the two games last season.
Chance of an upset: 15 percent
NOTABLE: We didn’t forget LeBron and the Lakers. They will be vastly improved, but have next to zero chance of reaching the Conference Finals. Indeed, Oklahoma City, if not limping into the season without Russell Westbrook and Andre Roberson, would be fourth on this list. Utah would be fifth.