The Golden State Warriors defeated the Dallas Mavericks 109-100 on Sunday to take a commanding 3-0 lead in the Western Conference finals. Despite their series victory over the vaunted Phoenix Suns, the Mavericks look completely outclassed on this stage. The lopsided series has some people wondering if a healthy Memphis Grizzlies team, whom the Warriors beat in the previous round, could have won the West? Grizzlies star Ja Morant thinks so.
— Ja Morant (@JaMorant) May 23, 2022
Morant quote tweeted a user that stated a healthy Grizzlies team could have won it all with the “100” emoji.
It’s easy to understand why Morant would feel that way. He was injured in Game 3 of that series, a Grizzlies loss and they were down 2-1.
In Game 4 on the road the Grizzlies, sans Morant, led for 46 and a half minutes, only for the Warriors to escape with a 101-98 win. In Game 5, again without Morant, the Grizzlies blasted the Warriors 134-95 in an elimination game that wasn’t that close. And in Game 6, the Grizzlies again led for the majority of the game until the Warriors pulled it out late to end the series.
For a young Grizzlies team to take the Warriors to six games without a healthy Morant for most of the series, was an accomplishment.
Seeing how lifeless the Mavericks look against the Warriors, you can also understand why a Grizzlies fan would feel that way. But here’s the thing. Sports aren’t a math equation.
Just because one team played better and won games against another team, doesn’t mean it would beat a team that hasn’t won any games against a common opponent. The transitive property doesn’t apply.
If Morant or the Grizzlies assume that had they been healthy they would’ve beat the Warriors, that’s fair. They went to six games and were within one possession late of all the games they lost except game three. So it’s definitely possible.
But injuries are a part of the game. Every team every playoffs is either the beneficiary of good injury luck or the victim of poor injury luck. There isn’t a whole lot to be done about that.
As Morant and the Grizzlies watch the Western Conference finals, they can’t help but think what if. As a team they present a unique matchup problem for the Warriors that the Mavericks do not.
When the Warriors go small, the Grizzlies make them pay with Steven Adams and Jaren Jackson Jr. While they don’t take as many threes as the Mavericks, they can attack and score in the paint better than the Mavericks. Also, defensively, the Grizzlies are more stout and present length and physicality problems the Mavericks don’t.
In basketball like boxing, styles make fights. Stylistically, the way the Grizzlies play both offense and defense it makes things harder on the Warriors to play their preferred style. The Mavericks don’t have the personnel to make things stylistically difficult for the Warriors.
But none of that matters now. The Warriors beat the Grizzlies and have the Mavericks one game from elimination. All you can do is play the teams in front of you and advance, and the Warriors are on the verge of another NBA Finals appearance.
