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Author Message   Saarang Pilla Bewarse Username: Saarang Post Number: 732 Registered: 04-2015 Posted From: 97.126.32.64 Rating: N/A Votes: 0 Posted on Tuesday, October 17, 2017 - 1:56 am:    Zach Lowe tiers TIER OF THEIR OWN: GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS Umm ... Golden State Warriors HOPING FOR AN ANKLE SPRAIN Cleveland Cavaliers Oklahoma City Thunder Houston Rockets San Antonio Spurs All of these teams, save the Spurs, acquired future Hall of Famers. The Thunder likely snagged two! The upgrades give most of them flexibility to toggle between potent big lineups and even more potent smaller ones -- a must-have malleability against Golden State. And yet they all remain massive underdogs. The Warriors, when healthy, are almost a perfect team. They do not have an exploitable weakness, and if you have one, they are uniquely constructed -- among all teams, ever -- to exploit it. It's unfair. Every permutation of Oklahoma City and Cleveland still shelters at least one one-way player. That is normal, even for champions! These teams are all awesome! Last season's Cavaliers were awesome -- one of the greatest offensive teams ever! Regular awesome probably won't be good enough against a Warriors team that should be even better after a year getting to know Durant. The Spurs aren't sexy. They are a regular-season woodchipper that doesn't always have the fabled extra playoff gear. But their standard gear revs hotter than almost anyone can reach. Until proven otherwise, they belong here. LeBron always belongs here. He just needs some luck, and likely a Golden State injury, to have a realistic shot at toppling the Warriors four times in seven tries. This is Golden State's shot at real NBA immortality. The Warriors will likely enter the playoffs having capped the most dominant four-year regular-season run ever. Barring health issues or some league-shattering trade, finishing with two titles in four tries would count as a crushing disappointment. Winning three in four puts you among the gods. History suggests they will face adversity. Repeating is hard. Only four teams have ever even made four consecutive Finals. Two were completely spent by the fourth trip. But given Golden State's age and collective talent, their journey ahead doesn't look as arduous. The title is theirs to lose.