Well, what a foolish nagging of the nerves that was.
Eight days ago, the Golden State Warriors were down 2-1 in the Western Conference semi-finals, losers of consecutive games to the Memphis Grizzlies, and by a convincing 17 combined points.
It was only the fifth time this season the Warriors had lost successive games. They had not lost three straight at any point. They still have not.
They won the next by 17, the next by 20 and the last by 13. And that was the series, the definitive end to any notion that the Grizzlies could muscle and bully the beauty out of the Warriors.
How could we have doubted them?
Memphis, to be clear, accomplished something in those first three games. They revealed a way that Golden State’s tiki-taka, motion-based whirlwind of an offence could be disrupted.
It took one of the best individual defenders of his generation, Tony Allen, and another great wing defender, Mike Conley, hounding Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson and keeping the Warriors out of the three-point-sinking rhythm that has devastated so many opponents this season.
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But it worked only for a moment. The Warriors managed to neutralise Allen, exploiting his own Achilles’ heel and, by extension, the Grizzlies’. They did it with a subtle shift of tactics that is likely to find a place for Steve Kerr in NBA coaching lore.
It was simple in its elegance. Beginning in Game 4, Kerr’s Warriors stopped guarding Allen.
The 33-year-old shooting guard plays his position in a way that belies its name, unfortunately for Memphis. A generationally great defender, yes, but he has never been a good or even acceptable shooter.
So the Warriors left him alone. They had Andrew Bogut, their centre, “guard” him — if he came near the basket. Otherwise, they let him fire away. He shot 2-for-9 in the Game 4 defeat.
Nursing a hamstring injury, he sat out Game 5, and played the first five minutes of Game 6. He missed two of three shots and was unable to keep up with the Warriors shooters as Memphis fell behind by nine.
Without Allen, Memphis were stripped of their Curry kryptonite.
In the first three games of the series, the Grizzlies limited the Warriors to 98.9 points per 100 possessions. In the final three, Golden State torched them for 110.2 points per 100.
It always was unlikely the Warriors could be held down long. They had one of the great seasons in NBA history, with 67 victories and a plus-10.1 points-per-game differential.
Even the 2008/09 Barcelona squad, football’s tika-take masters, managed to lose their Primera Liga season opener, to a team that would later be relegated, no less.
The Warriors can beat you in too many ways. That has been their defining characteristic.
They have a defensive stopper in Draymond Green, who also can hit a three. David Lee and Andre Iguodala, are former all-stars and overqualified bench players. And they have the game’s best player and greatest shooter in Curry.
After the mini-crisis of the Memphis series, it now seems unlikely to matter whom the Warriors get next: the Houston Rockets or Los Angeles Clippers in the West finals, the Atlanta Hawks or Cleveland Cavaliers after that.
There is no fatal flaw waiting to be unmasked. There is no secret weakness to exploit.
No team is invincible, but it will be an enormous shock if anyone can beat the Warriors in a seven-game series.
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