Not the Warriors

The heavy toll of injuries and fatigue alter a Finals team.

In advance of Game 3 of the NBA Finals, some TrueHoop insight.

BY HENRY ABBOTT

Since they first emerged under Coach Steve Kerr five years ago, the Warriors have lost only one playoff series. If they lose these Finals, no one will wonder why: injuries. This team today barely resembles the Warriors we saw all season. At some point in this evening’s Game 3, Steve Kerr will look down his bench, and see a patchwork quilt of some of the regular season’s worst-performing NBA players. Here are the Warriors ranked by their Real Plus-Minus performance this season:

The key matchup becomes compromised Kawhi Leonard against beat-up Andre Iguodala.

Huge opportunity for the Raptors. Certainly this elite defensive team has a real chance to make history for Canada. It’s time to press the foot to the floor, to fire all the guns. However, their star Leonard, has been in and out of the lineup for the last two seasons with what has been reported as complications of a knee injury or quad injury. On the bench i…