The Warriors cruised to the Western Conference finals. Not only are they unbeaten this postseason, but only once have they looked challenged, and an argument can be made that was because Golden State was not ready for the opponent. The Warriors won't be able to get away with that against the Spurs.
Teams that sleep on San Antonio get behind in a hurry. The Spurs will wake up the Warriors, but paying attention and winning a series are entirely different animals. Here are five things to watch in the West finals.
1. Kawhi Leonard's health
The rest of this list does not matter if Leonard isn't healthy. San Antonio might have been better on defense without Leonard on the floor this season; they crushed Houston without him in Game 6 and squeaked out an overtime win despite an injury forcing Leonard to the bench. He's apparently a go for Game 1 on Sunday, but make no mistake, the Spurs need Leonard to give themselves the smallest chance of winning this series. He has done absolutely everything for them all season -- that's why he is an MVP candidate. If his ankle is bothering him and the Warriors exploit it, what could be a longish series quickly would become a short one.
2. San Antonio has a coaching advantage
This is one area where the Spurs have a decisive advantage. The Warriors are without Steve Kerr indefinitely and replacing him is Mike Brown. San Antonio usually enters every game with the best coach, but Brown is an interim trying to maintain the status quo. If the Spurs can get Golden State off balance it will be because of Gregg Popovich. Giving Brown and the Warriors different looks to force adjustments could give the Spurs a better chance. They need to take advantage of this not being Brown's system, but Kerr's.
3. The regular season doesn't matter
What happened before this series is no longer relevant. The Spurs throttled Golden State in two of their three meetings and the Warriors easily won the third. However, all these games have asterisks because players rested and neither team wanted to tip its hand for the playoffs. This series will be the first time these two truly play, and that clean slate favors the Warriors. They've been the more dominant team, so they enter with an advantage.
4. Clutch situations
The Warriors have occasionally struggled in clutch situations. Not to a horrible extent, but there has been confusion if Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant or Draymond Green are handling the ball in game-ending situations. Durant wants to stand around and shoot over his defender, because he's tall and long enough to do that, but the Warriors are used to running sets. This clash has led to some weird circumstances. The Warriors have had a long time to work out their game plan in practice, but not many chances to do so in games. It's a crack in Golden State's armor. A crack the size of a microscopic ant, but a crack nonetheless.
5. Big vs. small
This series will be a battle of ideals. The Spurs are slow, efficient and like to use their superior size to slowly destroy their opponent. The Warriors are small and quick. Their "death" lineup features Green as a small-ball center. The Spurs meticulously attack while the Warriors throw haymakers until the opponent is finished. The differing styles figure to create some incredible, yet strange, basketball. Whichever one comes out on top won't be the "correct" style of basketball, but the one that just out-executed the other.
