You've never heard of coaches trying to extend the game?! Do you watch sports? Basketball and Football employ that strategy on the regular. Intentionally fouling while you're down? That's a classic "extending the game" tactic.
In basketball teams foul when they're down to stop the clock and take a chance on the other team missing FT's, I get that. I just don't understand how we have control over extending a series unless we're winning, and if we're winning then why do it? Or do you mean the more playoff series the Warriors play the more likely they get knocked out? Sorry I'm blank here for real.
Jeez... suffice to say, the longer you are in the playoffs the better chance at winning the whole thing no?
If everything else is held constant, of course. But it's not constant. It's reality. 1) The other teams are nowhere near as dangerous as the Warriors. We can beat a lot of them tired and even injured, but against the Warriors we need every advantage and we would still be underdogs. In that sense, our team's chance of winning might be inextricable from our chances of beating the Warriors - i.e. no one can beat them, and we can not win the title without beating them and we don't have homecourt advantage regardless. 2) A team can get worse the longer they stay in it, if that team is short on depth, overplays its players, lacks stamina, has players whose injuries are linked to fatigue, players who have terrible games late in multiple past series, etc. I don't care about agreeing on which of those apply to us, but in general, a team can get worse as the playoffs progress.
Bro, I literally said very similar in my first post, "... However, there are so many factors like injuries for both teams that it makes the timing irrelevant." You're trolling right?
I'm not trolling honestly, I think for some reason you're not as clear as you normally are. My point wasn't injuries for both teams, my point was that those factors seem more applicable to the Rockets than Warriors. Anyway I think I get what you're saying now.
Our best chance to beat them is when we are healthy. The best chance to be healthy is early in the playoffs. It's just for discussion purposes though. The Rockets will fight for the highest seed possible and let the chips fall where they may. Nobody is denying that.
I'd say the best chance for an upset is during a shorter series. A single game elimination vs GS would be my first choice. A best of 3 would be my 2nd choice. A best of 5 would be my 3rd choice and so on.
