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The one place where LeBron is still vastly superior to Durant is mentally; both strategic play-thinking & his mental toughness. That's why Durant & the Warriors not caring or thinking there is an ON switch is a slippery slope. Durant hasn't carried a championship team by himself for anywhere near the quantities of playoff and regular season tenures of LeBron. We don't know what will happen if Curry isn't healthy and a Durant led Warriors team gets in a hole. The Warriors coasted because they think they are better than anyone else, but that is only true if Curry is 100% (as we've seen in past, with Curry at even 90% they aren't the same team).Meh. They're stumbling, but what the hell did the Cavs do? The Warriors finished with 8 more wins in a more difficult conference. They've had the 2-seed locked up forever. We give LeBron slack for coasting, we should give anyone on the Warriors even more. They've won 2 of the last 3 titles (and if not for a Draymond Green suspension, 3 in a row). The Rockets look good, but if Curry is back healthy, they'll win again this spring.
LeBron is probably still the best player. Let's see what happens when Durant actually cares. He outplayed LeBron in the Finals last year, he may do so again.
Assuming Curry is hobbled this should be a really unpredictable, championship likelihood ascending order:
4. Cavs are vulnerable, defensively atrocious
3. Toronto untested, & LeBron owns them physically & mentally (my pick outta east)
2. Houston's leadership has at best a unproven playoff performances
1. Curry unhealthy rest of Warriors playing on/off gambit (my pick outta West)
I don't think anyone else has even a slim shot at championship, i.e. Philly is getting a lot of love (projected to make conf finals) before ever winning a single playoff game, color me skeptical