Aah sports rivalries. Got to love ’em!
Yankees-Red Sox. Lakers-Celtics. 49ers-Seahawks. The list goes on and on.
Sometimes it’s just as satisfying to see your rival lose, as it is to see your team win.
Well, sometimes.
As our Golden State Warriors become more of a major factor in the new NBA landscape, new foes will emerge and old foes will increase their bitterness (jealousy).
With that let’s take a look at some of the past Warrior rivals before examining which rivals are to emerge most in the near future.
LOS ANGELES LAKERS
(ALL TIME SERIES RECORD: LAKERS 188 – WARRIORS 98, PLAYOFFS: LAKERS 6 SERIES WINS, WARRIORS 1 SERIES WIN)
Have you ever had an older sibling that always succeeded while you floundered and were ignored?
Basically for the better part of the last 4 decades the team from down in La La land has been everything the Warriors haven’t (believe me I hear about this every day living in So. Cal).
You don’t have to look anywhere else than the win-loss record from above to know who’s owned this rivalry.
With the exception of a San Francisco Warrior sweep in 1967 and the famous Eric “Sleepy” Floyd 51 point game in 1987 against Magic Johnson and Company, the playoffs against the Lakers haven’t been any kinder to our Dubs.
Even though this may be the first season where the expectations are higher in the Bay than LA, it would still take another 4 decades of losing by the Lakers to make this any less of a rivalry to Warrior fans alike.
Not likely to happen.
PHOENIX SUNS
(ALL TIME SERIES RECORD: SUNS 134 – WARRIORS 86, PLAYOFFS: SUNS 3 SERIES WINS, WARRIORS 0 SERIES WINS)
Maybe I’m the only who’s always seen this as a rivalry.
Up until this last season, however, it’s always felt like the Warriors would get run out of the arena every time they played the Suns in Oakland or Phoenix.
The all-time series record doesn’t lie.
Sometimes it was Paul Westphal and Walter Davis shooting as hot as their team name.
Sometimes it was Kevin Johnson or Steve Nash carving up the Warriors defense.
Sometimes it was Charles Barkley or Amar’e Stoudemire bullying the Warriors on the boards.
No matter who has worn those orange and purple jerseys, though, it’s always been terror for our Dubs.
The post-season against the Suns? Even worse: 3 series match-ups, 3 series losses.
There is the famous Chris Webber dunk over Barkley in the 1994 playoffs.
Too bad, what’s remembered more is a game 7 loss at home in the Western Conference finals in ’75.
As Rick Barry and the best Warrior team in history attempted to repeat as World Champions, the Suns silenced the crowd and moved on to the title series against the Boston Celtics.
Ugh, I still despise the Suns.
UTAH JAZZ
(ALL TIME SERIES RECORD: JAZZ 102 – WARRIORS 60, PLAYOFFS: WARRIORS 2 SERIES WINS, JAZZ 1 SERIES WIN)
Much like the Suns rivalry, the Utah Jazz have enjoyed quite a time with our beloved Dubs.
From the John Stockton–Karl Malone combo to the more recent Deron Williams–Carlos Boozer tandem, the squads from Salt Lake have constantly given fits to our boys in blue.
The all-time numbers certainly show a huge disparity during the regular season.
However, the Warriors have managed to get the best of the Jazz during their playoff entanglements.
In 1987 down 0-2, the Warriors would fight back both figuratively and literally to win the next 3 games and stun the heavily favored Jazz.
Many point to a bench-clearing fight at the end of game 2 started between Malone and Larry “Mr. Mean” Smith that lit the fire under the Warriors to spur them on to the series victory.
In 1989, the Warriors simply owned the number 2 seeded Jazz completing a series sweep led by a young Chris Mullin & Mitch Richmond combo.
The Jazz would get a small measure of revenge by ending the “We Believe” Warriors season during the 2007 playoffs.
Thankfully, most still remember more the “poster-board dunk” by Baron Davis over Andrei Kirilenko in game 3 (the only Warriors win of that series)
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