You can’t beat the Warriors by playing like the Warriors

The Golden State Warriors are like Wolverine from the Marvel Universe. Wolverine is one of the most popular characters in comics and one of the most complex. That also makes him one of the most cloned, copied, and bastardized characters.

There are loads of Wolverines. He has at least 15 children, many who share his same abilities, with the bad ones taking his worst behaviors to the extreme. Some are granted more claws; others are supposedly more ruthless. He has just as many cousins and even a handful of clones.

His DNA is taken and he’s cloned a lot because, as his catchphrase goes, “I’m the best there is at what I do. And what I do isn’t very nice.” And when you have the best at something, it’s hard not to duplicate or bastardize it.

But the problem with all the other Wolverines is that they’re not him.

There are good and capable ones, like X-23, his female clone. She is skilled, ruthless, and very popular among fans. There’s X-24, a clone that was made after his daughter was deemed a failure and who has all of Wolverine’s rage and ferocity without the compassion and self-control. There’s even Old Man Logan, who is an alternate version of Wolverine who was brought into the regular universe after X-23 took the mantle of Wolverine.

But there’s a reason why Wolverine has been affiliated with over 35 different factions in the Marvel Universe. You can duplicate him, but the real thing is still the best one.

The NBA is in the same place with the Warriors. Teams can try to imitate what the Warriors do, and since the math of three points being worth more than two makes it foolish not to follow the blueprint, there’s not that much of a choice. Yet these teams can’t beat the Warriors doing what the Warriors do because the Warriors are the best at it.

Thursday’s watered-down showdown against top challengers from Houston — won, 124-114, by the Warriors — only revealed the point further. It’s true that the Rockets didn’t have James Harden, the center of the team. Even with Chris Paul, Eric Gordon, and Clint Capela having great nights, you just can’t replace the impact that Harden has on that team.

At the same time, the Warriors didn’t have Kevin Durant, an MVP candidate like Harden and arguably the second-best player in the league. If he’s not, he’s 2a or 2b with Stephen Curry.

And there lies the biggest hurdle in beating Golden State.

If you remove the best player from every other team in the NBA, the teams are significantly worse. You take away LeBron James from the Cavaliers, and they’re in the lottery. Take away Russell Westbrook from the Thunder, and they drop near the bottom. (No, the success of Victor Oladipo and Durant isn’t evidence that Westbrook is a hindrance.) Take away Kawhi and...actually the Spurs will find a way to still be there. Exception to the rule.

The point is that the Warriors can be without the second-best player in the league, an offensive and defensive juggernaut, and still be the best team. Beyond their two megastars, Klay Thompson is also one of the best shooters and defenders in the league, Draymond Green can do everything, rookie Jordan Bell is quickly becoming a mini-Draymond, and they always have Andre Iguodala to dust off his old bones and make game-winning plays.

Teams like the Rockets can take the notion of threes or layups so far that they outshoot everyone in the league, including the Warriors. They’ve bastardized the offensive idea that Golden State was built on.

But the Rockets can’t match the Warriors on defense, even if they have improved. Even worse, the Warriors can still outshoot them if it comes down to it. Trading points with the Warriors is a surefire way to lose.

In a sense, teams like Houston have no choice but to try to beat the Warriors by mimicking them. Trying an older style of basketball as a strategy is hopelessly naive. Yet by trying to be like them, teams accept that they will be an inferior version of the Warriors.

That’s because they can only take a part of the Warriors’ essence. Their success doesn’t just come down to three-point shooting, or switching on defense, or ball movement, or chemistry, or even the coaching. It’s all of those qualities at the same time with this specific personnel group. Teams can replicate a few of those traits, but it’s impossible to possess all of them.

One of the darkest points in Wolverine’s story is when he kills Daken, one of his sons. Daken, a bit like X-24, is a dark version of Wolverine. He is ruthless and merciless. Daken also claimed to be better than his father, so Daken threatens to kill Wolverine’s students, and the two fight for a long time before Wolverine drowns his son.

It’s not the only time something like this occurs. Almost everyone who is forged in Wolverine’s image — whether literally like a clone or figuratively like his sons — eventually loses to him. Wolverine wins because the clones, children, and relatives miss the essential point that he keeps showing them. He’s the best at what he does. They are copies.

The rest of the NBA keeps missing the essential point that the Warriors show them. They are the best at what they do, even when they don’t have Durant and even against an opponent that turns their style up to the extreme.

Hope may only come from remembering that Wolverine dies in the Logan movie by his own hands. His body essentially kills him, since no one else could. The Warriors have so many great players, which might mean that they will have to pay them all their worth at some point. Only this — and maybe not even this — could defeat the master.

If not, we might have to build a team of sentinels to stop the Warriors.