DELIRIOUS here in the Bay area after last night. Brilliant move by Kerr to start Igoudala in place of Bogut, who has been BOGUS in this series. Andre really turned up the heat and outplayed LeBron. Damn, NASTY camera inflicted cut on LeBron's head. Showed a lot of balls to stay in the game..........he would have been done if he couldn't shoot his free throws.
Tough decision for me on Sunday.............The Doobie Brothers are playing a free outdoor show in San Francisco with The California Honeydrops opening (they're a great Soul/Dance band from Oakland). Maybe I'll have to just DVR the game and watch when I get home, show starts at 2:00.
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Harden should have been MVP
Did you see last night's game? Are you sure you don't want to reassess that?
ESPN this morning: "Warriors record in the playoffs this year when Curry has 30 or more points: 9-0. Warriors record when he doesn't: 6-5."
Let me add:
Reporter to Lebron after last night's game: "Do you feel added pressure because of all the injuries to your teammates?"
Lebron: "No, I feel confident because I'm the best player in the world. It's simple."
It may be true, but can you imagine those words coming out of Curry's mouth? I personally cannot.
[Edited on 6/15/2015 by robslob]
LOL i am not a huge basketball fan but as a new yorker, as long as Cleveland has to play JR and Shumpert the warriors are a lock to win. Those 2 guys are awful under pressure and will implode at all times. Glad to see the Knicks dumped both of them and even LeBron cannot win with those guys out there. And yes Lebron is the best player in the world!!! Look at the cast of characters he is playing with.
LOL i am not a huge basketball fan but as a new yorker, as long as Cleveland has to play JR and Shumpert the warriors are a lock to win. Those 2 guys are awful under pressure and will implode at all times. Glad to see the Knicks dumped both of them and even LeBron cannot win with those guys out there. And yes Lebron is the best player in the world!!! Look at the cast of characters he is playing with.
To be fair, Shumpert and JR are playing much better than they were with the Knicks (like pretty much every player that has left the black hole that has become the Knicks). Shumpert had a horrible game last night, but JR had a nice bounce back game. The Warriors looked on top of their game last night, even when they were behind, it felt like they were ahead - maybe it was that crowd, I don't think there is a better crowd in the NBA.
Shumpert and JR are playing much better than they were with the Knicks
But J.R. Smith is a huge liability on defense, and also when his shot is off, it's REALLY off. He often looks to me like his head is really not even in the game, like he could be playing while high on something. But what do you expect from a guy who on more than one occasion has untied the shoelaces of an opponent who was standing next to him in the lane during a free throw.
Shumpert and JR are playing much better than they were with the Knicks
But J.R. Smith is a huge liability on defense, and also when his shot is off, it's REALLY off. He often looks to me like his head is really not even in the game, like he could be playing while high on something. But what do you expect from a guy who on more than one occasion has untied the shoelaces of an opponent who was standing next to him in the lane during a free throw.
I totally agree, JR Smith has always been all over the place, not nearly as consistent as they need right now.
OK Charles Barkley: Would you like to repeat once again that a jump-shooting team cannot win a championship? One thing you forgot, dude: Steph Curry had never played in a championship series before. I saw Dwayne Wade on a pre-game talk early in the series. He said, "We've never seen a player like Steph Curry before."
Look at my first post in this thread, page one, I said Warriors in six before the series started (had to brag just a bit).
I'll say this: The Cavs lost two GREAT players, and yeah, I think losing Kevin Love, not JUST Kyrie Irving, really hurt them. No, I do not think they were better without Love as some have said. Can you really say they were a better team with guys like J.R. Smith and Shumpert getting more playing time?
LeBron played his damn ass off. If Love and Irving are healthy next year.........WATCH OUT. It would be a great championship series rematch next year.
I'll tell you who should be the happiest about this: Warriors owner Joe Lacob. If you live outside of the Bay area you likely don't know about this: I was watching the Chris Mullin halftime jersey retirement ceremony several years ago when Lacob was LOUDLY and CRUELLY booed by the home crowd for trading Monte Ellis to Milwaukee for Andrew Bogut. Lacob and GM Bob Myers had the foresight to see that this needed to be Steph Curry's team and that he and Ellis could not co-exist. That looks obvious now; who saw it before the trade happened? People forget that this was once Monte Ellis' team and Steph Curry came in as an upstart. Lacob and Myers also had the balls to take a chance on the injury-prone Bogut and it paid off. Hell, Bogut was injured when they traded for him! He may have been a non-factor in this series, but Bogut was a big factor all year long.
[Edited on 6/17/2015 by robslob]
I love Chris Mullin, Old St John's Redmen fan here, F' the overly political crap. Here's to a return to glory for the team! The Great days of the Big East are long gone and never coming back! Character's and talent on most coaches and players from all teams. Sorry, I saw the Mullin mention.
I'm happy for Golden State's complete org. A couple thoughts, What is up with Curry not getting the MVP? They could've won without Iguadala, but they ain't winning without Steph. I took a quick look at the stats and for the finals Steph had the numbers. Curry had more points and assists and in the ballpark for rebounds for a small guy?
http://www.nba.com/games/20150607/CLEGSW/gameinfo.html (You need to hit link, then boxscore, then series stats and it give whole series to bear out my thoughts)
They doubled and tripled Curry the whole team benefited from the lack of attention, Sooo many wide open drives to the basket because they decided to not let Curry beat them, They got more frantic in their attempt as the series went on. Steph didn't have his normal 3's percentage, but was no doubt the MVP. Shocked. Iguadala is a decent guy and I'm happy for him. He was critical in 2 games of a 6 game series.
I appreciated Lebron and I feel I'm witnessing history, but the guy is almost tough to root for. I liked his manchild skill set and domination. When he went to Miami it turned me off with the whole media circus he preferred. To organize a whole TV show around it? I love lovable athletes and was a Shaq fan and liked the modesty and grace of Dwyane Wade. After Shaq departed from the Kobe debacle they clicked. When Lebron went to Dwyane Wade's Heat and won his championships and decided to return home to Cleveland to end the city's drought I thought that was noble. I was pulling for him. He is the best player in the league, but he's just not the classiest or heroic, I don't know if they're the right words, but when he wins he's the best, but when he loses it's because of lack of talent? Classy? He was at odds with Love and they just didn't gel. when Cav's were up 2-1 everyone was praising that they'd never get this far if Love was in the line-up. Tristan Thompson would never have emerged. "Next man up mentality". To watch his interviews he reminds me of the cancer that Randy Moss or Cam Newton could be on the field when times are rough. Mopey, dopey, withdrawn, lifeless, certainly not heroic or leadership qualities. Am I being to rough on King James or was he acting like a Princess who was denied a pony?
The fact is Cleveland was in these games and could have won the series. Lebron should have taken the high road, but he choose to insult his team that gave their all and had a great year. Half of which will be his team mates next year. When it came down to crunch time Lebron was Lebron.
They say with the hand checking foul rules of today Michael Jordan would've scored 50 per games. He was and is the best on the court and in the locker room.
[Edited on 6/17/2015 by Fretsman]
Great series, Cleveland just lost too many guns along the way. They could have won it without Love, but losing Irving was too much for them. Lebron looked exhausted in the 4th quarter. The Cavs didn't have enough weapons to counter the Warriors when the Warriors were hitting their shots, and they barely squeaked out victories when the Warriors had big cold stretches. I always dig seeing one of the old NBA franchises get their mojo back, and this was a really fun team to watch. I can't remember a better shooting team, where every crazy shot was going to go in. Happy for those Warriors fans, I like watching Warriors games just to watch that crazy crowd in that crazy old arena.
I think Kerr should get a ton of credit, too, he was making adjustments like a baseball manager all playoffs long. He wasn't afraid to essentially bench Bogut when he wasn't effective and dig up David Lee from his NBA grave. The Warriors' small ball controlled the game and Mosgov's ability to work under the basket was irrelevant.
As for Lebron, he has lost more finals series than he's won (2-4). He's an amazing player, the best playing right now, and carried the Cavs on his back. Not many teams go from basement to Conference Champ in an offseason (though wining the draft lottery often helps). He still doesn't have that killer instinct that Jordan and Kobe had, but he's come away from that 2007 Finals series.
I'll tell you who should be the happiest about this: Warriors owner Joe Lacob. If you live outside of the Bay area you likely don't know about this: I was watching the Chris Mullin halftime jersey retirement ceremony several years ago when Lacob was LOUDLY and CRUELLY booed by the home crowd for trading Monte Ellis to Milwaukee for Andrew Bogut. Lacob and GM Bob Myers had the foresight to see that this needed to be Steph Curry's team and that he and Ellis could not co-exist. That looks obvious now; who saw it before the trade happened? People forget that this was once Monte Ellis' team and Steph Curry came in as an upstart. Lacob and Myers also had the balls to take a chance on the injury-prone Bogut and it paid off. Hell, Bogut was injured when they traded for him! He may have been a non-factor in this series, but Bogut was a big factor all year long.
As a Milwaukee Bucks fan I was really happy to see Bogut playing like a monster during the playoffs. He missed a lot of time on some scrappy but mediocre Milwaukee squads, and everyone thought it was a smart contract dump, though Ellis played well for a pair of seasons. But anyone who watched Curry in college should have known there was something special there.
I'm happy for Golden State's complete org. A couple thoughts, What is up with Curry not getting the MVP? They could've won without Iguadala, but they ain't winning without Steph. I took a quick look at the stats and for the finals Steph had the numbers. Curry had more points and assists and in the ballpark for rebounds for a small guy?
You make some great points. Then again, I like the choice. Andre came up huge at both ends of the court. First player in NBA history to win Finals MVP without ever starting one single game in the regular season. Shows you how much The Warriors bucked convention this year. Also, they probably figured Curry won the regular season MVP; let's give it to a guy who came up huge in the championship series. Also: Not so sure the Warriors would have won this series without Iggy. He was huge, RIGHT when they needed him.
I know the MVP always comes from the winning team, but you could certainly make a case for LeBron too. After losing two stars, this was still a very competitive series and we all know why it was.
Lebron looked exhausted in the 4th quarter.
That is for certain; too big a load for ANYONE to carry. Look at his numbers; just astronomical. A record set for most points scored in the first three games of a Finals series. And I'm not even going into rebounds and assists. They say that in game #5, between points and assists, LeBron had a hand in 70% of Cleveland's scoring. That is one amazing statistic.
[Edited on 6/17/2015 by robslob]
