The Finals kicked off yesterday in style. What was supposed to be a boring, one-sided matchup turned into one of the craziest overtime thriller in recent memory. Warriors won, matching most people's expectations including mine, but the game went nothing like I had expected. My pick was and still is Dubs in 5, maybe 6 if they sleep walk through the series, but the way LeBron showed up and hooped yesterday, you almost have to expect a 6 or 7 game series. He dropped a super efficient 51 and made one of the best defenses in the league look absolutely helpless and clueless. Andre Iguodala was not playing, but the defense can't be this soft without him. Like somebody tweeted yesterday, if he makes so much of a difference to this loaded team, we are either over-estimating the big-4 or underestimating Iggy. Good point! I think we are under-estimating Iggy. Plus, LeBron was on fire yesterday. Even Iggy might not have made much of a difference.
Durant spent a lot of time defending LeBron and was largely ineffective. The Dubs seemed to want to fight through screens and stick with the primary defender on LeBron when he tried to switch Curry on to him. This is different from the Houston series and Harden where you just can't give anybody any daylight because of the conscience-free three point shooting. You can afford to switch back on LeBron and give some opening to the other Cavs. I felt like they did that a lot more in the first half, but Durant didn't fight through the screens and gave up easy in the second. Durant is so talented that he ended up with decent numbers at the end, but he played a mediocre game at best. Aside from the zero-impact defense on LeBron, he was also the guy who was pushed aside by J.R.Smth of all people on that rebound on the missed free throw at the end. Durant can't let that happen. He was abused on the boards in game 7 against the Rockets as well. Anyways, Curry was a lot better and Dubs won with a B+ to A- performance. They were not horrible, but they can be better.
The story of the game was really LeBron. He was just amazing and his legend is growing with every game in these playoffs. At age 33, he is doing more to embellish his hall of fame resume than he did at age 28 or 29 when his legs were a lot younger and his resume a lot lighter. He has carried these under-staffed Cavs to the Finals and in game 1, almost got them a 1-0 series lead. At the end of the day he couldn't and the story became the reversed foul call, missed George Hill free throw, and JR's stupidity. These plays have been rehashed non-stop for the last 24 hours and I will spare you the details, but my take in a nutshell is as follows. They got the call reversal right. You can question the motive for the review, but the result of the review was correct as confirmed by the league today as well. The missed FT happens. Durant actually missed 3 of his first 4 FTs in game 7 of WCF. Pressure and stress spares no one and Hill became the latest victim. J.R.Smith is just as much a strength as a liability and I am not surprised he lost track of the score. Also, who knows if JR's put-back or even a hypothetical LeBron James shot goes in if thats how things played out.
At the end of the day, JR Smith became the goat and saved both Hill ad Durant from some embarrassing questions. The Dubs won in OT, but they need to do something about the LeBron James problem, I can't wait for game 2 to see what both sides do - Dubs from a defensive strategy perspective and Cavs from just the mental perspective of recovering from that rough ending in game 1. It's been an interesting playoffs for the Golden State Warriors. They were never threatened in the playoffs last year, but they just came out of a 7-game fist-fight against the Rockets who gave them all they can handle and then some. Chris Paul stole both game 4 and 5 to put the Dubs in a major hole. He then got hurt and many people are convinced that this changed the series and was a lucky break for the Warriors. It probably was and maybe CP3's presence in game 7 would have made sure the Rockets didn't completely implode in the second half. CP3 gave that team a lot of toughness and "clutchenss" in games 4 and 5.
The Dubs were missing Iggy since game 3, but people don't give as much importance to him as CP3 because the Dubs have 4 stars larger than Iggy while CP3 is the second best player for the Rockets and probably their best player in the clutch given Harden's troubles as a closer. So, it is fair to say that if both played, advantage goes to the Rockets in game 7. But, thats only correct for game 7. If both played throughout the series, I totally agree with Kerr that the Warriors win game 4 and/or 5. Both were close games with CP3 playing decent for the Rockets and Iggy would have made enough of a difference in the 4th quarter to win it for the Dubs. The series would probably have wrapped up in 5 or 6 rendering game 7 irrelevant. I would like to sympathize with CP3 and Rockets for that injury, but you almost could see it coming from a mile.
I don't want to blame CP3 for being injury prone, but he just is. I do blame Harden and Mike D'Antoni for sure. Harden did no favors to CP3 by disappearing in most of the 4th quarters. CP3 had to carry a lot of the load in the second half of that game 5 when he pulled up lame and got injured. Of course, D'Dantoni still doesn't play his bench, thus killing both his superstars. So, not sure how much tears we can shed for the Rockets and this injury. We can all however shed collective tears for all of us NBA fans since these injuries reduced the series to a bunch of "what ifs." It was great fun, but the injuries made it a different series for sure. It was a cruel joke by the Basketball gods on both us and CP3. Rockets and CP3 made life difficult for the Dubs while it lasted, but the Dubs looked like they were always going to win the series anyways.
Dubs struggled in two consecutive games - 4 & 5, in crunch time to get baskets. The Rockets' defensive strategy had a lot to do with that. The Dubs defense was good too, but the offense betrayed them at times. It was not humming the entire series, but they especially looked confused in the closing minutes. As great as the Dubs' big 4 are, I started trusting the Rockets' Big 2 and even Eric Gordon more than the Warriors studs if you absolutely had to get a basket or two in the last minute of a game. Their is a simplicity, clarity, and focus to the Rockets' offense. Isolate Harden or Chris Paul or Eric Gordon, let them go to work, and live with their decision - shoot a 3, drive, or kick it out to one of the other shooters. It may be ugly and boring, but is not complex or confusing. And it worked just enough in that series to help them get to 7 games.
I don't like cliches, but the Dubs offense on the other hand did seem to lack an identity, at least in that series against that D. They almost have a problem of excess. They have 4 of the top 15 players in the league and are often torn between 3 ways to run their offense. They can rely on their basic ball movement and player movement offense, or iso Durant and let him go 1-on-1, or have Curry shoot or dribble-drive. There is no one thing they can hang their hat on and that sometimes causes some identity issues at the end of games. Rockets seemed to make them pick the least preferable of these options all series long. They defended the 3-point line and let Durant ISO to his heart's content. The Dubs had an issue with that as it took others out of the offense. Finally, Kerr had to coach and was able to unleash the Splash brothers just enough in games 6 and 7 to to earn a hard-fought victory. The conference finals were both great and now, lets see if the Finals can measure up to it when it comes to quality and competition.
Durant spent a lot of time defending LeBron and was largely ineffective. The Dubs seemed to want to fight through screens and stick with the primary defender on LeBron when he tried to switch Curry on to him. This is different from the Houston series and Harden where you just can't give anybody any daylight because of the conscience-free three point shooting. You can afford to switch back on LeBron and give some opening to the other Cavs. I felt like they did that a lot more in the first half, but Durant didn't fight through the screens and gave up easy in the second. Durant is so talented that he ended up with decent numbers at the end, but he played a mediocre game at best. Aside from the zero-impact defense on LeBron, he was also the guy who was pushed aside by J.R.Smth of all people on that rebound on the missed free throw at the end. Durant can't let that happen. He was abused on the boards in game 7 against the Rockets as well. Anyways, Curry was a lot better and Dubs won with a B+ to A- performance. They were not horrible, but they can be better.
The story of the game was really LeBron. He was just amazing and his legend is growing with every game in these playoffs. At age 33, he is doing more to embellish his hall of fame resume than he did at age 28 or 29 when his legs were a lot younger and his resume a lot lighter. He has carried these under-staffed Cavs to the Finals and in game 1, almost got them a 1-0 series lead. At the end of the day he couldn't and the story became the reversed foul call, missed George Hill free throw, and JR's stupidity. These plays have been rehashed non-stop for the last 24 hours and I will spare you the details, but my take in a nutshell is as follows. They got the call reversal right. You can question the motive for the review, but the result of the review was correct as confirmed by the league today as well. The missed FT happens. Durant actually missed 3 of his first 4 FTs in game 7 of WCF. Pressure and stress spares no one and Hill became the latest victim. J.R.Smith is just as much a strength as a liability and I am not surprised he lost track of the score. Also, who knows if JR's put-back or even a hypothetical LeBron James shot goes in if thats how things played out.
At the end of the day, JR Smith became the goat and saved both Hill ad Durant from some embarrassing questions. The Dubs won in OT, but they need to do something about the LeBron James problem, I can't wait for game 2 to see what both sides do - Dubs from a defensive strategy perspective and Cavs from just the mental perspective of recovering from that rough ending in game 1. It's been an interesting playoffs for the Golden State Warriors. They were never threatened in the playoffs last year, but they just came out of a 7-game fist-fight against the Rockets who gave them all they can handle and then some. Chris Paul stole both game 4 and 5 to put the Dubs in a major hole. He then got hurt and many people are convinced that this changed the series and was a lucky break for the Warriors. It probably was and maybe CP3's presence in game 7 would have made sure the Rockets didn't completely implode in the second half. CP3 gave that team a lot of toughness and "clutchenss" in games 4 and 5.
The Dubs were missing Iggy since game 3, but people don't give as much importance to him as CP3 because the Dubs have 4 stars larger than Iggy while CP3 is the second best player for the Rockets and probably their best player in the clutch given Harden's troubles as a closer. So, it is fair to say that if both played, advantage goes to the Rockets in game 7. But, thats only correct for game 7. If both played throughout the series, I totally agree with Kerr that the Warriors win game 4 and/or 5. Both were close games with CP3 playing decent for the Rockets and Iggy would have made enough of a difference in the 4th quarter to win it for the Dubs. The series would probably have wrapped up in 5 or 6 rendering game 7 irrelevant. I would like to sympathize with CP3 and Rockets for that injury, but you almost could see it coming from a mile.
I don't want to blame CP3 for being injury prone, but he just is. I do blame Harden and Mike D'Antoni for sure. Harden did no favors to CP3 by disappearing in most of the 4th quarters. CP3 had to carry a lot of the load in the second half of that game 5 when he pulled up lame and got injured. Of course, D'Dantoni still doesn't play his bench, thus killing both his superstars. So, not sure how much tears we can shed for the Rockets and this injury. We can all however shed collective tears for all of us NBA fans since these injuries reduced the series to a bunch of "what ifs." It was great fun, but the injuries made it a different series for sure. It was a cruel joke by the Basketball gods on both us and CP3. Rockets and CP3 made life difficult for the Dubs while it lasted, but the Dubs looked like they were always going to win the series anyways.
Dubs struggled in two consecutive games - 4 & 5, in crunch time to get baskets. The Rockets' defensive strategy had a lot to do with that. The Dubs defense was good too, but the offense betrayed them at times. It was not humming the entire series, but they especially looked confused in the closing minutes. As great as the Dubs' big 4 are, I started trusting the Rockets' Big 2 and even Eric Gordon more than the Warriors studs if you absolutely had to get a basket or two in the last minute of a game. Their is a simplicity, clarity, and focus to the Rockets' offense. Isolate Harden or Chris Paul or Eric Gordon, let them go to work, and live with their decision - shoot a 3, drive, or kick it out to one of the other shooters. It may be ugly and boring, but is not complex or confusing. And it worked just enough in that series to help them get to 7 games.
I don't like cliches, but the Dubs offense on the other hand did seem to lack an identity, at least in that series against that D. They almost have a problem of excess. They have 4 of the top 15 players in the league and are often torn between 3 ways to run their offense. They can rely on their basic ball movement and player movement offense, or iso Durant and let him go 1-on-1, or have Curry shoot or dribble-drive. There is no one thing they can hang their hat on and that sometimes causes some identity issues at the end of games. Rockets seemed to make them pick the least preferable of these options all series long. They defended the 3-point line and let Durant ISO to his heart's content. The Dubs had an issue with that as it took others out of the offense. Finally, Kerr had to coach and was able to unleash the Splash brothers just enough in games 6 and 7 to to earn a hard-fought victory. The conference finals were both great and now, lets see if the Finals can measure up to it when it comes to quality and competition.
2 comments:
Hey! I just wish to give an enormous thumbs up for the great information you might have right here on this post. I will likely be coming back to your blog for extra soon. casino play
After study just a few of the blog posts on your website now, and I really like your approach of blogging. I bookmarked it to my bookmark web site listing and can be checking again soon. Pls check out my website online as nicely and let me know what you think. free online casino slots
Post a Comment