Friday, June 19, 2015

The Finals

Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors, the NBA's best team. The NBA normally gets it right year after year and again, there was no doubt the Warriors were above every team, and honestly the most healthiest team as well.  The finals series between the Cavs and Warriors was a entertaining series and at tines a really good series. But we were robbed once Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving suffered injuries. We were in for a potentially better series and possibly a different result.

The Cavs were damaged goods once Kevin Love suffered the shoulder injury in the first round and Kyrie Irving suffered a kneecap injury in the first game of the finals. We should be quick to congratulate the Warriors for an amazing job. One of their best accomplishment outside of 67 wins, Stephen curry winning the MVP, and winning the title, is the fact the Warriors stayed healthy and in one piece for and entire NBA season.

Golden State beat Cleveland in 6 games, while Stephen Curry played like the MVP in only 2 1/2 games, 41% shooting from Klay Thompson, and low production from Draymond Green for the first three games. That is telling us how deep this team truly was. This was a real basketball TEAM!

A couple years back the Warriors went and got Andre Iguodala to be a leader. In this championship series, he became the only Finals MVP to come off the bench, which Andre done for the first three games. Iguodala was great on both ends of the court and finished the series strongly.

At different points throughout the series, the Warriors received quality play from David Lee who made sacrifices in his role throughout the season, Green who finished the series with a triple-double, Shaun Livingston, Festus Ezeli, and though he missed a big dunk in game 2, Game 1 Maresse Speights played solid.

Now for the Cavs; The Cavs don't make it to the Finals without JR Smith and Iman Shumpert, they both came to the Cavs at the mid season point and played well to a certain degree through the playoffs. To be honest they both were terrible in the Finals. These two helped Lebron in no way shape or form and were a cancer to the Cavs when they were on the floor. Because these two couldn't step up to the plate the Cavs were forced to turn to guys like Dellavedova and James Jones to play roles that were beyond their skill set. Smith shot 31% and seemed to hide and flee from the ball while he was in his slump. Smith made poor decisions with the ball that hurt his team, time and time again. Shumpert also shot horribly at 25% and scored in double figured just once.  His defense which is his bread and butter, was decent, but with Love and Irving out the Cavs has to have some scoring. The Cavs has to have players knock down open jumpers when Lebron was doubled. Smith and Shumpert couldn't create their own shot nor get to the free throw line, Smith and Shumpert failed their teammates.

Lebron had statistically the best performance in the NBA Finals. He also has the most impossible job, trying to get a team missing two superstars and loaded with bench players to win a Finals against a team that was fully healthy and clicking on all cylinders. Lebron came up short. What excites me is that we could possibly see the same Finals next year. Curry and Lebron were the reason why the ratings for the series set records for the Finals on ABC. Curry is young and in his prime and with the team he has, hoping the Warriors don't receive the injury bug, the Warriors will be right back. The Cavs will get Love just guessing he doesn't sign with another team this summer and Irving back and Lebron coming back more motivated next season, we are in store for a Warriors/Cavs part 2!

By: Joshua Keene

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