It’s certainly not a stretch to say that the winner of Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Thursday night likely will the championship. If the Cleveland Cavaliers win, they will have a 3-1 lead and have three chances for LeBron James to snag one more victory for the city’s first pro sports title since 1964. If the Golden State Warriors win, they will have evened the series at 2-2 while reclaiming home court advantage, They also will have reclaimed some of
If you’re wondering why the offense of the Cleveland Cavaliers has come to a grinding halt down the stretch of the first two games of the NBA Finals, coach David Blatt has a perfectly logical explanation. Blatt may be an NBA rookie but is somewhat of an icon in Israel, where he won five league titles, four Coach of the Year awards and the 2014 Euroleague Championship with Maccabi Tel Aviv. He is on a first name basis with Prime Minister
After a one-week wait, the NBA Finals are here. But that’s nowhere near as long as these teams have been waiting for a championship. For the Golden State Warriors, it has been 40 years since Rick Barry led them to what many believe is the greatest upset in NBA Finals history, a four-game sweep of the Washington Bullets in 1975. For the Cleveland Cavaliers, it has been, well, forever. The Cavaliers entered the NBA in 1970 and didn’t even make the Finals
It wasn’t that long ago when Golden State Warriors fans booed team owner Joe Lacob at Oracle Arena — at a Chris Mullin jersey retirement ceremony, no less. Lacob had failed to deliver on some bold promises at that point, and – coupled with the trade of local favorite Monta Ellis – he made for a convenient target at the time.’ A lot has changed in the Bay Area in the three years since, as anyone at Game 5 of the
Four games of the Western Conference Finals are in the books, and the Warriors lead the Rockets by a 3-1 margin. That overall mark may not feel surprising, but the route the series has taken to get there has been a bit bizarre. [Read more…]
Turns out we hadn’t seen everything yet. The Rockets played nearly perfect basketball in a record 45-point first quarter and held on to stay alive in the West. In a postseason memorable mostly for injuries, it sure looked as if Stephen Curry $10400 was the latest victim after a terrifying fall. [Read more…]
The NBA Conference Finals tip off tonight. DraftKings fantasy contests close at 9:00 Eastern but will not be decided until tomorrow night. [Read more…]
On your mark, get set, go! Track meet, drag race, whatever analogy you like, the Western Conference finals between the top-seeded Golden State Warriors and second-seeded Houston Rockets should be played at a breakneck pace by a pair of teams who are attempting to change the paradigm of NBA offenses. During the regular season, the Warriors led the league in points per game, overall shooting and 3-point shooting. They were second in threes made and scored at least 110 points 40 times,