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Warriors-Cavs: It’s 3-1…Again
The Cavs avoided the dreaded broom and prevented the Warriors from celebrating a historic sweet 16-0 Playoffs sweep.
The Warriors’ flirtation with a perfect Playoffs record ended. However, despite losing Game 4, the faithful citizens of Dub Nation are not worried believing that the 2017 NBA Larry O’Brien trophy is still heading to the San Francisco Bay area. They may be right for it would take a super human effort to win 4 straight games against their “juggernaut” of a team.
It may seem a tall order to recover from a 0-3 hole to make a series a little more competitive but it has been done in the past. NBA records show that there were 9 teams that forced a Game 6 after losing the first three games and 3 forced a game 7.
It would take a super human effort for the Cavs to win 4 straight games against the “juggernaut” Warriors. They had that kind of effort in Game 4 clinching them a win. But still the “Hydra” from San Francisco Bay is up 3-1. Do the Cav’s “Hercules” (Lebron) still have what it takes to slay the many-headed monster? The Cavs indeed face a herculean task of clawing back from a 1-3 hole. They did it last year. Would they be able to do it again this year? They cut one of the Hydra’s head (Curry) last year. But cut one head and two heads would emerge from the fresh wound. It happened. Curry’s back playing healthy and with him sprang the Hydra’s additional head, Durant!
All roads lead to the Oracle, not of Delphi, but the arena in San Franciso on Monday night! Let’s see who the basketball gods favor this time.
The New York Knicks snared 3 consecutive wins after losing the first 3 games of the 1951 NBA Finals to push the Rochester Royals to a deciding Game 7. The Knicks lost the deciding game though, something that the Warriors could hope would happen should the Cavs, again, succeed in bringing the series to a winner-take-it-all finale.
The Warriors and their legion of hopefuls are counting on the fact the no NBA team has brought home the championship trophy after going down 0-3. But the Cavs and their throng of believers are certainly not looking at the picture anymore as rising from a 0-3 grave but climbing a 1-3 mountain. And there was a team who succeeded in scaling that mountain to become NBA champions…the Cavs themselves.
Déjà vu? Not exactly.
Just like last year, after four games, the Warriors are up 3-1. Then, horrendously, they dropped the next 3.
Will history repeat itself?
Nobody knows.
However, the circumstances (which favor the Warriors) are much different this year. Now the Warriors have a Kevin Durant and a healthier Stephen Curry. These are the reasons that made basketball experts believe that it’s almost impossible for the Cavs to recover from either a 0-3 or a 1-3 deficit.
But, again, nobody knows what would happen. With Lebron finally getting ample support from Irving and Love, the Cavs are harder to beat. It’s worth noticing that when Smith finally got out of his scoring slump, they almost won in Game 3. Smith again came out to play in Game 4 scoring 5 threes and Tristan Thompson, finally, played the way he was expected to contributing 10 boards and 5 points. Finally, the Cavs won. Not only that Lebron’s teammates started contributing, but the Cavs are also finally shooting better from downtown.
Analysts of the game are unanimous in saying that the Warriors need to need to win Game 5 to end the series. If not, the possibility of a playing a game 7 is strong. Then, it can be anybody’s ballgame.
Golden State Warriors Up 2-0
It’s no longer surprising that the Golden State Warriors are up 2-0 against the Cleveland Cavaliers and it doesn’t take one to have a head full of gray basketball hair to figure out why. What has given the Dub Nation a distinct advantage against the Cleveland is the addition of its “new citizen” Kevin Durant.
The Warriors also raced to a 2-0 start last year then split their next two games in their opponents’ turf to hold a commanding 3-1 lead. The rest is history. The Lebron-led team won the next 3 games, including 2 in the Warriors’ own homecourt, to give Cleveland its first ever NBA championship.
That lost was indeed painful for the Dubs. They are aching for revenge. But with the powerhouse team that they already had in 2015 and 2016, they found Lebron James and the Cavs tough nuts to crack with them being pushed to Game 6 in 2015 before prevailing and beaten in 2016. So, they thought they need another superstar to add more firepower in their arsenal in order for them to be ready against King James and his Cavaliers. Luckily, they found one willing to join them, a basketball star who also have a score to settle against Lebron James – Kevin Durant. It should be remembered that Lebron, donning a Miami Heat uniform, defeated Durant’s OKC for the 2012 NBA diadem.
2-0 is a familiar hole for the Cavs. It was the same situation they were in last year before the series switched to their homecourt. But this year may be a different story. They may have dug themselves a hole difficult to climb back from with a Kevin Durant helping the Warriors to plug it.
The statistics are too difficult to ignore. In games 1 & 2, both Cavs’ starting line-up and bench were outscored by their opponents.
The Cavs getting outworked in both ends of the floor is not also surprising. NBA records show that during the regular season, the Warriors ranked first in offense and their efficiency in the defensive end is above the league’s average. Conversely, the Cavs came in fourth in offense but way below the league’s average in defensive efficiency.
Not the Cavs’ “big 3” are not contributing the numbers that they are expected to. In the 2 games played so far, the troika of Lebron, Irving and Love produced a combined 142 points, 59 rebounds and 32 assists. Unfortunately for them, this year, the Warriors have a “super 4” – Curry, Thompson, Green and Durant – who produced bigger numbers than their – 180 points, 66 rebounds and 43 assists.
Compounding Cavs problems is not only the Warriors’ bench churning out better numbers than their supporting cast but also their not getting enough contributions from the other members of their line-up – Smith and Thompson.
Perhaps it’s time for coach Tyron Lue to tweak his starting line-up.
Kevin Durant has been averaging 35.5 points, 11 rebounds and 7 assists in the series so far. That’s the big difference, the main reason the Warriors are up 2-0.
Had Durant not joined the Warriors, who would have produced the said numbers?
WARRIORS VS CAVS: TAKE 3
Basketball experts were proven right with their prediction. The Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers are locking horns for the 3rd time in 3 years for the right to hoist the Larry O’Brien NBA Championship trophy.
The Warriors almost effortlessly destroyed the pretenders to their throne in the West during the regular season while the Cavs performed erratically relegating themselves to 2nd seed in the Eastern Conference Playoffs.
With their (the Cavs’) lethargic performance during the 82-game grind, the “uninitiated” were quick to dismiss the defending champs doubting their chance of reaching the championship round. Conversely, those with keener basketball sense knew that the Cavs were either disinterested in winning games that do not count or were simply reserving their strength for the playoffs.
The inconsistencies on the part of the Cavs could also be attributed to injuries to key players, the need to rest the stars of the team, and the mid-season changes in their line-up.
But when the playoffs gates were opened, the Cavs were like hungry lions unleashed. The players who came back from injury got their rhythm back, the new players got fully integrated into the system, and their key players were seemingly playing with fresher legs and sharper focus. Result? They decimated their playoff opponents, losing only once to the top-seeded Boston Celtics for an impressive 12-1 win-loss record in the playoffs.
More impressive though is the Warriors’ clean slate (12-0). They did not lose a single game in the Western Conference playoffs. However, some experts are not giving the Warriors full credit for such a feat due to Kawhi Leonard’s injury in Game 1 of the Warriors-Spurs series. Many even believe that the Warriors would have lost that game had Leonard not gotten injured.
As it is, it’s Warriors versus Cavs once more.
The oddsmakers installed the Warriors (-270) as the heavy favorites and the Cavs (+230), the underdogs.1
Even majority of ESPN sportswriters predict that the NBA trophy will be reclaimed by the San Francisco Bay team. 23 out of 28 who were asked see the Warriors winning the championship with 8 of them saying that the Cavs might win just a single game.2
That much respect the Warriors are given. That’s nothing new for the Cavs. They’re in a familiar territory.
The Cavs were also the underdogs in 2015 NBA Finals. The Warriors defeated them 4 games to 2 but it should be noted that that series was played without Kevin Love when he suffered an injury in the Cavs’ playoffs series with the Boston Celtics. Kyrie Irving got injured as well in Game 1 and did not play the rest of the championship series. But notwithstanding the injuries to those key players, the Cavs extended the series to a game 6 even managing to race to a 2-1 lead.
In the 2016 NBA Finals, the Cavs were give the same tag (underdogs) with the Warriors being predicted to breeze through them having then achieved a seemingly improbable NBA milestone… they set a regular season 73-9 win-lose record eclipsing the Chicago Bulls’ record of 72-10 that stood for 21 years. And when the Warriors raced to a 3-1 lead, their fans started to release the confetti in celebration.
But the whole sporting world knows what happened. the basketball gods had other plans. They allowed the team from Cleveland to set a seemingly improbable record of their own. Given up for dead, the Cavs, with all their key players finally playing together in championship games, rose from the grave to become the first team ever to overcome a 3-1 deficit to win an NBA championship.
That was of course, the most painful way to lose a championship. The Dub nation knows that. They are aching for a payback. They were aware that during the 2015 NBA Championship, the Cavs, with Lebron James as the only legit superstar in the lineup to carry the team, they were stretched to a Game 6. The following year (in the 2016 championship series), they witnessed how potent was the combination of Lebron James, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love that even when they had what was believed to be an insurmountable 3-1 lead, they lost.
The Golden State Warriors’ front office have probably concluded that the team’s main core of Draymond Green, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson have had and will have a hard time dealing with the Cav’s troika of Lebron, Kyrie and Kevin. So, they recruited another superstar… Kevin Durant.
Now, the Warriors have 4 superstars as against 3 of the Cavs. Thus, it doesn’t take a genius to understand why the former are the overwhelming favorites to win the 2017 NBA Championship trophy.
Why is it logical and completely understandable that the Golden State Warriors are heavily favored?
With the inclusion of Durant, the Warriors now have 2 MVPs in their lineup bringing to 4 the total of All-star players in the team. They also registered the best win-loss record in the regular season (67-15) winning 27 of their last 28 games including 12 straight in the playoffs. NBA records show that they ranked first in offense and their defensive efficiency is way above the league average.
On the other hand, the Cavs came 4th in offense and way below the league average in defensive efficiency.
Nevertheless, it is difficult to write-off the Cavs. Why? They have Lebron James in the line-up who knows what it takes to win. He’s been playing superbly in the playoffs. And don’t forget the brilliance of Kyrie and the resurgence of Kevin, not to mention the quiet effectiveness of Tristan Thompson who might as well be the 4th superstar in Cav’s uniform. If Tristan Thompson does not deliver the way he used to (and the way he ought to) and the Cavs end up losing the NBA crown, then the front office of the Cleveland Cavaliers must recruit an additional player, another superstar, in response to the Warriors adding a Kevin Durant in their line-up for clearly, if there’s one reason the NBA championship trophy returns to the San Fracisco Bay area, it’s Durant.
But as the late coach Rudy Tomjanovich said after the Houston Rockets repeated as NBA champions in 1995, “Don’t ever underestimate the heart of the champion!” However, as to which NBA champions (2015 or 2016?) would say so when the current NBA season concludes, remains to be seen.
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1Source: Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook (Thru: NBA-ESPN)
2 Source: http://www.espn.com/nba/
M. A. D. L I G A Y A 