Sunday, May 31, 2015

NBA Finals Preview

It’s Finals week, not the one that ends with college students either being completely devastated with their grades or beyond excited with their grades, it’s the one that ends with fans either sitting at home after the season is over crying in the championship tee shirt they already bought, or fans lining the streets of their city waiting for a championship parade.

Either way, the 2015 NBA Finals is one that has been talked about a lot already and rightfully so. The storylines keep coming up; who is going to guard LeBron James? Who is going to guard Steph Curry? Where is Reily Curry going to be located during the games? Those questions can’t really be answered yet. No one can guard LeBron, no one (other than maybe LeBron) can guard Curry, and Reily Curry will be all over the place most likely. (That’s the only time I’ll mention Reily Curry during the Finals.)




Two first-year head coaches in Steve Kerr and David Blatt look to add an NBA title for their teams, the first ever for Cleveland and the first for Golden State since 1975. Much was said about Blatt taking over in Cleveland; the Cavs started off slow so naturally the headlines read David Blatt should be fired. The criticism was harsh for Blatt but it wasn’t deserved. As for Kerr, it was a relatively smooth situation to go into; Mark Jackson left him with a pretty damn good roster, and before I go any further I want to give props to Jackson for building Golden State back up and helping with the emergence of Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes, but Kerr who had never coached before did pretty well in his first season. Michael Jordan would be proud.
 
LeBron James is making his fifth straight appearance in the NBA Finals, the first player to do so since 1966, and looks to add his third title in five years. And his third Finals MVP award to go with his four NBA MVP awards. LeBron is averaging 27 points, 10 rebounds, and 8 assists in this postseason, while only shooting 17% from beyond arc. SEVENTEEN PERCENT. If the Cavaliers go on to win the title, this might be considered not only LeBron’s greatest season, but also one of the best seasons in NBA history. No Kevin Love after the Celtics series, Kyrie Irving went down in the Bulls series and hasn’t been 100%. LeBron’s leadership level has been an all-time high this entire season and it has clearly shown.

Speaking of MVP’s, Warriors guard Stephen Curry made a promise to Golden State fans that they’d get to the NBA Finals and this year he delivered that. There’s a difference though in actually winning the Finals rather than just getting there. No one on the Warriors roster has this type of experience. Curry led the Warriors to the leagues best record (67-15), while capturing his first MVP. He’s shooting 48% from the floor and 43% from beyond the arc. Not too bad. Curry looks to bring a title to Warriors franchise that hasn’t seen the Larry O’Brien Trophy lifted since Rick Barry in 1975.

When asked how the Cavaliers are going to slow down Steph Curry, LeBron simply replied, “Well the same way you slow me down, you can’t”. He’s right. You can’t stop Curry, and you can’t stop LeBron for that matter as well, you can only hope to slow him down. It’ll be interesting to see who David Blatt puts on Curry to begin game one, will he go point guard on point guard and have Kyrie Irving try his luck? Will he put one of the better on-ball defenders in the league on him in Iman Shumpert? Or will he just throw everything at him and have LeBron guard him?

What about Draymond Green? Whose skin is he going to get under this series? If he takes the liberty of defending LeBron then he will try everything he can to knock him off the mountain he’s on right now. Maybe even this?

Finally, who will win? Now obviously we have to wait until the series is over for that question to be answered, but what’s the point in waiting when I can just type up an answer right now? I said at the beginning of the season that this title is Cleveland’s to lose and that LeBron is on a mission to bring Cleveland it’s first sports title since 1964. Now I know Golden State had the best record, the league MVP, and were the best team throughout the entire season, but when it comes down to it LeBron James is LeBron James and to bet against him in a seven game series just doesn’t seem practical. I’m going with Cleveland to take it in six games and of course, LeBron will be Finals MVP.


P.S.- David Blatt WON’T get fired if they win.

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