Maybe so.

 

Or maybe they keep the same philosophy of focusing the team defense on the Splash Brothers, but put a different individual defender on Lee? Or front Lee and watch the passing lanes from a different angle, or shade him a bit to a different angle when in the paint? Or like you said, maybe they don't let him hide on defense, and force him to switch to Lebron on defense.

 

Little things like that, depending on what the video review shows. I think they did something similar with Mareese Speights after he went off a bit in the previous game. The next game, there was always someone within arm's reach on his short jumpers, even though the focus was still on the Splash Brothers.

 

Again, interesting to watch the chess match ...

For some levity before game 4, the top 30 Shaqtin' a Fool moments from the season:

 

http://allball.blogs.nba.com/2015/06/10/shaqtin-a-fool-mvp-2014-15/

 

The Otto Porter one has to go down as one of the All-Time NBA bloopers. It's all the more funny that it was just a one possession game at that point.

 

https://youtu.be/yRkoboVm6Rw?t=54s

Great adjustments on Kerr's part. Fun game to watch. Suck it Lebron. 

Cavs look spent. Hopefully an extra day to recover will help, and have to find a way to cover Iggy better.

Ahhh this game is back to the excitement of the earlier two games. Totally worth moving the TV to daughter's bedroom/side of the house and tossing the dumbtenna on the neighbor's roof. Another OT please.

Yes, more fun to watch!

Except for the outcome.

Gotta hand it to the Cavs.

 

I think they've done about as well in this series as anyone could have expected. Coach Blatt's defensive gameplan has been solid, and the effort and leadership from the King have been incredible.

 

The Cavs badly miss their depth though. The Warriors are just killing them in the 4th quarters of games and I'm guessing it is due to the fatigue of having to play so hard for so long.

 

Even though I think Kyrie would get toasted on defense, at the very least they badly miss the 25-30 minutes a game he could give them to buy Delly, Shump and JR some rest. Ditto for the 20-25 minutes Kevin Love would have played and bought rest for the King and Tristan Thompson. K.Love is just as much of a zero on D as Irving but they both are good enough offensive players to stay on the floor and buy their guys some rest.

 

I'd be honestly shocked if they can force a game 7.

 

I think tomorrow night is trophy night!!!

 

Go GSW!

Edited June 16, 201511 yr by TMoney

Thanks TMoney. Appreciate a GSW fan acknowledging that!

Kudos back to the Warriors. I had questioned their toughness and think they have shown a lot of mettle. Steph in particular, whom I don't think until now had to face this kind of physicality. He's stayed tough and produced. If anything, he's gotten better. Good luck ... would love to push this to 7, and then in a one game series ... who knows what happens?

Jeez am I ever nervous right now.

 

For the sake of my current and future employment this series needs to end! My work productivity just goes in the toilet on game days.

 

Win or lose, this is going to be an emotional night!

Yeah ditto, but for my mental health ...

Well, looks like this one could be another classic.

Not any more LeBron doesn't seem to be even in the game. Just standing around. Go warriors!

Hooray!!!

Congrats to the Warriors!! But I do feel for Lebron for loosing another final.  His jump shots continue to elude him down stretch.  I don't recall he scoring more than 5 points the last 3 mins of the game. 

Congrats, Warriors. Well played series , and nice job coaching by Kerr.

Kind of relieved it's over, so I can get on with my life. It's been so stressful and frustrating! Proud of how the Cavs fought so much adversity and got to the finals, even won two !

Actually met Kerr once, many years ago in the Chicago area, standing in line waiting to get into Walker Brothers pancake house. I looked up, and there he was! He had played for the Cavs the year before, and was a free agent. I said hi, told him I was a Cavs fan, said we'd miss him, and asked him where he was heading. He said hi, it looked like Chicago next year. Made some small talk, wished him well, told him to enjoy his pancakes. Totally nice, regular guy! He looked and acted like anyone else standing in line waiting for pancakes.

He's always been a class act and a winner. Even when his Dad was killed in such a terrible way, I remember him being so classy and having so much dignity. Lots of kudos to him for a great year!

Edited June 17, 201511 yr by jvlgato

That was an amazing two months of basketball, but boy am I ever emotionally drained.

 

The Warriors have been my favorite team in any sport since the "We Believe" run my senior year of college. To see how far they've come from then has been special. They capped off a season for the ages the right way.

 

On a whim, I attended the NBA draft out in Newark in 2012 the year we ended up drafting Harrison Barnes, Festus Ezeli and Draymond Green. We had no way of knowing at the time, but that day certainly has turned out to be one of the pivotal ones in the history of the franchise. All three players played (and played well) in a close-out game in the NBA finals. Draymond Green has turned out to be our second best player. Harrison Barnes went toe-to-toe with one of the dominant big men in the NBA in Zach Randolph and came out smelling like a rose. Unreal.

 

This team has been especially fun to watch because of how selfless everyone is. The guys really have pulled for each other all year. Chemistry like this feels so rare in professional sports. I don't think I'll ever forget how happy all the guys were for Klay the night he got 37, or how honest Steph's MVP acceptance speech was.

 

Seeing Andre take the MVP was an emotional moment. Curry probably played better, but I'm so happy Andre got the award. I can't even imagine what it must mean for him, a guy who has been such a grinder his entire career, to be recognized like this.

 

Congrats to the Cavs. I think LeBron's redemption since "the decision" has now come full circle. He gave everything he had for the City he loves.

 

I suspect there is a decent chance we meet again at the same time next year.

Poor Sacramento and Brooklyn. They didn't get the memo about taking efficient shots.

Love these charts. It's amazing how information rich they are.

Watching the 22-0 Warriors this year has been pure unadulterated joy.

Steph Curry is dominating games right now in a way never before seen. The guy seems to never have a bad night. I've watched his entire NBA career and what he is doing in games this year just blows me away. He never ceases to amaze.

If you are an NBA fan and haven't seen the Warriors play yet, do tune in to one of their broadcasts. The team plays unselfish basketball (most assist per game since the showtime lakers) and has a blast doing it.

If they can survive the rest of this road trip still undefeated, then the 72 Lakers seemingly unbeatable streak of 33 wins in a row is going to be in play.

Fresh 4-factor chart from the guy in the Houston stats department.

Always interesting. Defensive eFG% seems far and away to be the stat most correlated with positive point differential.

This Buddy Hield kid at Oaklahoma has made a believer out of me.

I'll be rooting for him to win it all next weekend.

 

That game was epic. Kobe might have been low key recruiting Buddy for the upcoming draft, though Ingram or Simmons make more sense. Lakers are going to be baking hard in a few years, just in time for after the Warriors 3peat.

Congrats to the Villanova Wildcats! That was one of the most impressive championship game finishes I've ever seen.

F&%$ing amazing to win a title on a buzzer-beater.

Edited April 5, 201610 yr by TMoney

Incredible game and an amazing tournament in general. Always just a little easier when your team (Kansas in my case) gets beat by the eventual champion. But my goodness, did Nova ever completely dismantle and embarrass an outstanding Oklahoma team. They just got hot and played their best basketball all season long at the right time.

Outstanding team defense with 10 hands and feet moving constantly.  They did an incredible job at stopping the best player on each team they played down the stretch. Completely denied Perry Ellis the ball in the post against Kansas and held him to 4 points, then somehow shut down Hield and held him to 9 points, shadowing him everywhere he went... and then tonight did a great job on Brice Johnson, don't know how much he scored but he definitely wasn't as dominant as usual.  I thought is was the smartest possible way to coach college basketball team. Just keep it simple. Don't let their best player beat us.

 

The call on the broadcast.