Golden State Warrior Win NBA Championship

The Golden State Warriors won their second NBA championship in two yeas winning the NBA Finals four games to one over the Cleveland Cavaliers.  First and foremost this shouldn’t have been a surprise.  The Warriors are stacked.  They have four star players with good depth.  Even in the game they lost I wasn’t concerned.  They had one horrible quarter defensively but they did score 33 in that same quarter.  And this was with Curry, Thompson and especially Draymond Green not shooting at their normal high standards during the series.  It is fun watching them when they are clicking.  This is a team for the ages with Kevin Durant added to the mix.  I’m not sure what team could challenge them in the future aside from a LeBron led team.     

Series MVP Kevin Durant deserves all the accolades he is getting. Cleveland had no answer for him – 35 PPG, 8 RPG, 5 APG, 1 SPG, 1 BPG, 55%/47%/92%.  That is a crazy stat line playing against an excellent Cleveland Cavaliers team and he played good defense.  We knew he was special and probably the number two guy behind LeBron but there is no doubt now.  Amazing how we knew he was great but was still able to put an exclamation point on it with this series. 

Cleveland has to be disappointed even if they believe they weren’t the better team.  Sans a late game meltdown in game three who knows?  Maybe that, coupled with a game four win, would have put more pressure on Golden State and given them an opportunity to steal the series.  As is they aren’t as good.  I personally think they need to move Kevin Love and get more scoring.  Love hasn’t played a good Finals yet and while I like him, they can do better.  Moving him wouldn’t be easy with his big contract but you never know what might happen.  LeBron once again showed the world how great he is and Kyrie shined for most of the series.  They just really have nothing else to offer.  J.R. Smith was absent at times, Tristan Thompson wasn’t a factor, and the bench was lackluster at best.  We’ll see if this offseason they can give themselves a better shot at beating a stacked Warriors team who isn’t going anywhere. 

Warriors Thump Cavs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals

Golden State beat up on Cleveland pretty good in game one of the 2017 NBA Finals.  Two points.  This shouldn't have been unexpected.  Golden State was a great team prior to winning the Kevin Durant sweepstakes so a thumping of the Cavaliers was definitely not out of the question.  That said Cleveland is still a great team with the best player on the planet on their side.  GS didn't turn over the ball at a record setting level and Kevin Durant feasted on the Cleveland defense while Clay Thompson and Draymond Green couldn't score to save their life.  If you're Golden State you have to think those guys will skew closer to their norms which should help even if they do have more turnovers moving forward.  The Cavs can't continue to turn the ball over and must get better contributions from Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson who were both nearly invisible out there (sans rebounding from Love). Love must score and score efficiently and play better defense while Thompson must be a force on the boards and on defense.  I still think this can be a good series.  Most of the games from last year's Finals weren't close yet it went seven games.  I do think Durant is the difference maker here and I just don't know how Cleveland can win the series without playing near perfect ball from here on out.  That is why the play the games, right?  You just never know.  I'm hoping for a seven game series but thinking six with the Warriors getting some revenge on the current champs.