They also brought in power forward Channing Frye late in the season, and Frye’s speciality of shooting three-pointers has transformed the bench as he forces slower post players to guard him on the outside, which opens up room for James, Irving and others to attack.
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Kerr went with the more experienced Iguodala in last year’s finals against Cleveland, and he wound up as the finals MVP. The Warriors faced a more hard challenge, overcoming a 3-1 deficit in the Western Conference final against the Oklahoma City Thunder to earn the opportunity to defend their title. As such, you might be wondering what TV channel Warriors vs. Cavaliers Game 1 in the NBA Finals will be on come Thursday night. “I didn’t appreciate previous year”, James said.
Curry said his goal is for his team to win, not for there to be a personal competition between him and James. Even though Cleveland made it to the Finals, they never seemed to quite gel in their first season together.
Curry’s jersey is the league’s best seller, an honor which he bagged last summer surpassing James for the first time.
“That’s fine. I’ll have my spots in the series where I need to come out and play a role”.
Before the game, Tyronn Lue said the Cavs were going to throw lots of defenders at Curry.
“I don’t really get involved into the whole pressure thing”, James said.
Steph’s Warriors beat the Cavs in last year’s NBA Finals.
Mike Breen: Any time it’s a rematch in the finals, it’s always fun to watch to see how, from one year to the next, teams either get better or adjust to how they play each other. When Andre Igudala, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Andrew Bogut and Steph Curry (still laughing, Russ?) take the floor, what they do offensively is of great import. They combined for just 20 points and eight assists, with Curry throwing in five turnovers and 1-for-5 3-point shooting for good measure. But before you dismiss these as aberrations because of small sample sizes, it’s worth noting in the playoffs the Cavaliers defensive rating, the number of points they allow per 100 possessions, has been 105.6 with Love on the court. They followed that up with titles in 2012 and ’14 and are now in first place in the NL West as they hope to extend their streak of even-year championships. Only thinking outside the box is going to give the Cavs a chance at beating a team that’s so clearly superior in every facet of the game.
“Coming in a year ago, we had no idea what to expect”. And importantly, James’ two star running mates, point guard Kyrie Irving and forward Kevin Love, are healthy and playing stellar hoops right now.
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Bogut will be ready for this as he has seen enough National Basketball Association playoff games to know the flashy, fast play from the earlier weeks can fade away under the pressure and spotlight of the finals. He’s had a rough playoff go because of the injuries. They won their first championship in 40 years last season and followed that up by winning a record 73 games in the regular season and making it back to the Finals. “I just think both teams are happy and excited to make it to the Finals”.
