It won’t be 1-on-1 Sunday night.
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LeBron’s legacy will be shaped by the titles he’s won, the gold medals he’s collected, the six straight trips to the NBA Finals, the records, and much more. Game 3: Cavaliers 120 – Warriors 90 With their backs against the wall, the Cavaliers responded with a dominating victory of their own in front of their home crowd.
Game 6 of the NBA Finals wasn’t just a tough loss for Steph Curry but for his family as well.
If Cleveland loses, James has done enough to still be considered one of the greats, but if they win – and imagine for a second Cleveland winning, hard as it seems considering everything that has gone wrong for OH sports teams over the years – there will be no disputing that James deserves Top 3 placement on the NBA’s podium. “That’s not a bad deal”. But Warriors were not anxious about the MVP being suspended for the last game of the season.
Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue said James simply has to be himself.
Prices are significantly more expensive than they were for the NBA Finals’ most recent Game 7 clash between the Miami Heat and the San Antonio Spurs in 2013. James had a shaky year shooting from three-point range, but is 7-14 in the past two games.
The record-setting 3-point shooter and National Basketball Association scoring champion was fined $25,000 Friday by the league for hurling his mouthguard into the crowd after fouling out of Thursday’s 115-101 loss at Cleveland, which left the best-of-seven series deadlocked at 3-3.
“We want to give the city of Cleveland a championship”. “It’s on everybody’s shoulders”. “I can’t wait”, James said.
Still, that hasn’t stopped the Warriors and their fans from feeling like they got ripped off.
Unfortunately for Curry, she quickly learned what many other celebs know far too well, apology or not, what’s said on social media can never be taken back. Curry also put his team in jeopardy by throwing his mouthpiece at a fan after fouling out of Game 6. AdAge estimated that had there been a Game 7 past year, it would have likely drawn an audience of 32 million viewers and a 21.2 household rating, up from an average of 20 million viewers and an 11.6 rating for the previous games in the 2015 NBA Finals.
That opportunity will be lost, though, if James keeps at it.
“He played unbelievable on both ends of the floor”, Cleveland’s J.R. Smith said. “So tip your hat to him and come out Sunday with aggression to hopefully clog some driving lanes early, not let him get a rhythm, try to make him as uncomfortable as you can”.
James, the first player to notch 40 or more points in consecutive June games since Shaquille O’Neal in 2000, simply said, “No”, when asked if the game’s result would define his legacy. Teams in that hole are 0-32 all-time.
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The Warriors hope to see that streak hold.
