The Cleveland Cavaliers go for a third win in a row while the Golden State Warriors get one last chance to repeat in Sunday night’s seventh and deciding game of the 2016 NBA Finals.
Advertisement
It was tough, historically so, as the Cavaliers became the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA Finals. And just remember: You heard it from Mo first. A few weeks later, there was Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals against Boston.
“You’ve got to love that kind of environment and that battle”, Curry said.
“Let’s be frank, we were put in a pretty hard position in Game 5 without one of our post players, and we didn’t respond well enough”, Kerr said.”But we’ll have Draymond (Green) for Game 7″.
The Warriors couldn’t do it in Game 5 at home last Monday when do-everything forward Draymond Green was sidelined by a suspension. Kerr also doesn’t have center Andrew Bogut, whose series-ending knee injury has deprived the Warriors of one of their best rim protectors, inviting James to assault the basket without fear. Iguodala received treatment Saturday while the Warriors held a light practice but is planning to play Game 7, and coach Steve Kerr expects him to be improved come game time. Not only was Curry ejected with six fouls, he threw his mouthpiece in anger (drawing a $25,000 fine) before exiting.
The same goes for shots outside of five feet and mid-range shots and 3-point attempts.
“Play angry, but don’t play with so much emotion it takes you out of your focus”. We like our positioning. We’ve had two chances already. “It’s a great opportunity for us at home in front of our fans, to try to win a championship”.
James: “As a parent you protect your kids as much as possible”, he told ESPN. The whole series turned when the Warriors’ emotional heartbeat took a swipe at James’ groin during Game 4, and his absence for Game 5 was pivotal.
Cleveland fans have not celebrated a major team sports title since the 1964 Browns won the National Football League crown in the pre-Super Bowl era, but the Cavaliers are on the verge of ending the epic drought.
James brought the Cavaliers to the verge of a title with back-to-back 41-point games to stave off elimination and force this decisive final game.
Playing his sixth straight finals, James nearly single-handedly carried the Cavs back into this series and finished with 27 points, 11 assists and 11 rebounds as the Cavs gave their city its first major sports victor since the Browns won the National Football League title in 1964.
Sunday in Game 7 of the NBA Finals, here were the Cavs, taking all of the Warriors’ finishing moves.
Replacing Barnes with Shaun Livingston allows the Warriors to play similarly small and versatile, but hurts their spacing. People are going to judge it and critique it, and it’s all fair, again, because this is why we’re making a lot of money.
Cleveland finally has itself a champion.
Some of those easy shots have come because of the way the Warriors have shot from long range.
It’s all made the Warriors go from likable to petty in the time it takes to launch a 3-pointer.
Only 42 of 107 Game 7s in previous rounds have been decided by six points or less, but 10 of the 18 Finals Game 7s have been.
Advertisement
LeBron James says his career legacy will not be defined by the results of Sunday’s winner-take-all National Basketball Association title showdown, maturity having taught him to accept the things he can not control. Curry’s combination of fouling out, mouthpiece-throwing and getting ejected in Game 6 on Thursday night wasn’t because the first 82 games left him exhausted and cranky. Both stars contributed on the defensive end as well, helping to stifle Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and the Warriors’ other shooters as Cleveland got out to a 20-point lead in the first quarter and never looked back. “That means control the tempo of the game”.
