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2015 NBA Finals: Golden State vs. Cleveland

Discussion in 'NBA Dish' started by J.R., May 27, 2015.

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Golden State vs. Cleveland

Poll closed Jun 4, 2015.
  1. Warriors in 4

    4.8%
  2. Warriors in 5

    14.6%
  3. Warriors in 6

    21.1%
  4. Warriors in 7

    6.8%
  5. Cavs in 7

    10.9%
  6. Cavs in 6

    33.0%
  7. Cavs in 5

    3.7%
  8. Cavs in 4

    5.1%
  1. verysimplejason

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    HEALTH IS WEALTH! Haha!!! Salty n bitter...
     
  2. verysimplejason

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    YUP!!! :cool:
     
  3. tmac2k8

    tmac2k8 Member

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    I couldn't watch, seeing GSW hoist the trophy would have made me puke, they are the most unlikable team ever.
     
  4. verysimplejason

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    Jordan beating "Jordan rules"... Jordan passing to Kerr... to Wenningston, to Kukoc, to Pippen, to Paxson... yup... that's TEAM Ball. Triangle offense? :p
     
  5. FTW Rockets FTW

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    So GSW go from first round fodder to convincing NBA Champs just toying with every team on its way. And their biggest difference? Change of coach.

    Yeah Coaching doesn't matter, amirite Murray?
     
  6. t_mac1

    t_mac1 Member

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    Blatt: I took the worst team in the league to the Finals.
     
  7. pippendagimp

    pippendagimp Member

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    GS added livingston……CLE added lebron/love
     
  8. verysimplejason

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    You got it man! I was hoping somebody can reiterate this over and over again... Rockets should play to its strength. It got one of the best pick n roll player in Harden and another one (if not reluctant) in Dwight. Also providing screens to your ball handlers will drastically reduce turnovers. I was wondering why no screens were called when Harden was having his worst turnover game. No pick n rolls either. Those kind of plays give the defending team more energy to waste. This is one of the reasons why Cavs (n Rockets) were too gassed at the end of the game.
     
  9. YOLO

    YOLO Member

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    biggest difference to me was that their core players are all coming into their own at the right time and depth. really rare to see a young team all improve significantly, particularly individually at the same time. coaching was definitely a factor but I don't think was the biggest factor. coaching complemented the skillset of the players.
     
  10. Kwame

    Kwame Member

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    Larsv8 wrong again. Unbelievable how wrong people like him and samfisher are on a regular basis, smh. They should probably get new monikers.
     
  11. RedRedemption

    RedRedemption Member

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    Waiting to list some adversities Golden State had to face.
     
  12. verysimplejason

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    Team Management?
    Workforce Planning?
    Strategy Planning?
    Risk Management?
    Injury Management?
    Human Resource Management?

    If those were not adversities enough then what is?
     
  13. watashi315

    watashi315 Member

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    Look at the series and tell me how Cavs were beaten? Yes, Curry and Thompson did their thing but players like Iggy (Finals MVP), Barbosa, and in some ways, even David Lee really did there thing. Curry and Thompson were shooting 3-pts way below their regular season averages, and in fact, they were largely kept in normal range.

    Steph Curry 3-pts shots broken down by games. For the regular season he was averaging almost 45% from 3-pt range.

    Game 1: 2 for 6, (33.3%)
    Game 2: 2 for 15 (13.3%)
    Game 3: 7 for 13 (53.8%)
    Game 4: 4 for 7 (57.1%)
    Game 5: 7 for 13 (53.8%)
    Game 6: 3 for 11 (27.3%)

    Klay Thompson 3-pts shots broken down by games. For the regular season he was averaging almost 44% from the 3-pt range.

    Game 1: 3 for 9, (33.3%)
    Game 2: 4 for 12 (33.3%)
    Game 3: 2 for 7 (28.6%)
    Game 4: 1 for 5 (20.0%)
    Game 5: 1 for 4 (25.0%)
    Game 6: 1 for 3 (33.3%)

    Cleveland had no answers on the offense end. When the only consistent player scoring and initiating the offense for you is Lebron, it's easy to game-play and contain. But when you have two other plays who can create shots, then it's harder to contain coz they spread the floor.

    Defensively, what worked for Cavs were their bigs. Mozgov protected the paint and Thompson controlled the boards. Those two key factors were HUGE and kept the games close in the series with the exception of game 4, which was a blowout. Cavs get in trouble when they go small. So really, if you play a starting line-up of: Irving, Shumpert, Lebron, Thompson, and Varejao and a bench of: Delly, Smith, Jones, Love, and Mozgov, you finally have the depth to go up against Golden State.

    Also depending on the matchups on the floor, Blatt will have more pieces to play with and spread out the minutes evenly to prevent exhaustion. If GS went small, you can put in a line-up of: Delly, Shumpert, Lebron, Thompson, and Love. And keep on rotating players to keep legs fresh.
     
  14. count_dough-ku

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    Bogut missed a few weeks early in the season. Thompson missed a little over a week late in the season when the #1 seed was already wrapped up. And Speights missed the WCF.

    What other NBA playoff team had to deal with turmoil like that?:rolleyes:
     
  15. verysimplejason

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    The next question is why? Then how? :rolleyes:
     
  16. SamFisher

    SamFisher Member

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    Sure, Kerr made a difference, but their players also improved organically as players tend to do when they hit their prime. Curry improved from all-star to MVP level, and Thompson and Green went up to legit All-star caliber.

    Definitely, Kerr played a role in helping htem accentuate their strengths but in order for him to make the decision to start Draymond Green, you have to have all-star level players like Green on a cheap rookie deal in the first place and to have Steph Curry instead of OJ Mayo.
     
  17. RedRedemption

    RedRedemption Member

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    Those "adversities" are faced by every team year by year. What adversity did they face that every team in the league did not face?
     
  18. verysimplejason

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    Yup. But you want to list all adversities (not only the unique ones, of which no team has, yup even injuries)... and managing them a lot better is a trait you can never discount this GSW team.
     
  19. Carl Herrera

    Carl Herrera Member

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    One big difference Kerr makes this year is the offense. Mark Jackson's offense was a lot of 1-on-1, Kerr got them to move the ball more. Last season 56% of the Warriors' made baskets were assisted, this year 66% were assisted.

    The ball movement take advantage of the talent that they have better. Curry is great on the ball, but shoots even better when he can just catch and fire. Many of their other guys have decent play-making skills, but they are much more effective spotting up, attacking close-outs, and scoring/passing off of some off-ball movement than they are just going 1 on 1. As a result, they got more efficient individual production out of most guys and scored much more efficiently as a team.

    The Rockets can probably use more ball-movement, but at the same time they need more talent as well if they want to share the ball more. Relying on Harden to carry the burden has a lot to do with the lack of play-making ability of the rest of the roster-- a less extreme version of the Cavs in the Finals. Sharing the ball more with guys who can't really make plays off the dribble isn't necessarily going to make the offense run more efficiently.
     
  20. VanityHalfBlack

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    Ya'll act like this was a lockout season for the Warriors or something. This is sports, there's always next year, The rockets might win it all next year, The Spurs, The Grizz, Clippers, so forth and so on......... That's if they can stay healthy. It's in the record books... People gonna forget?????? Forgettable finals???? Have you heard about this thing called, INTERNET DATABASE???? SALTY SPORTS FANS!!!!! It feels good to be an all rounded sports fans and look at things objectively. Really it is nice and a luxury.
     

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