2015 NBA Finals: Warriors vs Cavs

[Patr1ck]

Did Curry really play that badly? Or did Dellavedova bother him a lot? Little bit of both, I guess.

I liked LeBron's aggressiveness at the end, although it looked a bit forced at times like he was looking for calls instead of trying to get good looks. I really hate the iso game as it reminds me of the last time he was in Cleveland.

It's still sloppy looking, though.

[Andrew]

[S_Brat]

Delly is the player of the game. Hands down. His defense and his scrappy play just propelled the cavs to victory. If he was not guarding curry all game I think curry would have caught fire.

[Jackal]

If Curry's got that little bit of insane in him, he should torch Dellavedova in the next one.

[NovU]

There were two occasions when Curry completely blew by Delly for an easy lay up, both of them were highlight plays. I am guessing Delly's game plan was to let him just drive in and deal with help D rather than giving him space to release a shot comfortably.

[Andrew]

Curry settled for way too many really bad looks from beyond the arc.

It actually got me thinking about the current NBA game, and the prominence of the three-point shot. About a decade or so ago, people were wringing their hands and griping about the game being ruined by a streetball influence, and tremendous athletes who could jump and dunk but were unpolished in other areas. Honestly, outside of a couple of young prospects who didn't pan out as well as hoped, I never thought that was a big issue. This reliance on the three ball, though...well, it makes the game pretty ugly when teams and players start building a house with all those bricks. It made this year's All-Star game pretty boring and unwatchable, less basketball than an impromptu three-point shootout.

When players put up ridiculous numbers, it's often called a "video game-like performance", which is an apt turn of phrase to describe a star that's flat out dominating and seemingly hitting all their shots...like a basketball video game on an easy difficulty setting. The way Curry and the Warriors as a whole (good stretches by Thompson aside) played in Game 2, it was like a casual basketball gamer playing really badly: "Hey, Curry's got a three-point rating of 96. I'll just run it up the floor and bomb away from three with him!".

[Alpha_]

Curry's lucky Klay Thompson was into it. I'm expecting him to bounce back next game.

[[Q]]

I'm not really surprised at how close this game was. Maybe a little surprised that Cleveland actually won. most people felt that the cavs would get run over and swept like how they did in the OT of game 1. but the cavs played really well with Lebron iso ball in game 1 and with irving (a guy who needs the ball in his hands to be effective) out they could keep the ball in the hands of Lebron which is a better option than irving and dellavedova played much better defense on curry.

[Mandich]

So Curry choked hard and people are saying Dellavedova great defender. Did you guys not see how easily he gets past him every time? He just had a bad night shooting the ball and that ESPN graph is just another way promoting the finals. He had a lot of help on D.

Delly is the player of the game. Hands down. His defense and his scrappy play just propelled the cavs to victory. If he was not guarding curry all game I think curry would have caught fire.

Lol. LeBron had 39/16/11 but somehow scoring 9 points in 42 minutes and hitting two free-throws is better.

[shadowgrin]

Outback Jesus with the massive D that made Curry choke.


LeBron clearly deliberately missed one of his last FTs to avoid stealing the spotlight from Outback Jesus who made the game-deciding FTs.
LeBron such a great team leader just like Kobe.

I think the only way Lebron can win with a "big 3" is if he gets a couple of referees on board with his team.

You can say the same thing about the Cavs. They're in an inferior conference. They are on a free pass to the finals.

Noah, Gasol, and Gibson were hurt in the bulls series. Korver couldn't finish the series. Carroll and milsap were hampered by injuries

[koberulz]

So Curry choked hard and people are saying Dellavedova great defender.

Of course, you're going to write this off as a coincidence, while pretending that him running into the legs of two different guys was him being dirty.

[NovU]

Let's not make this something more or less than what really is.

Delly had a very specified role. That was to stay with Curry no matter what, wherever and whenever. And when Curry had the ball, double/triple team came at first chance possible and Curry was swarmed with defenders. Delly's done a good job staying with Curry. You can even see him staying with Curry 10 ft outside of three point line while ignoring rest of universe.

When players put up ridiculous numbers, it's often called a "video game-like performance", which is an apt turn of phrase to describe a star that's flat out dominating and seemingly hitting all their shots...like a basketball video game on an easy difficulty setting. The way Curry and the Warriors as a whole (good stretches by Thompson aside) played in Game 2, it was like a casual basketball gamer playing really badly: "Hey, Curry's got a three-point rating of 96. I'll just run it up the floor and bomb away from three with him!".

Haha, nice way to put this generation's basketball.

Curry definitely forced his game and his shot selections weren't just good imo in exception of ofc a few shots. He never got into a rhythm in this one.

But as much as Curry was playing really ugly, never have I seen LBJ running so many ISO plays which also is an ugly basketball, how many times has his overuse of possession stagnated the offense. This could be the case of "let's go to our best player and see what he can do on every stretch" series. In result we got a nice low scoring close game.

[Mandich]

Of course, you're going to write this off as a coincidence, while pretending that him running into the legs of two different guys was him being dirty.

How arrogant can you get? You do realize that incidents don't have anything to do what kind of a defender he is ?

And those stats could easily be a way of promoting the Finals. Don't trust me ?

Dellavedova had the worst Drtg on the Cavs in the Hawks series.
Dellavedova had the second worst Drtg on he Cavs in the Bulls series.
Dellavedova had the worst Drtg on the Cavs in the Celtics series.

Stop being a blatanly bias media fanboy and start checking out some stats.

One good game by him and one bad by Curry doesn't mean he is any good. He sucks on offense too as the only good offensive series he had was against the Bulls.

Please, get a clue.

[Sauru]

So Curry choked hard and people are saying Dellavedova great defender. Did you guys not see how easily he gets past him every time? He just had a bad night shooting the ball and that ESPN graph is just another way promoting the finals. He had a lot of help on D.

i dont get this either. it was not good defense it was curry playing like shit. where he came through was in other areas though. that rebound he got won the game for them

[Jackal]

Curry settled for way too many really bad looks from beyond the arc.

Those are some shots he makes though. I think it was more of an off shooting night, he actually takes and makes those ridiculous looking shots.

[Andrew]

Some were, but given his off-night, they weren't great decisions. I know he hit that big three that helped in the final push to force OT, and when you're a normally great shooter having a bad night, a "gunslinger mentality" (as JVG put it) isn't entirely unwelcome, but some were just bad attempts.

[ThePointForward]

refs are weird as usual

green pulls his ibaka impression

curry forgot to feed his cat or something, because he wasn't playing

[mp3]

Maybe I counted the Cavs out too soon!

[Kevin]

Maybe I counted the Refs out too soon!

Fixed.

[S_Brat]

So Curry choked hard and people are saying Dellavedova great defender. Did you guys not see how easily he gets past him every time? He just had a bad night shooting the ball and that ESPN graph is just another way promoting the finals. He had a lot of help on D.

Delly is the player of the game. Hands down. His defense and his scrappy play just propelled the cavs to victory. If he was not guarding curry all game I think curry would have caught fire.

Lol. LeBron had 39/16/11 but somehow scoring 9 points in 42 minutes and hitting two free-throws is better.

You must be young. And dont appreciate the entirety of basketball. The times curry got by is when he had a screen set. Go back and watch the game again. Now back to my point. It doesnt matter how much points he had as long as he did his job shutting down and frustrating the best player on the warriors. He made curry fight for every pass and that really gets into a guys head. Making you almost as valuable if not more because now you force other players to beat you. I have almost no offense but am known for my scrappy play and great defense and it was always my job to guard the best player. So I know the importance of that kind of play. Most of you young guns just want to look at points.

[Mandich]

You must be young. And dont appreciate the entirety of basketball.

You must be "different" and don't want to appreciate the greatest player in the world.

I have almost no offense but am known for my scrappy play and great defense and it was always my job to guard the best player. So I know the importance of that kind of play.

I just laughed at this sentence. What does you presumably irrelevant career have to do with anything? There are a lot of NBA level players who don't know much about analyzing, so this argument isn't really necessary and I find it as a way of letting everyone know you played basketball. Good for you.

Most of you young guns just want to look at points.

And how old exactly are you?

Since when is having a triple-double just scoring? Oh yes, everyone who think a guy who has an obviously better game because of 39/16/11 is young. What a joke.

Dellavedova had a good game. But to say it was more important than the one LeBron had, with the arguments you have is just laughable.

[benji]

DRtg is notoriously bad for perimeter defenders who don't get steals or blocks. (Or rebounds like Rodman.)

The most famous examples being Joe Dumars, Sidney Moncrief and Michael Cooper due to their voted accolades. Though Cooper was a decent thief.

Not to say Dellavedova is a great defender but certain players can be key defenders in certain situations and in certain matchups. Tyronn Lue is one of the worst defensive players ever statistically by most any measure you choose, but his hounding of Iverson helped lead to a considerable decrease in Iverson's numbers after game one. Even just for the 20 minutes a game where Iverson couldn't get separation from Lue like he could any other defender at the time put a dent in his standard advantages against defenders.

never have I seen LBJ running so many ISO plays which also is an ugly basketball

This is LeBron in Cleveland with no help basketball.

how many times has his overuse of possession stagnated the offense. This could be the case of "let's go to our best player and see what he can do on every stretch" series.

This is literally the Cavs only option, they don't have an offense that isn't coming off LeBron. Even though he's scoring at 49% so far, that's better than every non-Mozgov Cavalier still alive.

The Cavs defense is good enough to slow the Warriors down, and they're crushing them on the glass while not turning it over erasing the shooting gap. The Warriors are committed to single covering LeBron because it's the only defensive play, but it's obviously going to lead to him scoring 40 every game. If they help, the shooters and Mozgov have better looks. And if the floor starts freeing up, LeBron and the Cavs suddenly become much more dangerous as that opens up their one hope.

The Warriors best bet is pushing the pace and not letting the Cavs dictate it further, even if it means jacking lots of threes (they've only taken four, FOUR!, more than the Cavs through two games) and taking early shots. The more possessions, the less of a chance Cleveland has.

[benji]

The Cavaliers have taken away nearly ten possessions a game from the Warriors. Memphis didn't even take that many away. And they do it intentionally, the Cavs are doing it out of necessity.

[Andrew]

At the very least, one could say that Dellavedova had the biggest play of the night. Had the Warriors secured the loose ball after Green blocked that layup by LeBron, and held on for the win, we could probably say that he had the biggest play of the night.

[S_Brat]

You must be young. And dont appreciate the entirety of basketball.

You must be "different" and don't want to appreciate the greatest player in the world.

I have almost no offense but am known for my scrappy play and great defense and it was always my job to guard the best player. So I know the importance of that kind of play.

I just laughed at this sentence. What does you presumably irrelevant career have to do with anything? There are a lot of NBA level players who don't know much about analyzing, so this argument isn't really necessary and I find it as a way of letting everyone know you played basketball. Good for you.

Most of you young guns just want to look at points.

And how old exactly are you?

Since when is having a triple-double just scoring? Oh yes, everyone who think a guy who has an obviously better game because of 39/16/11 is young. What a joke.

Dellavedova had a good game. But to say it was more important than the one LeBron had, with the arguments you have is just laughable.

well your screename fits you very well hahaha... someone has their panties all up in a wad...

i am not trying to compare my career which was not even a career at all to any nba player... im just saying i understand the aspect of TEAM basketball... I'm not just some STREET baller who thinks he can ISO all day long and not play D... those who think like that are the ones who discredit guys like delly and drool all over superstars...
all you new age fans care about is superstars and flash... you dont care about scrappy guys who give you a chance to stay in the game by shutting down the other teams best player... but sure scoff at me and my opinion... thats all it is... you are one of those internet tough guys who cant handle other people voicing their opinions... you have a lot of maturing to do... youngin
as far as LeBron i do not want to diminish anything he did because i am a fan of his... especially since he decided to go back to Cleveland.... i predicted he would have a triple double and he did get the tripple double... but with how close the game was all game long if delly didnt harass curry all game long, then LeBrons triple double would not be relevant... as it would be on the losing end... get the picture? thats what i mean when i say you dont have to score a ton points to be as important or more important...
but hey why am i wasting my time on you?... you are easily offended and cannot respect other peoples opinions...