The Warriors dodged a bullet tonight.
I was at the game. Certainly picked a good time to attend my first Warriors game since the Chris Webber era.
We had no idea what had happened at the end of regulation until we read about it later. It happened so quickly, and we were way up in the “cheap” seats on exactly the wrong side of the court, so we just thought he got the rebound, was trying to get free to take a shot, and couldn’t.
Man, the last few minutes of regulation were tense as all heck. The blocking foul looked like the right call when it happened in real time, and seemed like a dagger, but then one of the replays they showed on the big screen definitely made a reversal seem correct, which of course we home fans loved.
Props to LeBron James, who is unreal.
I listened live on the radio to the Q4 & OT ending on my drive home from work, and just now watched the (recordedj final minutes of regulation, and the OT. JR Smith, what a blunder — and it’s fortunate for the Warriors for his epic brain fart.
And the call reversal of KD’s charge on James changed to a block, at a crucial moment, was huge. It’s stupid how the way the game is officiated can change drastically.
But I’ll take it. The Cavs could have stolen a win. And the Warriors certainly dodged a bullet. I’ll gladly take the win.
Brutal performance by the refs at the end of regulation: LeBron’s clean strip of Durant called as a foul, the shady block/charge video review, missing LeBron’s timeout call at the very end. Hard to overcome all that when you’re the inferior team on the road.
Is there anything more infuriating that watching LeBron complain about a foul call? To be fair, there were a couple calls against him earlier that were, on replay, incorrect (not the block/charge, which anyway wasn’t actually reversed, as I understand it).
but overall, this is a guy who should be, every single game, going down on his knees and giving boquets of roses to each official, in humble gratitude for what they let him get away with and how easily he gets to the line. Not many people could get away with sweeping the defender out of the way with his off hand on nearly every drive, or get the same free throws for barely-touching fouls. But he’s whining like a baby when a call doesn’t go his way. I keep expecting Dwayne Wade and the entire 2002 Lakers team to run out and join him in bitterly yelling at the refs.
In related news, Bill Gates is complaining about how hard it is for him to make ends meet, George W. Bush is complaining about how difficult is was to make it in the world without any real family connections, and Tom Hanks and Brad Pitt are complaining about missing out on leading roles. :rolleyes:
Meh - LBJ’s complaining is no different than Kobe’s or Jordan’s were, from what I’ve seen, though none of them were/are as bad as Danny’s Ainge was.
Even the great Tim Duncan had his eye-bugging, faux-shock routine when called for a foul he didn’t like.
So I know it’s not Finals-related, but are we going to talk about this Bryan Colangelo maybe has fake Twitter accounts thing? I realize it might be any variety of untrue, but I have to tell you, I’ve never wanted a sports story to be true this much.
That image sealed it for me when I saw it yesterday.
There’s a “who shot JR” joke in there somewhere…
Two things:
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This Finals is a mismatch. It’s too bad that injuries impacted the Rockets and Celtics because those were really the two best teams in the league this year.
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I don’t want to hear about how Lebron isn’t as good as Michael because of his record in the NBA Finals. Anyone who writes that is a moron.
Jalen Rose just said in the post-game that he viewed the Western Conference Finals as the real Finals of the season.
He was not wrong.
This reminds me of 2002. The established Lakers versus the upstart Kings. The Kings should have won but couldn’t close it out. The Lakers rolled over the Nets in a 4-game sweep.
I think that a lot of the speculation about how game one was such a soul crusher for the Cavs will likely turn out to be true. The Cavs just don’t have enough reliable offensive firepower compared to the Warriors.
The Cavs really should have won game 1. Perhaps they rebound (natch) in Cleveland and grab two games, but to me by the time the Cleveland games are done, this series will disappointingly be 3-1 Warriors, and five-six games will be it for the Cavs.
Yep, agree that Cleveland not winning game 1 was a crusher for them. And the Warriors are damned fortunate to have escaped with the win. JR Smith had an easy put-back of George Hill’s missed free throw.
It’ll be important for Golden State to win game3.
I mean, this Finals is almost a player-for-player repeat of last season, and the Warriors cruised through that one (though they did suffer their only playoff LOSS in that series). This year, LeBron is having to be Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman all rolled together just to get to this point, and his own teammates are taking turns playing Lex Luthor’s monster. The only Cavalier not nicknamed King playing like he wants to win at all is Kevin Love. All-Star he may be, but those two cannot drag an entire team, kicking and screaming, to a series win against the Golden State juggernaut.
For notice, All-Star and Finals MVP Andre Iguodala hasn’t suited up yet. He’s the one the Warriors have counted on to slow down LeBron, and he’s generally done as good of a job as is possible. Doubtful James goes for 51 points on 70% TS with Iggy on the floor - without that, the Cavs have no chance.
It’s a player for player repeat, but without Kyrie Irving who now plays for Boston but was injured in a series that the Cavs won by one game. I don’t see how Cleveland wins this series unless at least two of the Warriors stars go down with injuries. The Warriors could lose Klay Thompson or Steph Curry and still probably win this series. It would take losing Durant and someone else for the personnel to be even.
But it’s just not that competitive right now. The Warriors can score almost at will. The Cavs have to hope that the Warriors have a really bad night offensively and that they have a good night shooting from the perimeter.
This.
I honestly think the Cavs will get swept. Not sure if LeBron was just tired in game 2 or he kind of gave up (which I don’t blame him for) but it doesn’t look good.
I was reading an article today and not only is the Cavs as a team getting dominated (except bron of course) but so is the bench. The Warriors bench is almost as good as their starting and that’s scary. Livingston and Javale both dropped points and combined for a 11-11 from the field.
Cleveland kept pulling to within 5 and GS would hit another 3. Happened like 8 times in a row. Cleveland didn’t give up in that game, although LeBron was definitely tired, GS just hit a ton of 3s at the end to run away with it.
I think they’ll win at least one in Cleveland.