This was the 100th Cavs playoff victory.
I’ve been a Lebron hater in the past, mostly because of The Decision and because Kobe was getting on in years while he was still rising and taking that mantle of best player away. When he came back to Cleveland I thought it was fine and became mostly indifferent to him. I don’t have any affiliation for Cleveland but that was some game and this was a terrific storyline. I still like the Warriors better by a bit, but I’m not upset the Cavs won. The city probably needs it more than anything, and can you imagine the 30 for 30 that they’ll make about Lebron when its all over and done with?
This whole thing with the hometown boy leaving and coming back and putting it all on his back to win for a city desperate for a championship set new standards for what is believable. If Hollywood would reject this as a storyline, then they need to up their game because sometimes the unbelievable is real.
So no more hate, no more indifference, I can like Lebron as a legend and one of the greats now. It took a while for me to be convinced but I’m happy for him. Now we can wildly speculate that he’s free to leave Cleveland and go to LA! 
And to think that had the documentary been scheduled for release in November, it would have required some heavy editing to have been relevant.
I watched the game from my neighborhood bar, you can see the Terminal Tower (the one they always show in aerial views all lit up with team colors) from the sidewalk. I’ve never seen so many grown men cry tears of joy and relief. The cheers didn’t subside for 45 minutes, and you’ve never heard a crowd sing “Cleveland Rocks” like they did last night.
Jose Mesa broke my heart when I was 11 years old. I mostly stopped paying attention to sports, because it hurt too much. I moved to NC 5 years ago, and started watching games because it made me feel connected to home. My wife and I decided to move back the same weekend Lebron announced his return. We saw a city turning from a national punchline to something pretty amazing, and wanted to be part of that. Along with financial investment in buying a house within city limits came an emotional investment in the sports teams.
I’m still in shock.
I love this city. No riots, no sirens. Fireworks, celebratory honking of car horns (the police included), 52 years of emotion released all at once. Over the police scanner " the crowds here are crazy. Not violent or anything, they’re just… Happy."
Bets on how long before they make the movie?
What a great game! Really happy for the Cavs. I liked their 2nd half offensive game plan because it was so simple and obvious. Just dribble up top until Curry switches onto the ball and then attack.
I admit it: when the Cavs fired David Blatt, I thought they were going to meltdown of epic proportions, and that Lebron was going to end up being forced to leave the city for good. Not that I truly felt that Blatt was a great coach or that Lue was a bad one. But it just seemed like another instance in which a superstar is bigger than the team and I thought it was a matter of Lebron trying to be player / coach.
I started to change my mind after reading an article late in the season when Cleveland started playing a little better. Even then they weren’t exceptional and there was nothing that indicated that they would rip through the Eastern Conference other than the fact that they had done it last year. But the writer basically reported an incident not long after Lue’s hire which took place on the bench, one in which James was trying to interrupt Lue as he was giving instructions in the huddle, at which point Lue is reported to have said: “Shut the fuck up - I got this!” And that’s probably the difference between Blatt and Lue. And being an international league coach, I’m not sure Blatt could have gotten away with that even if he had tried it. But the point is, Lue needed to be the guy who confronted James and restored the order. And he did exactly that.
I’ll also admit that despite Cleveland’s impressive play, I still picked the Warriors, and I picked them to win in no more than 6 games. It’s not that I thought the Warriors were invincible, nor did I think that the Cavs didn’t at least have a shot. In fact, if Golden State were merely a really good shooting team, I might have picked Cleveland. But what Golden State had been doing up to that point was almost impossible to defend against. The shots that Curry and Thompson were hitting were not just three pointers, they were shots three to five feet beyond the arc, which forced defenses to play soft inside. And the Warriors had been able to exploit those advantages.
Lebron and Irving will get credit for their point totals, as they well should. But Kevin Love’s and Lebron James’ performance on the boards were huge. Their success meant that Golden State had to shoot at a very high percentage last night, which they did not. And Lebron’s defense was sensational.
My final confession is that I have been in the camp of those who believe that Jordan is the best player of the last 40-50 years, and I still believe that. But not nearly as strongly now. Lebron is definitely getting into Jordan territory, and in terms of defense, he might actually be better when you consider that Jordan played during the era of the hand check. Jordan is probably still a little better on offense – maybe a slightly better passer, dribbler, and shooter. But Lebron is not that far behind in these areas, and he’s almost certainly better than Jordan when it comes to rebounding and shot blocking.
Jordan was not on LeBron’s planet when it came to passing. Almost nobody is. But LeBron isn’t in Jordan’s galaxy as an individual scorer.
I saw that one of the problems with Steph last night was that he couldn’t do much else other than shoot, and when his shot wasn’t falling, there wasn’t much use for him at all.
I compare what happened to Steph last night with Kobe’s game 7 against Boston a few years ago. Kobe shot horrible that game, 6/24, but the guy got 15 rebounds and made some great passes like the one to Ron Artest for the 3. When the shots weren’t falling, Kobe was smart enough to not just keep shooting and decided to change it up, and he ran into the post and grabbed any rebounds he could. Steph couldn’t shoot well enough to win, and without that, he’s not adding much else. He wasn’t making assists, he wasn’t grabbing rebounds, he wasn’t really defending that well against Kyrie.
Steph can penetrate and score, but it seems like he is much better at penetration when the rest of his team is shooting well and forcing the defenders to move up to the perimeter. Golden State isn’t your typical NBA champion. They rely so much on their perimeter shooting and speed, both defensively and offensively, that I think it’s especially important for them to come out and feel comfortable shooting. When the Warriors feel comfortable shooting from the perimeter, that opens up so much else for them inside the arc, because teams have to get a defender to move up and at least try to stick a hand in their face or do something to knock them off rhythm. The Warriors looked more comfortable in the first half of last night’s game than they had in the previous two or three games, but the second half burst by Cleveland was in some ways the pivot point of the game. If the Warriors had come out and knocked down a few more threes early, then maybe that changes everything. But Curry and Thompson never did really get into the flow of things.
I think sometimes you just have to chalk it up to the fact that it’s hard to make shots against good defense. Sometimes they don’t go in, even if you’re really good. LeBron shot 9 for 24; that ain’t good. If Irving doesn’t hit a big three, maybe Curry and Thompson are the stars who get the rings, and no one cares how many shots they missed, and LeBron’s the one whose shooting numbers look damning.
Jordan shot 12 for 27, 9 for 26, and 15 for bloody 35 in the last 3 games against the Jazz his final season. But the one at the very end went in and so nobody ever has to talk about those numbers.
The thing that always strikes me about the Warriors is how casual they look sometimes. I couldn’t believe when Curry threw away that behind-the-back pass to Klay.
One thing the Cavs winning did is make the Finals MVP an easy pick, had the Warriors won I have no idea who they could have given it to.
They would have (or at least should have) given it to the very same player.
True, and it may just be emotional overreaction. You can make several other explanations… injuries/missing players (Curry getting hurt early on, Bogut for the last couple games, Green got suspended Game 5). I think they were also a bit exhausted from the quest for 73 win, they had a lot of nailbiters in the last few games and never really felt like the old Warriors during the playoffs except for a game here or there. And OKC played them super-close during the regular season too (though they did blow out the Cavs both times… but then again, the Cavs also hit another gear at the end of the season).
And Iguodala. He’s a huge part of their offense when it isn’t the Curry/Thompson show, penetrating and distributing when the defense has rotated itself into bad shape. He was visibly having a hard time moving. Even on that big LeBron block, it’s probably a different outcome if Iguodala can elevate. That windmill double-pump layup shit is going to get pinned 100% of the time against NBA athletes.
I watched the local news feeds of the post-game celebration and people were still jumping around and shouting and hugging each other like 3 hours after the game ended. It was pretty amazing.
And they didn’t do any of that stupid shit where they start overturning cars and breaking windows. Never understood that one. Only 6 people got arrested the whole night.
The parade starts in 3:30, but there are already a ton of people out there partying. Looks like native Clevelanders came back from all over the country just to celebrate with each other.
I don’t think most people can really get how deep the whole Cleveland sports thing runs or how much this means.
Yeah, the Warriors fans got theirs last year, erasing decades of incompetence, dysfunction and irrelevance. Much as I would have preferred a different outcome, Cleveland as a city surely deserved this celebration.
From what I gather from nba forums, GS fans didn’t exist until about 2013. They aren’t long suffering. That’s what’s so remarkable about Cleveland fans - they’re as dedicated as anyone despite no positive feedback … for decades.
Local news feed just said that LeBron told them he’s not considering going anywhere next year.
Lebron was only leaving if he couldn’t deliver a title within two years. That;s why he only signed a 2 year deal when he came back to Cleveland. So now that they won it’s no reason for him to leave again. He is what you call a certified front runner which is why so many people hate him.