Why the Warriors will win Game 5, and eventually, the NBA title
By Homer D. Sayson
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 15 Jun 2015
CLEVELAND -- Without Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, LeBron James is doing it all in this year's NBA Finals, averaging an eye-popping 35.8 points, 12 rebounds and 8.3 assists through Games 1 to 4.
Carrying the Cavaliers on his back this entire championship series, it's amazing that King James still has a fairly healthy spinal column. But LeBron's super human efforts aren't enough to bring the Larry O'Brien trophy in Cleveland, a city longing for championship glory for 51 years.
The Cavs' window of winning this year's title briefly opened when they won Game 3 to grab a 2-1 series lead. But it quickly shut close after they lost Game 4 at the Quicken Loans Arena. A Game 4 fall would have pushed the Warriors down 3-1, a deficit that has not been overcome in 31 NBA Finals series.
Instead, the Warriors put their big boy pants on for Game 4 and routed the Cavs in their own building, 103-82. For the first time in the series, the Warriors offense exploded, employing a small ball offense that made Cleveland's big line-up look slow and silly.
In that pivotal Game 4, the Warriors saw their 15-point lead diminished to 65-62 with 5:03 left in the third quarter. Lesser teams would have folded like a lawn chair, not the Warriors, who answered with a 9-0 run and handled their business the rest of the way.
To me, that crucial stretch was the watershed moment of this championship duel. The Warriors took the Cavs best punch and remained standing. The Cavs took the Warriors best punch and stayed flat on their own home parquet floor.
I know, having LeBron, who is special, spectacular and unstoppable, always gives Cleveland a chance. Just don't bet your lunch money on it. Please.
Look, the Spartans had 300 LeBron-like studs in the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 B.C. But they all perished against the bigger, stronger, more united Persian army. If history repeats itself, the 2015 Finals will be won by a well-armed, well-prepared Warriors over an overmatched Cavaliers.
Game 5 will be played at the Oracle Arena in Oakland today. Expect the Warriors to crush the Cavaliers, who are so undermanned their legs have inevitably betrayed them. And if the Cavs don't tap out in Game 6, they will most certainly be submitted in Game 7.
The Warriors may not have a LeBron but they do have a Steph Curry, the reigning MVP. Unlike LeBron, Curry isn't a loquacious and demonstrative leader, but he is just as effective, mowing down the competition one swished net a time.
Steph Curry's jump shot is beautiful as an orange sunset. It arcs like a rainbow; its release is quick and decisive, and the discharge is smooth as the California breeze.
After a so-so Game 1 and 2, Curry has unleashed a can of hurt upon the reeling Cavs, scoring a combined 49 points while making 18-of-37 field goals, including 11 of 20 from 3-point range.
Curry and the Warriors, who led the league with 67 regular season games and averaged 110 points an outing, have found their groove and there's no stopping them now.
The only question left to be answered in the next few days is who will win the Finals MVP trophy?
Well, I love me some Andre Iguodala, but make mine a Curry. (HDS)
Photo: The author interviewing MVP Steph Curry (photo by Hector Posa @ PhilBoxing.com).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Homer D. Sayson.
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