Gut Check Time
In the fleeting minutes of the 4th quarter of last night’s Finals game, you got the sense that it may be over. The Cavaliers have nothing left in their tank. There isn’t a single hope that exists for Cleveland other than knowing they’ll try to fend off elimination at home. Even then, that might not be enough.
As expected, the Warriors went back to their small line-up. Andre Iguodala and Steph Curry both tied for the team lead in minutes with 42, a gamble that paid off for the 2nd game in a row. AI had a solid 14 points, and Draymond Green has finally morphed back into an actual basketball player and scored 16 after being virtually absent the first 3 games. Cleveland responded by going small themselves and effectively eliminated Mozgov from their game plan. By doing so, it cost them the game on the boards (43-37). But no matter what counter-strategy the Cavaliers will try to run in Game 6, they’re bound to hit the same wall. They have absolutely no one else who can be trusted to score.
Professional basketball player and missing Mumford & Sons member, Matthew Dellavedova played himself into 42 minutes of obscurity last night and is all but out of gas. He’s this year’s Danny Green. Showed a lot of spunk and fight early, but even HE knows that this stage is too big for him. 5 points, shooting 1-5 from 3 is getting them no where and is largely becoming the liability he was supposed to be. Dellavedova is the embodiment of “you either die a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself become the villain.” Curry spent the last two games, largely exposing the talent gap between himself and Delly and, by God, all Delly could do was watch.
Steph Curry Wins: Fatality.
LeBron, again, logged in another huge 40 point, triple-double game. This shit is getting hard to write about because he’s done this night in and night out. There’s already a case being made that LeBron should be the MVP of the Finals. I’ll buy it and say that if we’re defining the MVP as the guy who’s most valuable to his team then statistically speaking, yeah of course LeBron is the MVP. This would be an NBA Finals first since Jerry West in 1969 and the first MVP awarded to a losing player in a major sport since Jean-Sebastien Giguere won the Conn Smythe Trophy in 2003 when the Ducks (quack…………quaCK…..qUACK..QUACK QUACKQUACK) fell to the New Jersey Devils in the Stanley Cup.
That being said, LeBron will have to do THAT much more if the Cavs are going to push this Finals to game 7 tomorrow night. He’s not one to ever be short of confidence, but the reality for the Cavs is this: Golden State is stacked and it’ll only take one guy to get hot early and it’s over for Cleveland. The margin of error is razor thin, and in all likelihood, it may be over.
But we’ve called this series over before, and look where we’re at now.
