29 May, 2017
This NBA Finals rubber match between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers has been building up for a while.
"And for us, our focus level has to be at an all-time high, and the little things that matter that's going to make the difference within the game".
So Brown is literally being paid by both teams in the NBA Finals.
But it all evaporated. LeBron James and company were unbeaten through 10 games before losing to the Celtics on a last-second 3-pointer in Sunday's Game 3.
The 2016 champion Cavs will battle the 2015 champion Warriors for the third straight year.
James elected not to talk about the Warriors following the game, choosing instead to celebrate a third straight conference title in Cleveland and his seventh consecutive Finals trip.
Kyrie Irving added 24 points and Kevin Love finished with 15 for the Cavs, who never trailed and led by as many as 39 points in one of their most dominating wins of the series.
Quotable - Coach Tyronn Lue, on how Boston overcame Cleveland's 21-point lead ... But then he added this: "OK, maybe a slight preference for Cleveland". "That's the same thing that happened to me when I went to Miami".
And they're doing this without their head coach.
"They were favored past year and they were up 3-1", without Durant, O'Neal said. Countered Golden State acting coach Mike Brown, when asked about it Thursday: "That's his opinion". He's been present at practice and recently traveled with the team at the end of the Warriors' sweep against the Spurs.
"Coming out at half-time, I just wanted to be aggressive and lead my guys and leave it all out there on the floor", Irving said.
Kevin Love has now doubled-up in each game of the Eastern Conference Finals - leading both squads with a Playoff career-high 17 rebounds to go with 17 points, five assists, a steal and a pair of blocked shots.
And then, nearly as if he was trying to remind himself that he's got three championship rings and is frightful in his own right, James recalled other fearsome postseason opponents - San Antonio and Boston. "I would love to be here long term and win championships here", said Thomas. And I don't mean just the NBA Finals or the playoffs, this applies to any NBA game and wider. "We just kept grinding". The Warriors were reeling from what was really a disastrous 4th game. Simple as that. It's good that we're here now.
"I feel we have to have some type of adversity in order to be successful", he said. Thomas was officially injured in the Celtics Game 2 against the Cavaliers.
Irving had six points when James headed to the bench.
Can the Cavs do it again?
Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James, right, drives against Boston Celtics guard Avery Bradley during the second half of Game 5 of the NBA basketball Eastern Conference finals, on Thursday, May 25, 2017, in Boston.
Cavaliers: James has scored 30 or more points in 11 of Cleveland's 13 games this postseason.
My issue, and I know many of you can relate, was that this matchup was easy to see from last July.
As I watched First Take this morning, Stephen A. Smith went on his usual tangent about how Lebron played badly, was sick, and just wasn't himself, rather than talking about Kyrie and his world class performance.
This also doesn't adjust for the importance of the game and the trends, but even if I go with the positive under bias, this line will not offer enough value for me to go below the projected line for the Game 1. I don't have to score the ball to make an impact in the basketball game. The big star for the Giants that year was future Yankees manager Casey Stengel, who hit an inside-the-park homer in the ninth inning to win Game 1 and drove in the only run in Game 3 with another homer.
For the sixth time, James enters the Finals as an underdog, hardly a role he's accustomed to before June.
