Warriors celebrate 2015 title – from:abcnews.go.com
Article by Giovanni Manenti
Rivalry, as we know, is the “Sports Halls”, both in individual disciplines – Tennis and Boxing above all – and in team disciplines, a very heartfelt circumstance too overseas where, in the panorama of US professional sports, there are real challenges to the white heatwhile respecting the principles of loyalty…
Today we are dealing with NBA basketball, the most prestigious tournament in the worldwhere the greatest essence has long been constituted by comparison between the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers, franchises that hold the record for the highest number of Finals played between them, 12 (!!), with a gap of successes clearly in favor (9-3) of the Bostonians.
But, despite the fact that this challenge took place on six occasions during the 1960s, it has never occurred that the two quintets have faced each other more than two years in a row, even though it was staged three times (1962-’63, 1965-’66 and 1968-’69) in that decade…
A somewhat similar situation then occurred between the Lakers and the New York Knicks, who came to compete for the title three times (1970 and 1972-’73) in a four-year periodlike what happened in early ’80s (1980 and 1982-’83) still between the Lakers and the Philadelphia 76ersbut only in very recent times has there been a situation of absolute domination of two teams in the respective (Eastern and Western) Conferences, that is the Cleveland Cavaliers on the East Coast and the Golden State Warriors on the western one.
The history of the two franchises is curious, in some ways parallel i Warriors – despite having been founded in 1946 – they were initially stationed at Philadelphia, with whom they played three finals for the title, winning the same in 1947 and 1956 and being defeated in 1948, before moving to San Francisco in 1962reaching the Finals on two other occasions only to be beaten in 1964 and 1967, before assuming its current name (while maintaining its headquarters in San Francisco…) starting in 1971…
Year following the establishment of Cleveland Cavaliers, a franchise which, moreover, writes few pages of history in the US basketball panorama – at most two defeats in the Conference Finals in 1976 and 1992 – at least until the advent of “His Majesty“, that is to say “The King” LeBron James, he “home boy” as he was born on 30 December 1984 in Akton, a city of just under 200 thousand inhabitants located 40 miles south of Cleveland.
Joined the Cavaliers as first overall pick in the 2003 draft, James manages to make a change for the franchise, which arrives to play the championship for the first time Final for the title in 2007, despite literally coming “swept away” by Gregg Popovich’s San Antonio Spurs 4-0only to be defeated 2-4 by the Orlando Magic in the Eastern Conference Finals two years later…
Realizing that I couldn’t aspire to win the title, “The chosen One” (that is to say “The chosen one”) is guilty of the “betrayal” to move to the Miami Heat, with whom, forming a deadly trio with Dwayne Wade and Chris Bosh, reached as many NBA Finals in a four-year period (2011-’14), winning the ring in two consecutive seasons (2012-’13).
Having gotten what he wanted, it’s time for 30-year-old James to “go back home” to try to follow a similar path with the Cavaliers who, without their “star”, had failed to qualify in the aforementioned period per i Playoff.
James’ return means that a quintet incapable of exceeding 50% of victories in four seasons immediately goes from a 33-49 record to a 53-29 record in the 2014-’15 Tournament, second best for the Atlantic Coast after 60-22 recorded by the Atlanta Hawks…
Franchise, the latter, which advances in the Playoffs by beating the Brooklyn Nets 4-2 in the series first and then the Washington Wizards, thus qualifying for the Conference Final where, waiting for them, they are the Cavaliers who, for their part, inflicted a harsh lesson (4-0) on the Boston Celtics, and then eliminated 4-2 i Chicago Bulls.
The Finals of Eastern Conference begins on May 20, 2015 with Cleveland having to gain home advantagea mission that James & Co. carry out by conquering the “Philips Arena” of the Capital of Georgia in the first two visits – 97-89 and 94-82, with James “top scorer” in both cases with 31 and 30 points respectively – to then complete the work on the friendly parquet, with Atlanta at “sell one’s skin dearly” only in game 3, ended in overtime (114-111) with James still monumental with his 37 pointsonly to then give up suffering a deficit of 30 points (118-88) which allows coach David Blatt to rotate the roster as he wishes, giving rest to the best of his team…
Having won the second NBA Final in their history, the Cavaliers await the outcome of the match between Golden State and Houston on the West Coastwith the San Francisco quintet qualifying for the Playoffs with the best overall record (67-15) in the entire league and who, in the previous rounds had disposed with relative ease of both the New Orleans Pelicans (4-0) and the Memphis Grizzlies, overcome 4-2 in a series starring Stephen Curry, with an average of 24.5 points per game.
The advantage of the home advantage against Houston allows the Warriors to immediately take a 2-0 lead – even though the matches were resolved (110-106 and 99-98) in the final – despite the fact that the away team plays Top Scorer of the season James Harden, who also confirmed himself in game 2 with 38 points on the scoresheet, the result of 13 out of 21 from the field (including 3 out of 6 from distance) and 9 out of 10 from the foul line…
But the Warriors are able to oppose Hardenwarm hand” by Curry, who scores in game 3 which effectively ends the series 40 points with extraordinary percentages to say the least, i.e. 12 of 19 from the field with an astonishing 7 of 9 from distance and 9 of 10 on free throwsand then closed the score for the final 4-1 with 104-90 in game 5.
An unprecedented ending, therefore, the one that begins on June 4, 2015 at “Oracle Arena” of Oaklandwhich he also sees Cleveland penalized by the absence of 27-year-old center Kevin Love, who injured his left shoulder during Game 4 of the first round against the Boston Celtics and forced to miss the rest of the Playoffs…
A loss of fundamental importance for the Cavaliers, as he is one of the members of the “Big Three” (the others are LeBron James and 23-year-old guard Kyrie Irving), which means additional work for James, while on the other hand the Warriors rely on their composed trio, as well as the more cultured Curry, also from 25-year-old small forward Klay Thompson and power forward Draymond Green.
For Cleveland it is clearly necessary to try to secure at least one of the first two away matches to reverse the home advantage, matches more than ever balanced so much so that, for the first time in the history of the NBA Finals, both are prolonged in extra time…
James doesn’t hold back,”sing and carry the cross”, he realizes 44 points, as well as 8 rebounds and 6 assistssupported only by Irving who finished with 23 points, as well as stopping Curry on 98 equal to 26″ from the siren, so that Cleveland had two shots for the victory, both wasted and then collapsed (2-10) in overtime which awarded game 1 a Golden State …
Which wouldn’t even be the worst news for coach David Blatt, considering that during the extra time Irving also lost to a knee injury which made him unusable for the rest of the series, one might say that “it rains on the wet” in casa Cavaliers …
We return to the field three days later and, this time, LeBron James is the absolute protagonist – and, given the situation, it couldn’t be otherwise – reporting a “triple double” with monstrous numbers such as 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assistsalthough this time too at the end of the 48′ of regulation the scoreboard indicates parity (87-87, with Cleveland leading 87-82 1’41” from the siren), and then two free throws scored by the Australian point guard Matthew Dellavedova 10″ from the end of extra time were decisivewhich ended at 95-93 which puts the series back on par…
With the possibility of winning the first title of its history, the “Quicken Loans Arena” of Cleveland does not have a free space when the two quintets take to the field on June 9th to play game 3which turns out to be easier for the hosts than the final result of 96-91 might suggest, given that at the end of the third set, 17 points divided the two teams (72-55).even if Curry with one of his “bomb da 3” brings the Warriors back to -1 (80-81) with 2’45” left before the siren, again forcing James (40 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists) into overtime to bring the series to 2-1 in your favor.
Just as it was important for Cleveland to make at least one of the two first meetings its own, so too It is now essential for Golden State to avoid going 1-3 down in the serieshoping that James also proves himself “allegedly” and suffer from understandable tiredness…
Prediction that materializes, with “The King” a reduce its contribution to the final result to just 20 points, despite capturing 12 rebounds and dispensing 8 assists, a situation too tempting not to take advantage of and, in fact, Curry & Co. dig a 12-point gap (54-42) in their favor at halftime, then finish at 103-82 in their favor and be able to return to California with the series tied.
Like a sort of Don Quixote against the Windmills, James is the last to give up also on June 14th in game 5, achieving a second “triple double” (40 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists) in the final seriesbut there is little that can be done against the precision from the perimeter of a Curry scoring 37 points (13 out of 23 from the field, 7 out of 13 from distance and 4 out of 4 free throws…), well supported by Green and Thompson for a 104-91 – with Cleveland collapsing in the second half after closing at -1 (50-51) at halftime – which is worth the first “match point” to be played on June 16, 2015 in Ohio…
With objectively little hope of being able to “stretch” the series, Cleveland suffers an initial score of 15-28 to which it responds with pride in second quarter, closed at 28-17 in their favor, so they went to the break with just two points (43-45) to recover.
An illusion destined to be short-lived, since at the decisive moment Steve Kerr emerges from the quintet – someone who knows a lot about rings, having won 5 as a player, three with Chicago and two with San Antonio – the 31-year-old Andre Iguodala, in his second year in San Francisco, who scored 25 points, accompanied by 5 rebounds and the same number of assists, puts an end to the comparison and the series by realizing the last two free throws for the final 105-97 which crowns Golden State NBA Champion exactly 40 years later since the last time …
The protagonists don’t know it yet, but they have only acted out the first act of a challenge destined to last for an entire four-year period, with conflicting outcomes of which we will not tell you anything, except to tell you the related Stories in some time…