Warriors VS Trailblazers (Game 3)

Warriors Lead Series 2-1

I want to start out this post by saying that Damian Lillard did what Damian Lillard needed to do to win this game. The kid had 40 points and 10 assists in the game. He took over for this Traiblazers team. He took advantage of this team not having the defensive presence of Steph Curry. No matter the shot Lillard was given, he made sure he made it.

Klay Thompson and Draymond Green were amazing. Klay had 35 points! But Draymond had 37 points, 9 rebounds, 8 assists, and he shot 8-12 from 3-point range. A lot of his shots were wide open too. He played great but the Warriors couldn't come out with the W.

There were two reasons why the Trailblazers won. First, they didn't turn the ball over. They took great care of the ball. They only had 10 turnovers on the night. Portland made sure that they always got back in transition and the best team in transition only had 2 fastbreak points. When you limit the Warriors to 2 fastbreak points, you are doing a pretty good job at defending them.

The other reason was that the Trailblazers hit tough shots. The Warriors did a good job defensively but the Trailblazers just hit tough shots as they were lead by Damian Lillard and C.J. McCollum.

As you can see, the Trailblazers deserved to get this win because they worked hard. If they keep this up, they could look and making this series a lot more interesting.

Warriors VS Trailblazers (Game 1)

Warriors Lead Series 1-0

I enjoyed watching this game. However, I had a weird dream last night, it was that Shaun Livingston went for 50 points in this game. I seriously thought this actually happened for a little while. However, I do like watching Shaun Livingston on the court. I loved watching him on the Nets and I'm glad he has this opportunity with the Warriors.

I thought that the Trailblazers did a great job with a lot of things. When Damian Lillard wasn't producing, they moved the ball really well. They had 26 assists on the night. However, 3 key guys played very insufficiently. Damian Lillard, C.J. McCollum, and Mason Plumlee shot just 13-50 from the field combined! These are the guys that need to be leading the team. That is why they lost.

The Warriors played great. Klay Thompson had 37 points on the night. Draymond Green also added 23 points to that total. They were not lacking on offense. They rebounded very well. Draymond, Bogut, and Harrison Barnes had a total of 37 rebounds on the night. The Warriors got out and ran the court as well. They had 19 fastbreak points. Shaun Livingston seemed to always be pushing the tempo, leaving Portland in the dust. He was a great floor general.

All I can really say is that the Warriors played great while the Trailblazers had a lack of offense from their star players. They need more production. The Warriors are doing great and they are looking great without Curry. They are putting doubts to rest it seems like. And when Curry comes back.... you could only imagine.

Warriors VS Rockets (Game 5)

Warriors Win Series 4-1

The Warriors closed out the series last night, and they blew out the Houston Rockets. Jason Terry guaranteed a Rockets win in game 5. The funny thing is, Jason Terry obviously put too much pressure on himself because he was 0-7 from the field.

The Warriors were great offensively. They shot 54.9% from the field. They could not be stopped. The team had 30 assists in the game. Klay Thompson had 27 points on the night as he took advantage of James Harden's poor defensive effort. Klay took 9 uncontested field goals and made 8 of them. That is just a very poor effort from the Rockets.

The Warriors weren't just good offensively though. They held the Rockets to 32.6% from the field. They contested most of the Rockets attempts. The Rockets took 55 contested shots and only made 18 of them. That is great defense! I also notice that they crashed on Dwight Howard whenever he got the ball. He never could get up a clean shot as he shot 3-13 from the field.

As you can see, the Warriors dominated on offense and played great defense. If they keep this up going into next series, they could win the whole series without Curry. And Kevin Durant would agree with me that anyone who can't see that is an idiot.

Warriors VS Rockets (Game 2)

Warriors lead series 2-0

The Rockets had their best chance to win against the Golden State Warriors last night, and they failed. With Stephen Curry out, this was a game that the Rockets needed to win. But the Warriors executed where the Rockets fail.

Houston shot 44.3% from the field and 40% from the 3-point line. That wasn't their problem though. Their problem was turnovers. It's really as simple as that. Houston had 19 turnovers and Golden State 23 points off turnovers. If you turn it over against Golden State, they are going to convert.

The other problem was that Houston played very poor defense, especially their interior defense. The Warriors had 56 points in the paint. They shot well above average in close as well, just take a look at this shot chart.

Warriors Team - Shot Chart - www.nba.com/stats

 So the Rockets obviously need to step up their defense. Let's give the Warriors some credit though. Their guys stepped up, because they are capable of doing that. Shaun Livingston had 16 points, Andre Iguodala had 18 points, Andrew Bogut had 10 points, and Klay Thompson had 34 points. It was a great overall team game. When Harrison Barnes and Draymond Green couldn't get anything going, they found the open man instead. They did a great job moving the ball and the Rockets just sat there and watched.

We don't know if Curry will play next game, but if he doesn't, the Rockets need a win. They need a win either way, but they must take advantage of Curry being out from injury.

All-Star Saturday Night Breakdown

By TonyTheTiger - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29372049

All-Star Saturday Night is one of my most favorite nights of the year. It's entertainment at it's best. You have the dunk contest, three point contest, and the skills competition along with things in between for our amusement. I've decided to breakdown every event from All-Star Saturday Night so everybody can see how every player participated and what their outcome means.

First off, it just didn't feel right when we started off with the Skills competition. I was very disappointed that there was no Shooting Stars competition. That was such a fun event. I felt like, once the first half court was made, that is when All-Star Saturday Night officially began. In case you don't know what the Shooting Stars event was, there is a video on it below. Anyways, onto the Skills competition...

The Skills Challenge had a different format this year as the "bigs" went up against the "smalls", the smalls being guards and the bigs being F/Cs. I'll breakdown each participant's performance below.

• Jordan Clarkson had a tough time as he was out in the first round. He wasn't that fast dribbling and did absolutely horrible in the passing section of the competition missing all 3 passes. He let C.J. McCollum get the layup before him and Clarkson was out before he even got to put up a shot as sharpshooter C.J. made his first shot. Clarkson isn't the most talented guard as you could see in the competition even though he is a dynamic scorer.
• Emanuel Mudiay struggled in this competition as he went up against Isaiah Thomas. He ended up losing because he couldn't get the passing as he missed all 3 tries while Thomas got it on the first. Mudiay then came down and lost control of the ball. By the time Mudiay made it to the 3-point shot, Thomas had already made the shot on his second attempt. Mudiay might have had a better shot if he was able to make the pass on his first try, but considering how this guy averages quite a bit of turnovers per game, maybe that is why he struggled with the passing station.
• Draymond Green did pretty well in this contest, though he didn't make it past the first round. He zoomed through the dribbling course and made the pass on his first try. He then did the layup with ease but failed to make a three pointer as he clearly rushed the first one and it was flat. He then missed the second and Karl-Anthony Towns made his before Green could get up another shot. However, Green had given us a look at his guard like skills for a big man and they were impressive to say the least.
• Anthony Davis really took it easy in the contest going pretty slow throughout the whole thing. He couldn't seem to get the three point shot to fall either as DeMarcus Cousin got the shot before he could. Davis looked really tired and slow in the game and if you looked at his face, he looked like he had been a victim of fatigue.
• DeMarcus Cousins had a big disadvantage in this competition. He was probably the slowest one out their. He was no match for Karl-Anthony Towns' speed and Cousins isn't the best ball handler. While we didn't see that much skill from him in the passing as he really couldn't get on pass though, we did get to see Cousins' range as he did hit a clutch three against Davis.
• C.J. McCollum did great in the first round as he went through the competition with ease and hit his first 3. The second round was a different story. He lost the ball through the dribbling course to start it and couldn't catch up with Isaiah Thomas. It is clear that he may be a sharpshooter, but McCollum could work on his dribbling and passing a little more.
• Isaiah Thomas was amazing in this competition. He was so speedy through the dribbling course and he never missed a pass at the passing station. In the final he sped past Towns to get his layup first. In the other rounds, he hit the 3-pointer easily. Of course, when he went against Towns in the finale, he couldn't make the 3-pointer. Isaiah Thomas really showed the world just how talented he was though.
• Karl-Anthony Towns was a beast as he lead the bigs to the win. He showed off his speed dribbling and gave the most effort out of all of the contestants. Towns made it to the end and shot the 3 well enough to win. He is a really talented big man and like Green he shows guard like skills with his passing ability. It was a joy to see Towns in this competition.

The 3-point contest was cool to see as the Splash Brothers took on the rest of the contestants. Let's take a look at how they all did

• J.J. Redick started off great. He hit his first 5. Then he cooled off. Last year if you remember, Redick kept stepping on the line so they didn't count. Well this year, he made sure he was behind the line. Redick started to get tired and that is probably a result of how much jump he has on his shot. Redick tried to win in the tie breaker to get into the final round, but he was taken down by Devin Booker. He really isn't made for the contest because of the jump he has to his shot.
• James Harden just isn't made for this contest. He never seems to be able to just set up and hit shots. Honestly, he can't seem to make them consistently in this contest and he is more of an in game shooter. Nevertheless, I was surprised that Harden did as well as he did.
• Kris Middleton did horrible in this contest. He just couldn't make that many shots. If looked at his shot, it seemed really off center. I was disappointed that Bosh wasn't in the contest, instead we got Middleton who didn't perform well in the contest at all.
• Kyle Lowry shot the ball flat and strong in the contest. That is why he had such a hard time getting shots to fall. He kept hitting back rim. Towards the end, he got tired and started shooting short. It just wasn't that great of a contest for Lowry.
• Devin Booker came out with the jitters. He started off poorly but ended great. This kid is going to be the next Steph Curry in the league. He is a great shooter and he will win this contest sometime in his career. He was nothing short of amazing. I was really impressed with how he played.
• Stephen Curry played real well, hitting the clutch 3 to get him to qualify for the final. He did even better in the final, he just couldn't compete with Klay's 27. The thing I liked about Curry is he didn't really jump on his shot. It was a great set-shot.
• Klay Thompson lit it up just like Curry did last year. He had 27 in the final round. Klay is such a great shooter and if you think about it, it's kind of scary to think that both him and Curry are on the same team. Both of them are too good of shooter.

Now if you know all-star weekend, you know that the dunk contest is usually where it's at. And it was true for this year. The contest was thrilling. Let's take a look at how the players did.

• Will Barton was really disappointing. He just couldn't make the dunks that LaVine and Gordon could make. He just can seem to get enough air on his dunks.
• Andre Drummond was pretty disappointing too. I thought he was going to do great in the contest. When he brought Steve Nash onto the court, I was expecting something really special, but it wasn't that great of a dunk.
• Aaron Gordon was great. He had the style. He did great, especially for a two foot jumper. His under-the-legs dunk was the dunk of the night by far. What he did was beyond amazing. He really set the bar high. In fact, he might have set it a little too high as he ran out of dunks towards the end and couldn't find something really creative like his other dunks. But that is besides the point. Gordon put on a show, a great show for the whole NBA nation. Even though he didn't win, he did some amazing dunks that left my jaw dropping from a dunk contest that hasn't been that good for years.
• Zach LaVine was just as great as Gordon was. The two dueled it out with some amazing dunks. Just when you saw one of Gordon's spectacular dunks, LaVine would could out with something spectacular as well. He gave us an alley-oop, between the legs, and a windmill FT line dunks, dunks that have never been done in an NBA dunk contest before from that far out. While Gordon had the better dunk, Zach LaVine's performance was just as amazing as he came out to win the contest. When Zach was handed the award, he said that Gordon was the dunk contest too. Not to mention, after the dunk contest, LaVine said that the dunk contest win was a win for his old head coach that recently passed away, Flip Saunders. Flip was the won who drafted LaVine and LaVine said that "He's the one that always believed in me and drafted me!". LaVine and Gordon's performance was completely amazing and I'm still in awe about that contest.

As you can see, All-Star Saturday night is one of the best event of the year. It is sad though, that it is once a year, and we have to wait another year to see the next one. But that, it was makes it so amazing. It doesn't happen that often. And it doesn't happen that often when we get to see an All-Star Saturday night as great as this. As Kenny Smith always says, "it's over ladies and gentlemen, it's over". Now we wait, til next year.

The Golden Run

"Stephen Curry (16640524995)" by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Stephen Curry. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Commons.

It is over now. Ended by the Milwaukee Bucks. And while you may not have liked it, you have to admit that it was fun to think that they could have gone 34 games in a row to beat the Lakers record. However, the Warriors feat is still amazing considering that they blew out the past best start to the season which was the 15-0 as the Warriors made it to 24-0. Now, in this post, I'm going to look at how the Warriors made this run, and how to beat the Warriors.

How The Warriors Went 24-0
What did it take to win 24 games in a row? It took a combination of multiple factors. The fact is, Stephen Curry can't win 24 games in a row on his own. As great of a shooter he is, he just can't win by himself, and we saw that in the game against the Bucks. The first factor that I want to look at is offense. Let's take a look.

The Warriors lead in a lot of categories offensively, take a look at all of them

• 1st in PPG:                           115.3
• 1st in 3-point %:                   42.5%
• 1st in 3 pointers made:         13.1
• 1st in FG%                           48.7%
• 1st in FGs made:                  42.3
• 1st in Offensive Rating:       112.9
• 1st in APG:                           28.6
• 1st in Transition Points         577
• 1st in Off-ball screen points  312

So as you can see; they are very efficient offensively. They do this as you can see by shooting the ball really well from 3. They also just outscore you. There offense is really spread and is great in PnR. 176 of Stephen Curry's points have come from pick and roll.That is 7 points for Stephen Curry on PnR. In fact, Curry's 2 man game with Draymond is one of the best in the league. 30 of the passes that Curry receives are from Draymond. The next person is Bogut with 8.

What else you really need to look at is moving without the ball. Stephen Curry isn't a player that just plays isolation. He can also play off ball. Stephen Curry actually leads the league in points off of off-ball screens with 120. Guess who is second. That's right, Klay Thompson. He has 109 on the season. The Warriors offense is so great that everybody is coming off off-ball screens getting wide open shots. That is what you want in an offense; guys coming off screens getting the high percentage shot. That is another reason reason why Stephen Curry is so hard to guard. Not only is he deadly when he gets past half-court, not only can he take you off the dribble as well, but he also can score on you without the ball. 

The other big thing offensively, is the Warriors transition game. The Warriors lead the league in transition points. That is lead by Stephen Curry as he leads the league with Transition points. He also is second in the league in Effective FG% for player that takes more than 1 transition shots per game. Patty Mills is first. When your team runs the floor that well, you are going to get easy points.>
Defensively, the Warriors are great. They have the 5th best defensive rating in the league. They make every team earn every shot. They give up no easy shots. In fact, they give up the 3rd least amount of spot up jumpers with just 16.3 PPG against them off of spot-ups. That is why teams have to find other ways to score against this team because the Warriors won't give you that open jumper.
 
So how do you stop a team that plays offense near perfection, a defense that gives you nothing easy, an MVP player who can shoot from literally anywhere from the floor, and a lineup that somehow can't be beat? That is a great question. Let's take a look at the best way to take down the Warriors.



How To Beat The Warriors
The Warriors play fantastic offense. To really get it out of rhythm, you are going to have to take some chances with Stephen Curry. If can double him on cuts, deny the ball as hard as you can, and just double him as much as you can. The best thing to do is to let the ball get to the post. If you are playing the Warriors, you have to let the post get touches. The Warriors are not a post orientated team. They only shoot 39.2% from the post. That is 24th in the league. Never double in the post because Bogut and Draymond are great passers at the post. You really need to lets them get down there and play straight up defense.

If Stephen Curry starts to get going with 3 threes in a row, you have to foul Iguodala if he is on the floor. You need to take Curry out of his rhythm.

Offensively, your team needs to have guys that can post up. The Warriors allow a lot of post-up points. It is a big lapse in their defense. They allow the 4th most points from the post in the league. You need to have players who are willing to take it in the post because they don't defend the post that well.

Another big thing is just forcing turnovers. If you really press up on the Warriors, you will force lots of turnovers because of their up-beat tempo. You really have to take it to them in transition though. Warriors have one of the worst transition defense's in the league as they have given up 433 points in transition this season. The Warriors are 7th in the league in turnovers, so you just need to use lots of pressure.

Another thing to do is to get your guards in to isolation and pick and roll to start the game. Warriors have given up tons of points in isolation and aren't really that great in isolation on the defensive end. If you have a dynamic point or shooting guard, you need to take it at the Warriors. Also make sure that when Stephen Curry and Draymond Green are out of the game that you make a basket on almost every possession. The Warriors are know to have their offense and defense fall apart a little while these 2 players are out of the game, and with Harrison Barnes out right now, it's even worse.

So how did the Bucks and the Celtics almost beat them? Well, if you watched the video above, you would have seen that it had to do with Steph being out of the game. That isn't all though. What did they do when Curry was in the game?

Well, Greg Monroe really pounded down low in the post, a key to beating the Warriors as he had 28 points. The other thing was that they contested tons of shots. Also, a thing worst noting is they pressured Klay so much. They didn't give him an inch and really took him out of the game. Same thing with Draymond. They limited him to 5 assists and forced 6 turnovers out of him. 


They really took it to them in transition as well as they outscored the Warriors in the transition department. They also let the Warriors have there points in the paint. The Warriors had 56. What the Warriors did was let them get inside and finish, but the Milwaukee Buck outscored them from the inside, which if what you want to do if you are the Bucks and you don't shoot many 3-pointers.


They let Iguodala get the ball. They didn't let Steph get as many touches as he has been but they sure let Iggy get a lot of touches. Iggy of course just can't convert like Curry especially with a great defender like Giannis guarding him. Curry still had a great night, but the Buck did a great job letting the posts get their points and playing the wings where they couldn't score. Curry is going to score, there is nothing you can do about that. But you have to let the posts put up shots and you have to take away the wings, and that is what the Bucks did.

The Warriors are a great team and are going to be hard to stop. Doing all of this won't stop them from winning, but it will give you a much better chance in winning against them. The Warriors are going to win a lot of games this season, but they aren't going to have a cake walk if teams play them right.

Fantasy Friday: Shooting Guards

A good shooting guard is a good thing to have on your team. The only problem is that they are kind of few and far between. When you read this realize that some sucker will probably pick up Kobe Bryant and you will be laughing and pick one of these guys, because Kobe Bryant will most likely get injured or not be that efficient. Then Kobe Bryant will lead the league in scoring, make about three 3's per game, average a near triple-double, and win defensive player of the year. You will place all the blame on me and say "but Aaron, you said, 'When you read this realize that some sucker will probably pick up Kobe Bryant and you will be laughing and pick one of these guys, because Kobe Bryant will most likely get injured or not be that efficient.'!" And I will reply, hey man, no one said you had to listen to me. Then you will most likely be so mad that you will take your laptop and throw it out the window and your house will burn down. You will place all the blame on me and I will have to pay for the damages. So in advance, I say, take Kobe Bryant if you want to. If you want to take the risk fine, but don't blame me if it doesn't work. If you trust me though, you're best off taking these SGs.

10. Wesley Matthews: He is a risk. We don't know how he will respond. You may want to take K-Mart instead. Will Wes do great in Dallas, or will he be traded mid-season for Festus Ezeli because he is playing so bad. Well, if you take him, let's hope he will do great in Dallas. Wesley Matthews is a great defensive player and is deadly from deep. Watch out for him because he will shoot the lights out.

9. J.J. Redick: He will give you three pointers. He will give them to you. I am a bit worried that he is not doing so well since the playoffs and I fear it could be his down fall. Let's hope he can keep his numbers going up as Chris Paul gets less and less productive. Producing 16.4 PPG last season and 2.6 three pointers per game, he doesn't have much else to offer. Don't forget about Redick though, because chances are, most people will.

8. Victor Oladipo: This man looks like he will be the best player going into his 3rd season. He averaged over 17 PPG last season and contributed in other areas as he averaged 4.2 RPG, 4.1 APG, and 1.7 steals. He is looking good, we just don't know if he will be an all-star and we don't know how much he will improve. Hopefully, he will do great.

7. Paul George: He is in the risk category. So buyer beware. This man is coming off from a severe injury but if Paul George goes back to being regular Paul George, then the results will be amazing. The season before Paul got his injury, he was considered the best fantasy player in the league as he averaged 21.7 PPG, 6.8 RPG, 3.5 APG, and 1.9 Steals per game. Great right? And he only averaged 2.8 turnovers. So if you want to take the risk, grab George.

6. Monta Ellis: Another Pacers player whose season is unclear. Monta could again produce a near 19 PPG and 4.1 Assists or his numbers could plummet. He is a great defender averaging a good 1.9 steals but we are unsure how this change of scenery will be for him.

5. Dwayne Wade: He has the skills and is most likely a future Hall of Famer, but  with Dragic, Bosh, Deng, and Whiteside, will his numbers drop? Probably. That's why he is down here. His great fantasy numbers he has been averaging for the last multiple year will most likely go down and Wade hasn't has a season where he played at least 70 games in 5 years. So take the old man if you want. You just better hope for a healthy season.

4. DeMar DeRozan: This boy is still averaging quite numbers in Toronto. 20.1 PPG and 4.6 RPG along with the steals and assists. He will most likely continue to increase his numbers but he doesn't have a lot to offer besides scoring. He is not a shooter if that is what you are looking for. So don't take him for that. But there aren't many players that average over 20 PPG and average just 2.3 turnovers per game.

3. Klay Thompson: He is a young player rising. Younger than Stephen Curry still. He still has a lot of potential. I would take him in a heartbeat because I see major improvement in Thompson this upcoming season. While he shoots many threes, I can see his 21.7 PPG from last year rising. He made over three 3 pointers per game last year. Not to mention he averaged a little less than 2 turnovers per game last year! This is why Klay is at number 3.

2. Bradley Beal: As Beal enters his 4th season in the NBA, he could very well become an all-star. In the playoffs he had shown that he could lead the team when John Wall went down. This 3 point sharp shooter can score, rebound, and assist and we all know it. He is expected to have his stats increase by a big margin here. We'll see if it happens.

1. James Harden: Of course he is number one. He is going to give you scoring. He will give you rebounds and assists. He will make 3s. And he will give you plenty of free throws. Not to mention he was really healthy last year. James Harden was probably the best player to have in fantasy last year. If you have him this year your team could be the best. The only downside is that James Harden commits turnovers. Oh well. You will obviously have to put up with that but it will be the same with LeBron and Kevin Durant. The way I figure it, he will be either the best or the second best fantasy player this year. Pick him up if you have the chance!

Well, there are your shooting guards. Some notable mentions that weren't on here are Kyle Korver and Kevin Martin so keep them in mind if these guys aren't available (or you just don't trust me). Again, remember that no one is telling you that you have to pick these guys up. So if you place a bunch of money and lose, it's not my fault. But it would be wise to draft these great players. 

Warriors Lose in OT

The Warriors seemed a little tight and settled for far too many three points. Stephen Curry seemed like he was trying to prove that he could make all these shots but he kept on missing. It wasn't that fun seeing Curry miss all those shots but it was sure fun seeing a close game like that. If only all games could be that close.

LeBron looked like he actually had a great game like the ones he had when he was with the Heat. He actually shot pretty well from the field and 3 point range. LeBron has been bringing the ball up and if you are the Warriors, you need to force LeBron to go up and get the ball and also, you need a defender on the inbounder. Once the ball is into LeBron they should go and throw a trap to force LeBron to get the ball out of his hands. After that, Iggy just needs to play LeBron like he has been.

The main reason why I think that the Cavs won this game is because everyone was involved in the game. LeBron made sure that everyone touched the ball. That is what needs to happen in order for the Cavs to win. Yes LeBron, you can have your 40 point nights, other people just need to score too. The Cavs can do it. You can see that Curry was really struggling though. Klay was carrying his team. That is not how the Warriors usually play. You know that the Warriors have to get one in Cleveland. Let's see if they can do it.

The Finals Have Started!

The Warriors have won the first game of the Finals. It was a close game as it went into overtime. I have to admit, it was a little rough for both teams though. 

When I first started watching the game I saw LeBron miss a fade-away shot pretty badly and then the next time down the floor, J.R. Smith bricked a three off the backboard. The game wasn't too great to start off. However, by the end of the 1st, Cleveland had a 10 point lead.

One thing that was really surprising to me is that the Warriors didn't have a player who had over 7 rebounds but they still won the rebounding battle. Everyone on the Warriors had at least 3 rebounds. They all crashed the glass.

If you take a look at the Cavs scoring, It was really just LeBron and Kyrie with Timofey Mozgov giving some offense. Kyrie and LeBron combined had a total of 65 points. Besides Mozgov, LeBron, and Kyrie, the rest of the team only scored 17 points. For the Warriors, that's what you want. You want this to be a 3 on 5 kind of game. The Warriors love that. I think that you have to be happy with only 3 people really coming out and scoring points. 

I really think Bogut could do a better job on Mozgov and he didn't look that great on defense. He just wasn't filling up the paint like he usually does.

If you the Warriors, you have Klay Thompson back and he is looking good as ever. He played great basketball. If your the Cavs, you have to be really disappointed. Kyrie just went down and you could be missing 2 of the big 3 now. They need Kyrie. He is the next best offensive player after LeBron on the team. They need him. They really need him.

The last 32 seconds of regulation wasn't the best last 32 seconds that I've seen before. Stephen Curry had the ball but couldn't make the layup as he somehow got his layup blocked by Kyrie Irving. Then LeBron gets the ball and puts up a really dumb shot that he was going to miss. Really poor shot selection. Shumpert got the rebound and put it up last second and somehow almost won the game. But he missed and the game went into OT. The Warriors ended up making their free throws and played great defense as they limited the Cavs to 2 points that were scored in the last 24 seconds as the Warriors just kind of LeBron get a wide open layup. They were like "who cares, we won". It was a great game. But the series isn't over. We have 3 more games at the least and 6 at the most. It will be a great finals series, I can already tell.

Do You Remember The Klay and Love Trade Talks?

Do you remember the Klay Thompson and Kevin Love trade talks. Back when Kevin Love wanted to be traded from Minnesota and Minnesota was offering Kevin Love for Klay Thompson. But in the end, the Warriors said no and the Wolves ended up trading him off to the Cavs. Let's take a look at how it would affect the 4 teams.

"Kevin Love (15847116411)" by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Kevin Love. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kevin_Love_(15847116411).jpg#/media/File:Kevin_Love_(15847116411).jpg

"Klay Thompson in 2015" by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA - Klay Thompson. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Klay_Thompson_in_2015.jpg#/media/File:Klay_Thompson_in_2015.jpg

Cavaliers: If Love was traded to the Warriors, the Cavs would have Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Bennett, unless they found another team to trade them off to. But they wanted Love. Who else would be willing to trade off a franchise PF for these 2 first picks in the NBA draft two consecutive years. I'll tell you who. The 76ers. Of course this team would trade off Thaddeus Young, K.J. McDaniels, and draft picks for Wiggy and Bennett. They would be more than willing to do that. So you would probably see Thaddeus Young on this team and I honestly think that he would fit better for that role in Cleveland than Love. K.J. McDaniels would be a solid role player for the team. Now, I could go and breakdown how this would affect the Nets and all of that, but I'm not going to.

76ers: The 76ers would have Wiggins and Bennett (most likely). They would start both of them and they wouldn't have Mbah a Moute. It would be Carter-Williams, Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett, Nerleans Noel, and most likely Freeland. Carter-Williams wouldn't be traded off since they have all the talent they want as it will be a great starting 5 when Embiid comes back. This would be a team how the Timberwolves are except with even more potential. This would be a dominating future team.

Timberwolves: This would be a playoff team. They would have David Lee and Klay Thompson starting along with Rubio, Pekovic, and Brewer. Along with LaVine, Budinger, Mo Williams, Shabazz Muhammad, and Dieng off the bench. Great roster. I would actually expect this team to make the playoffs. Klay Thompson would work so well with Rubio and Klay would become an all-star. Brewer wouldn't be traded. Neither would Mo Williams. This would be a content team and they really wouldn't be the future team that you would think. The big thing though, K.G. might not come back to the Wolves. I honestly think that Kevin Garnett wouldn't come back to the Wolves unless the Wolves were to trade off David Lee for him. There would be no Wiggins on this team. That just wouldn't be there. It would be a totally different team with Klay Thompson as the face of it.

Warriors: The Warriors would take a big effect. They would have Curry passing to Love off great pick and pops with Kevin Martin coming off of weak side screens. That would be amazing. I honestly thought at the time that if the Warriors made this trade, they would be the best team in the NBA. I honestly thought they made a big mistake. And I still do. I think that if they took the trade, you would have so much better of a team. I know Klay is great. I know that. But Klay Thompson and a David Lee who has rarely played at all this season for Kevin Love and Kevin Martin who are both averaged over 15 PPG this season. I'd say that it would be worth it. That would be a great team. Not only that but you would have Draymond Green coming off the bench. A great player coming off the bench. So your bench would have a lot of strength. This team would have been unstoppable. And they are right now to.

So as you can see, it's very complicated. And I just did those 4 teams. As you can see, the Warriors and the Cavs would still be great, but the Wolves and the 76ers would have big changes.

The NBA Finals Outlook (Against the Grain Sports)

I am proud to announce that Jerod McCain from www.againstthegrainsports.com has come to NBA Inside The Play to give us his finals outlook. Here it is:

"NBA Trophy2" by NBA_Trophy.png: *NBA_Trophy.jpg: inboundpass from Manila, Philippinesderivative work: JoeJohnson2 (talk)derivative work: JoeJohnson2 (talk) - NBA_Trophy.png. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons - https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:NBA_Trophy2.png#/media/File:NBA_Trophy2.png

 

The NBA Finals are set, we have the number 1 seed Golden State Warriors vs the number 2 seed Cleveland Cavaliers. Stephen Curry and the Warriors are here for the first time since 1974-75 when the won their first and only NBA championship. The Cleveland Cavaliers have their prodigy child LeBron James back home and a very good chance to win an NBA championship for the first time in franchise history. After 4 years of LeBron in Miami with 2 of those years resulting in 2 titles, the Cavs are hoping that James can do the same for Cleveland. MVP Stephen Curry has his eyes set on that same NBA championship trophy. I think this series will go to seven games with an action packed back and forth well fought battle between two super stars and very good supporting casts from both teams.

I will start with the Warriors, a team that can score in bunches and is dialed in on defense from the starters to the last man off the bench. Klay Thompson is primed for a very big performance seeing that he struggled a bit against the Houston Rockets just averaging 15 PPG, a little under 6 points from his regular season average. Draymond Green will continue to be Draymond Green with his energy and defense. I think he will be able to do what Atlanta failed to do and that's keep a body on Tristan Thompson and keep him off the boards and limit second chance buckets. The key to the Warriors victory over Cleveland will be Shaun Livingston, Leandros Barbosa, and Andre Igudala with an over dose of Harrison Barnes. If these guys can play extremely good defense and each have big offensive games in this series especially Harrison Barnes, the Warriors chances of winning increase tremendously. Barnes is by far more of a supreme offensive player than Shumpert and Jones of the Cavs and can give JR. Smith problems offensively if matched up. Stephen Curry may need to average 30 points in these finals to beat LeBron and his Cavaliers.

The Cavs need to all chip in to win this series and the NBA title. LeBron is by far the best NBA leader on and off the court we have seen since Michael Jordan and Magic Johnson, with what he has done to rejuvenate JR. Smith's & Iman Shumpert's careers after being traded from New York. Kyrie Irving is going to be a major factor in the Cavs winning their first NBA title. He is going to have a tough task in containing Curry while still performing on offense. Irving has struggled during the playoffs with injuries but this is the finals and excuses just wont cut it. He will need to average 25 to 28 PPG against the Warriors for the Cavs to have success. The X factor will be if JR. Smith can continue his hot shooting and if Mozgov can keep Bogut off the boards and in foul trouble. Iman Shumpert will get the tasks of guarding whom ever is hot between Curry & Thompson and if they both ignite at the same time the Cavs will be in trouble. I predict that the Warriors will win in 7 and get their second ever NBA title.  By ATGS Jerod McCain

www.againstthegrainsports.com

     

Jerod McCain Co-Founder/CEO
Against The Grain Sports, LLC

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