It’s honestly a toss-up between the Golden State Warriors executing in these NBA Finals and the Cleveland Cavaliers playing like garbage in Game 6. First the good, though. The three-headed monster of season MVP Stephen Curry, Finals MVP Andre Iguodala and Draymond Green played phenomenal. Curry was the best player on the court in Game 6, Iguodala was clutch yet again and Green had a huge triple-double. That’s what happens when you combine talent and execution with determination and leadership.
The Warriors had a season for the record books, and it’s only fitting that it ends with a championship. The play of Curry worried me in the first two games of these Finals, but he really adjusted perfectly. That’s what the season MVP is supposed to do, make adjustments on the fly. He even did that better than LeBron James, and that’s saying a lot. LeBron might’ve basically averaged a triple-double during these Finals, but given how much he had to shoulder it’s not too surprising. Better luck next year, Cleveland fans.
Now the bad. King James fell victim once again to the incredible ball-movement of his opponents during the Finals. He got beat by the San Antonio Spurs because of it, and now he got beat by the Warriors. When will he learn? Okay, maybe it’s a little harsh coming down on LeBron like this, but that’s what happens when you publicly announce that you are the best player in the world. So now he just needs to own up to it and move on. Most importantly, he must learn and move on.
Here is the ugly. The Cavaliers, not counting the great effort of Timofey Mozgov, played uninterested until like the two-minute mark of the fourth quarter. That’s a major Oops. What were they doing? Ball movement was terrible for the most part, and the supporting cast around LeBron didn’t even show up. Cleveland might’ve been better off going with the Looney Toons from ‘Space Jam’. That’s not good at all, especially in a do-or-die situation.
Where was the clutch shooting of J.R. Smith during the earlier parts of the game? Before that late comeback effort, I don’t recall a single play called for Smith off the ball. They ran plenty of isolation plays, and he’s not the only one target of that, but give him the ball in a catch-and-shoot situation. As seen in the last two minutes, he might be the deadliest in the league in that category. It was a major missed opportunity.
Of course, a book could be written about all the missed opportunities by Cleveland during these Finals. But you live and you learn. Hopefully, the latter resonates with the Cavaliers.
Samuel Martell is Oklahoma City’s beat writer at www.RantSports.com. To stay connected, ‘follow’ him on Twitter, ‘like’ him on Facebook, or ‘add’ him to your network on Google.