Category: Golden State Warriors

AP Photo/Ben Margot

By Jeff Hall

OAKLAND –

The Warriors lead this series 3-2 with a 104-91 win because when the Cavs ran out of strength in the game the Warriors got stronger and Andre Iguodala was once again a strong presence for the Warriors The Warriors went on a 17-5 run in the final four minutes of the game. Stephen Curry scored 17 fourth quarter points and finished the game with 37 points. The Warriors have so many weapons and they proved again they have more weapons than the Cavaliers.

Once again Warrior’s coach Steve Kerr decided to start Andre Iguodala for defensive purposes.

Neither team shot well at the beginning of the game. The Warriors scored the first points after a Klay Thompson lay-up three minutes into the game. The Cavaliers turned the ball over four times in the early minutes. The Warriors scored their first three baskets in transition all on the turnovers of the Cavs.

Draymond Green got off to a hot start scoring 9 points in the first 7 minutes of the game.

Carried on the back of LeBron James the Cavs took their first lead of the game mid way through the first quarter.  James scored eight points in the first quarter. J. R Smth scored eight points for the cavs. Smith had been struggling scoring earlier in the series.

Green led the Warriors in scoring in the first with 10 first quarter points. Stephen Curry had 7 points in the first.

Despite the slow start by the Cavs, the game was even at 22 points at the end of the first quarter of play.

In the second quarter J.R. Smith continued the hot hand in scoring. Smith was 4 of 7 from beyond the Arc and provided the Cavs with much needed scoring from someone besides LeBron. Speaking of LeBron he was just shy of a triple double in the first half of action in the game. James scored 20 first half points. He had eight rebounds and eight assists in the first half. Matthew Dellavedova was held to just two first half points.

Curry responded with what the Warriors needed. Curry was 3 of 4 from 3-point land and 15 first half points

The first half of play was wild on both sides and there were 12 lead changes in the first half.

On the final play of the first half, Curry drove to the basket and led the ball to Harrison Barnes who followed the ball dunking it into the basket and was fouled giving the Warriors a 51-50 lead at the end of the first half.

Igoudala scored just three points in the first half but played well. He had 7 rebounds and six assists in the first half.

“Andre was brilliant for us tonight. He does everything for us. He’s our best defender on LeBron. He’s a Brilliant defensive player. He missed some free throws down the stretch, but it didn’t matter.”

The Warriors shot 54% from the field in the first half. The Cavs shot 42% from the field.

After the first half, The primary question of the game would be will the Cavs have enough gas in the tank to finish the game in another hard fought game at the Oracle Arena.

In the third the Warriors were the stronger team and went on a 13-4 run in the final minutes. The Warriors increased their lead to seven and took advantage when LeBron James was sent to the bench to get a much needed rest. James began to show struggles and signs of fatigue.. James scored just four third quarter points. And was just 9 for 21 from the field.

With 6:47 remaining in the Game, James had scored nearly half of the Cavs total points as a team. James had 34 points and the Cavs had 80 points total and trailed the Warriors by five.

With five minutes to play it was a another nail biter with the two teams with the Warriors holding onto a one point lead. The game took a turn after James made a long distance 3-point shot. Seconds later Curry responded with a 3-point shot of his own.

“That was big, because that was he first three of the fourth quarter and we didn’t let the momentum slip. “said Curry

Next it was Klay Thompson that made a 3-point shot and the Warriors lead began to grow and they started to pull away from the Cavs and increased their lead by 10 points.

James scored 40 points, had 14 rebounds and 11 assists for a his second triple double in the finals.

This game is just a reminder that Cleveland does not have enough to get their offense going consistently. J.R. Smith who had a great start in the game did not score a single point in the second half. Dellavedova had just five points in the game.

Game Six returns to Cleveland and the Warriors need one more win to win the championship.

Kerr talked about the difficulty of winning the deciding game. “It’s going to be hard, we are going to have to play better then we did tonight”

The Warriors stuck with the small line-up and Andrew Bogut did not get any action in this one. “It’s a small series and It works well for us, we’re comfortable with this style..” said Kerr regarding the line-up adjustment to stay small.

The Series returns to Cleveland for game six on Tuesday.

Notes:

Curry has made 16 of his last 23 3-point attempts.

by David Zizmor

In the first three games of the NBA Finals the Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James dominated those games and the Golden State Warriors strategy going into those games was they were going to let LeBron have the ball and not let him distribute the ball to anybody else. That wasn’t working in game three and LeBron scored 44 points for his highest post season total in his career.

LeBron just dominanted in the first three games and he scored more points than anybody ever in the first three games in the NBA Finals. He was just killing everybody and everything was working for him. Granted he was also playing 44 minutes a night he was wearing himself out in the process. He was dominating and had LeBron continued like that the Warriors would have been in a lot of trouble.

What happened in game four on Thursday night at Quick and Loans was the Warriors had a complete shift in strategy and Warriors head coach Steve Kerr lied to everybody which later he admitted he lied to everyone and pulled Andrew Bogut out of the starting lineup for game four. Kerr ened up putting Andre Iguodala in.

It was a small group for the Warriors and that small group just dominated the game but what it did it gave the Warriors the mindset to get into their particular style of game instead of the Cavaliers style of being down 20 seconds until they shoot the ball offense. The Warriors by going with their small ball group their just faster and they get up and down the floor more and they get into a rhythm.

That was the game plan and they’ve done it all season long and with Bogut on the floor their able to do that as Cleveland has some answers for Bogut in preparing for the Warriors with a counter move. That counter move was to put Iguodala in the starting line and he’s done it 100 games and he gets in there and he’s a fantastic defender and he’s been amazing in this whole series even though LeBron has done so well.

When Iguodala is on him LeBron has struggled and in this game with LeBron covered by with Iguodala for most of the game LeBron had his worst game of the series he scored 20 points in game four and the Warriors got their mojo back it’s really kind of simple as that and they played the style that they liked and they were comfortable and they really got it going.

David Zizmor covers the NBA for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to his podcast below

Photo credit: (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)

~ By Pearl Allison Lo

~ Andre Iguodala made his first start with a season-high of 22, as Golden State did what they did in Memphis, beating the Cleveland Cavaliers Thursday in Game Four, 103-82.

Iguodala started instead of Andrew Bogut, as the Warriors came back from a 2-1 series deficit on the road.

Cleveland’s Timothy Mozgov led all with 28 points and 10 rebounds. Lebron James had a double-double as well, below his usual performance though, with 20 points and 12 rebounds. Golden State’s Stephen Curry had 22 points.

The Cavaliers’ coach David Blatt replied during the postgame conference that he did think his team was tired. They disappeared in the fourth quarter.

Iguodala after the game, said, “It’s hard to keep up with us, and we’re going to try to keep it going.”

The game started out with more Cleveland momentum, though, as they got off to a 7-0 lead.

The Warriors responded quickly after the timeout.

Later, Golden State’s Draymond Green made an aggressive jumper, resulting in a foul shot. That foul shot tied the game at 20 with 4:29 left to go.

The following possession, Klay Thompson gave Warriors their first and final lead.

Golden State’s David Lee came into the game early, with 3:57 left in the first..

With 2:13 left, the Cavs’ missed four straight shots, while the Warriors made three, Iguodala with two of those baskets for a nine-point lead and coincidentally, a game-high nine points in the first for him.

Green had a game-tying 13 points at the end of the first half with Mozgov. Green got six of those starting with 6:51 left in the second, scoring three of the four plays that led to the Golden State’s largest lead of the first half with 4:25 left, 48-33. All of them were different types of shots, including one from the foul line and one beyond the arc. After the latter, Green could be seen saying, “I’m back.”

Meanwhile, during and after, James went 1-of-4 from the free throw line. With 4:43 left in the second, he was fouled by Andrew Bogut, lost his balance and hit his head on one of the cameras, causing bleeding cuts, but did not leave the game.

In the first half, Cleveland’s Matthew Dellavedova was 0 of 5 from beyond the arc with only one basket. In fact, the team missed 11 straight threes.

Both teams traded off quarters in the second half.

Iguodala made a three to start the third and make it a 15 point lead again. However, Dellavedova then made two straight threes, assisted by James. James also made both of his free throws, had an assist and two consecutive baskets, to make it 62-65 with 5:11 left. After 9:46 left, the Warriors had no non-foul shots until 4:54 left in the quarter.

Dellavedova had to leave the game temporarily due to cramping.

In the fourth, Curry and Iguodala had one and two threes respectively. The Cavs only scored 12 points. J.R. Smith was the only player other than Mozgov in the quarter, to score a non-foul shot. The other five of Mozgov’s seven points came from free throws. Golden State’s largest lead became 23 with 1:17 left.

Game notes: With the series now even at 2-2, the teams travel back to Oakland to face off Sunday at 5pm.

by Amaury Pi Gonzalez

OAKLAND–There has never been an NBA Finals that has seen two overtimes in it’s history. By the way the ratings are huge for this Finals and we spoke about this on the show and the ratings have been very good. The Cleveland Cavaliers LeBron James everyone knows LeBron and how people are discovering the Golden State Warriors Stephen Curry.

They all know that Curry is a great player but the whole world already knows who LeBron is and it’s been a great series and it’s a getting a lot of ratings worldwide. The ratings are high because of Curry’s MVP year and the excitement that the Warriors have had and also they haven’t been here since 1974-75 and 2006-07 for the Cavaliers.

This is a good story and that’s why so many who are following this series on TV have given this series a high ratings boost. This is good to see teams who don’t make it and it’s good to see the Warriors going up against a city like Cleveland and it’s good for the game. Oakland we know the problem here with unemployment and housing Cleveland is going through the same thing. Cleveland is known as the rust belt and Cleveland has lost a lot of industry and it’s good news and it’s positive news for Cleveland and for Oakland.

A’s switcher pitcher Pat Venditte all the rage: Venditte’s father taught him to throw from both sides and he’s a lefty and a righty and Muzuno has developed a six fingered glove for Venditte where he could use it on either hand. When he throws left handed the thumb is on one side and when he throws right handed the thumb is on the other side.

It’s the same glove with six fingers, this is a great story I don’t think he’ll make that much of a difference having said that the bullpen is very bad for the A’s. So Venditte could be the bandit. The A’s bullpen is not good right now but they have some starters and their top ace is Sonny Gray who started Tuesday night’s game came in 7-2 ERA 1.65.

Gray has the lowest ERA in baseball he’s a great starting pitcher and it’s tough to win without your bullpen but the A’s still have a chance their still a young team and they have time to figure it out. This is Ben Zobrist’s first year in Oakland, they haven’t jelled as a unit yet and it’s very dangerous. If the A’s are not out of the cellar in about 35 days A’s general Billy Beane will be making move if this team doesn’t improve soon.

Amaury Pi Gonzalez is the Spanish radio voice for the A’s and the Spanish TV voice for the Angels and does News and Commentary each week on http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

by Tony the Tiger Hayes

SAN FRANCISCO–If the Golden State Warriors were to win or even sweep the Cleveland Cavaliers for the NBA Championship their first since 1974-75 could that change the direction for the Warriors in getting a new arena constructed at Mission Bay? San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee and the Mayor’s Office of Economic and Workforce Development seems confident that any proposal or any measure on the ballot opposing it would be defeated and the Warriors will succeed in getting the new arena.

The hot debate had been about traffic issues in the South of Market Mission Bay project and the city has brought forward an 800 page environmental impact report that consists of how traffic would work during arena events. Mission Bay Alliance who has opposed the new Warriors arena says that traffic will be a standstill before and after Warrior games and other events at the arena.

The city environmental report says they have a solution to the traffic problem. When the peak of traffic starts between 6:30PM-7:30PM on weekdays when workers mainly go home at that time in traffic and fans are going to try and get to the arena, the city plans to redirect arena traffic to go onto 16th, Third and Illinois Streets. The UCSF hospital traffic was a concern on how emergency vehicles would be able to access the roads during those peak times.

The city has planned for hospital traffic to use Owens, Minnesota, Fourth and Seventh Streets for access to UCSF during concerts and basketball games at the arena. The city plans to use 21 officers to decipher traffic arena traffic from hospital traffic and that they would have signs posted to say “Hospital Only” for traffic leaving the Mariposa Street exit.

Mission Bay Alliance argues that trying to fit an 18,000 seat arena project consisting of two towers for condos with traffic involved in a two and half square mile area which would also include AT&T Park events on occasion would be reminiscent of what 49ers traffic was like coming in and out of Candlestick Park. Matter of fact with two facilities going it could be worse. The Alliance says that even with the new arena alone it would be impossible gridlock using those streets to redirect hospital traffic and Warriors basketball traffic and maneuvering traffic in general during peak hours.

Arena opponents simply put said it won’t work in a cramped neighborhood with that type of layout: “essentially what the city and the Warriors are trying to do is jam an elephant into a VW. It’s neither comfortable for the elephant nor advantageous for the V.W.” said Sam Singer who is a spokesman for one of the four law firms hired in order to stop the new arena by Mission Bay Alliance.

The City is proposing investing $40 million in transit including four new T line street cars. It is important to note that on San Francisco Giants game days the T line runs only one car as opposed to the N Judah which now runs two cars together on game day and the single car T line feels like that elephant in a VW when riding during Giant game days.

The City also is proposing a crossover track that would allow light rail to pass each other the cost for development for the rail crossover would run into $6.6 million a year to operate. The city is also planning to use traffic enforcement officers from the Municipal Transit Authority to run traffic beside the 21 control officers. Will the cross over idea work? Will using huge amounts of traffic control officers work for Warriors games and Hospital traffic? “There is no way to place an 18,000 seat arena that is going to have an event every other day day across the street from a major hospital and not have it significantly impact the ability of patients to reach that hospital as well as physicians and nurses to get to work” said Singer.

With four legal firms gearing up to fight the Warriors new arena plan and using an experienced CEQA attorney whose practice is environmental law Susan Brandt-Hawley. Hawley successfully fought, argued and worked for the opposition of the 8 Washington Street ballot initiative a proposition that opposed the waterfront condominium in the city’s 2013 election. Later the Warriors wanted to build their new arena at Piers 30-32 but realized that opponents and the waterfront neighborhood was prepared to put an initiative on the ballot and polls showed voters would vote down a Warriors Pier 30-32 arena. Hence the move to Mission Bay and the purchase of the land owned by Salesforce.

As confident this time as the Warriors are about constructing the new arena at Mission Bay, Mission Bay Alliance has now become more than just a wild card but an adversarial opponent of the project prepared with four law firms with CEQA experienced lawyers, traffic engineers who can demonstrate how traffic will be backed up for hours trying to get into an arena event and even some missing the beginning of the event because of parking and being out in traffic.

Tony the Tiger Hayes is a talk show host for http://www.sportsradioservice.com

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Cleveland Cavaliers entering Sunday’s game are still absorbing the tough blow of losing Kyrie Irving for the rest of the series, they have LeBron James but when you get to this part of the season and your in the NBA Finals it’s tough to do it with just one guy. LeBron is one of the rare players in the history of the NBA to pull out a victory in the NBA Finals all by himself.

It’s near impossible to do that four more times in a best of seven series to ask LeBron to do all the scoring, provide all of the defense and offense. The thing about Irving is he’s an All-Star. The Cavs have Kevin Love but he’s been out for several games and it depends on what the offense is doing and when he’s in there with LeBron that’s a much more dynamic offense.

Irving is a point guard he has a great handle and he has tremendous ball control and it takes someone to get the ball to LeBron with a better position to do a little bit better. Irving is not a pure point guard he’s kind of a hybrid between than your typical point Nevertheless your talking about one of he premier players in the NBA Irving is almost 23 years old.

Irving’s tremendous three point shooter he’s probably the best three point shooter so losing him definitely hurts them and in that category. He’s a threat to drive, he’s quick playmaker and he’s a very exciting player. In watching the first game of the series you saw when Kyrie was in there Cleveland became a much more difficult offensive team.

The Warriors had a struggle with that on the other hand for the most part the Cavs had to force feed the ball to LeBron and he scored on isolation plays. The Warriors defense was able to survive even with Irving in there. Nevertheless without Irving that’s difficult and the Cavs right now have a very thin bench. When you take away one of their main scoring threats it becomes incredibly difficult for that offense.

LeBron can drop 40 all he wants (he dropped 44 on Thursday night) if he doesn’t have anyone else helping him it’s going to be really tough in Cleveland and it’s unfortunate for the Cavs that they lost a player as talented as Irving especially at this stage of the season. Cleveland has had more than it’s share of bad luck over the years and in every sport and frankly without having Kyrie around its a huge blow.

David Zizmor does commentary each week on the NBA Finals for http://www.sportsradioservice.com listen to the podcast below

by David Zizmor

OAKLAND–The Cleveland Cavaliers announced this afternoon in a brief press conference with head coach David Blatt who only could shake his head about Cavs point guard Kyrie Irving who went through an MRI at Stanford Sports Medicine Clinic and was diagnosed with a fractured knee cap and will miss the rest of the NBA Finals against Golden State.

Irving is schedule to undergo surgery for the fracture in the next few days at Cleveland Clinic in Cleveland. Irving who had been suffering from a left knee injury for the last few weeks. Irving was injured in the Cavaliers 108-100 loss to the Warriors on Thursday night and had to leave the game. At that time it was not determined if Irving was going to be able to play in game two on Sunday in Oakland but that was all decided when doctors did the MRI.

Irving had been averaging 19 points in the playoffs and even better with 23 points in game one on Thursday night until he had to leave due to the knee injury in the fourth quarter. Irving a three time NBA All-Star and whose dad Drederick is involved in his son’s basketball business affairs was vehemently angry after finding out that he would miss the entire remainder of the finals due to the knee injury.

The elder Irving upon hearing of his son’s status slammed a private room door where Cavaliers personnel and medical staff were delivering the news to Drederick. It was reported that Drederick left the meeting slamming the door and walked out. Cavs General Manager David Griffin went to talk to Drederick but Drederick pointed towards Irving’s agent Jeff Wechsler in other words talk to the hand. The situation for the Cavaliers looks grim with LeBron James basically fending for himself in game one once Irving left the game.

LeBron scored a post season high of 44 points but it wasn’t good enough as Golden State won in overtime 108-100. It all appeared like LeBron was like an island facing the Warriors top starters Andrew Bogut, Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, and Draymond Green. LeBron could score but couldn’t defend all that the Warriors were throwing at them.

Blatt was asked about the situation now going into Sunday’s game with the loss of Irving, his father basically was angry about this injury and is the Cavaliers responsibility and fault that they overused and pushed his son to his limits and now he’s out for the rest of the finals. Blatt in speaking with the media didn’t have any answers only to say, “you’ve got to talk to the people who are closer to that, I’m not involved in that whole agent-dad thing.”

David Zizmor does commentary on the NBA each week at http://www.sportsradioservice.com

AP Photo/Ben Margot

By Jeff Hall

OAKLAND –

It was a game that appeared like a football game with two great offenses that you got the feeling that the team who had the ball at the end would come away the winner. While that was not exactly how it ended, it was a wild start to the NBA Finals and it was The Golden State Warriors that out lasted the Cavaliers 108-100

Both teams had a long wait before game one, and no one seemed to have benefited from the break more than LeBron James. James seemed to be everywhere the ball was in the early going in the game. James Led the game’s scoring and had seven points quickly in the first few minutes of the contest. The Warriors seemed cold and rusty and struggled shooting at the start of the game

The Warriors were 0-3 from beyond the 3-point line until Harrison Barnes made the first long ball after the Warriors first time-out.

The Warriors were 6 for 21 shooting in the first quarter Cleveland took advantage and went on a 10-0 run late in the first quarter.  Cleveland led after the first 29-19. Lebron James had 12 first quarter points, Curry was held to just 4 points

“It was a slow start for all of us, I thought in the first half we looked nervous.”said Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr.

In the second, the Warriors pulled within four points thanks to the bench play of Marreese Speights. Speights took charge and gave the Warriors the offensive spark they needed and seemed to heat up the play of the entire team. The Warriors recovered from a fourteen point deficit thanks to outstanding benh play.

Despite the Warriors poor shooting, they managed to stay close to the Cavaliers

The Warriors tied the game eight minutes in the second quarter thanks to the great deliverer Stephen Curry who made his first 3-point shot to even up the scoring. A Cleveland turnover and another Curry three gave the Warriors the lead in the second

JR Smith ended a wild first half with a 3-point shot in the final second of the first half to give the Cavs a 51-48 lead at the end of the first half James led all scorers with 19 first quarter points and despite the slow start, Curry finished the first half with 14 first half points. The Warriors bench gave the Warriors the lift they needed scoring 18 total points with Speights leading all bench scoring with six first half points.

The scoring remained fierce in the third quarter with the teams exchanging the lead throughout the action.

Draymond Green got himself into foul trouble when he committed his fourth foul with three minutes remaining in the third quarter. Andre Iguodala drove to the basket after a Warrior steal away from James in the final seconds of the third and the teams were tied at seventy-three. James led all scorers with 30 points by the end of the third.

LeBron was definitely the star of the game, but not even his greatness was enough to help his team pull away from the hard scoring Warriors offense and tough defense in a game that was ultimately decided by the outstanding bench play of the Warriors.

James scored 44 points for  the cavs.

Kerr had this to say about James performance. “He’s a great player and he’s a tough player to stop.  You pick your poison and you take your chances.”

Notes:

James 44 points became the highest point scoring total in his play in an NBA Finals game

In the final seconds, Curry missed a layup after being tightly defended by Kyrie Irving and allowed the Cavs and James to get the final shot of the game with the game fourth quarter.. James missed a step-back 3-point attempt and a missed second attempt by Iman Shumpert and sent the game one into overtime.

Curry scored the first points in overtime making two free-throws nearly two minutes into the overtime period

Curry was fouled again and made two more free-throws giving the Warriors a four point lead. Harrison Barnes gave the Warriors  essntially a game finishing shot with a 3-point basket with two minutes remaining in OT giving the Warriors a 7- point lead.. After the play Kyrie Irving had to leave the game as he held on to his back and struggled to get back into the locker room. Irvin has been fighting a knee injury throughout the playoffs and worked hard to be ready for play in the finals. Irving was a big part of this game on both ends of the floor and this would be a huge loss for the Cleveland if they have to go the rest of the way without him.

” I felt something a little different in my knee and couldn’t continue to play” said Irving after the game.

“I hope he’s okay, you want everyone to be healthy in the Finals. I hope he’s able to come back.” Said Kerr after the game regarding the injury to Irving.

While the Warriors appeared to be the nervous team in the beginning of the game, Cleveland looked like the unsettled team during the Overtime period The Cavs scored only a single basket thanks to a easy give away layup from LeBron James at the very end of overtime.

James led all scorers and scored a game total  44 points. Curry Led he Warriors scoring with 26 points and eight assists. Klay Thompson seemed to be just fine scoring 21 points after not knowing if he would be able to play in Game one of the finals.

“We came out of regulation flat an without the kind of energy we displayed throughout the game. It could have been fatigue.” said Cavalier’s Head Coach David Blatt.

Notes: James 44 points became the highest point total for him in an NBA Finals game.