Minnesota Sports Forum

The Cavs deserved to win this series. As usual, the team whose best player played his best won the series. Curry was terrible tonight and not particularly good throughout the series. In contrast, LeBron was absolutely incredible the last three games, including tonight. He's the best player in the NBA and it's not even close. Kyrie was great as well and Love really came through tonight with his rebounding and some great defense on Curry late in the 4th.

Ezeli was horrible tonight and Barnes continued his streak of pathetic play that has likely taken millions of dollars out of his pocket after this season. I've never wanted to sign Barnes and his performance this series has simply confirmed my relatively low opinion of him as a player.

I'm just glad we finally had a close exciting game that came down to the last minute. And although I was pulling for the Warriors, I can't help but feel good for the people of Cleveland. LeBron returned home to bring a championship to his hometown and he succeeded - with a lot of help from Kyrie. These are good days for non-glamour cities in the NBA.

Volans19 wrote:Great Varejo stuff here

https://twitter.com/Travon/status/744706518944100352

Lol thanks for posting that.

I had to DVR the game due to a Dad's Day dinner with my kids, so I just finished watching...wow, what a Game 7! I haven't read the comments on the thread, but James, Irving and Green were all terrific, and the Spash Bros. obviously were off. But I think the real goat in Game 7 was...STEVE KERR. Totally outcoached by Tyrone Lue. Kerr needed to see that his team could consistently outplay the Cav with their small lineup, and he could have left Ezeli and Varejao on the bench all night. The 2 minutes that Ezeli was in the game in the 4th quarter is when this game turned...3 times in a row the Cavs got Ezeli to switch on to James, and it resulted in 6 big points.

Not to take anything away from Irving and James (James would have been my choice for MVP even if the Warriors had won), but Kerr could have made some better decisions.

What a terrific game though!

LST -- Great points on Steve Kerr's coaching tonight.

Steve Kerr was making poor decisions throughout the series. He didn't control momentum well. He was stubborn with lineups. I think overall he was just too cocky that his team was better and didn't make adjustments to help his team. I though he got outcoached this series and Steph and Klay just weren't up to the challenge of bully ball. They didn't attack the basket enough to get the calls they needed to keep Cleveland's D on their heels and open up some shots on the perimeter.

I agree I didn't like Kerr's playing Ezeli it was kinda weird. I didn't agree with that either. Starting him made sense and it was actually looking smart but he didn't finish those plays early.

It's amazing how important every shot is in a given game. Klay Thompson was 2-10 from behind the arc; Curry 4-16 and Iggy 0-3. If just two of those three hit one more of their threes the Warriors win the game even though all three would have still ended up well below their season average 3-point percentage. The Cavs guarded them well, but Klay and Stephen both missed several wide-open threes they usually make. In the case of the Warriors, it's the old "live by the sword, die by the sword." Three point shooting plus defense propelled them to their historic 73 regular season wins and 7th game of the finals. But in the end, missing threes did them in.

One of the things I like about the Wolves roster is the potential for a more diversified offense than the Warriors have. In Wiggins we have a guy who can be a big time scorer slashing to the basket, drawing fouls and hitting mid-range jumpers. In LaVine we have a guy who can rain threes off the dribble and off the catch while also scoring at the rim on the break and perhaps even scoring some at the rim in the half court using his speed and hops. In KAT we have a guy who can score posting up, drawing fouls, shooting mid-range fade always and stepping out to the three-point line. Gorgui has a very accurate mid-range shot, can score a bit in the paint and has added three-point range to his arsenal. Then there's Ricky, the mistro conductor and distributor. That's pretty impressive.

If Thibs can get these guys to play defense at a high level and add some depth, especially 3-point shooters off the bench, then sky's the limit for this team.

lipoli390 wrote:It's amazing how important every shot is in a given game. Klay Thompson was 2-10 from behind the arc; Curry 4-16 and Iggy 0-3. If just two of those three hit one more of their threes the Warriors win the game even though all three would have still ended up well below their season average 3-point percentage. The Cavs guarded them well, but Klay and Stephen both missed several wide-open threes they usually make. In the case of the Warriors, it's the old "live by the sword, die by the sword." Three point shooting plus defense propelled them to their historic 73 regular season wins and 7th game of the finals. But in the end, missing threes did them in.

One of the things I like about the Wolves roster is the potential for a more diversified offense than the Warriors have. In Wiggins we have a guy who can be a big time scorer slashing to the basket, drawing fouls and hitting mid-range jumpers. In LaVine we have a guy who can rain threes off the dribble and off the catch while also scoring at the rim on the break and perhaps even scoring some at the rim in the half court using his speed and hops. In KAT we have a guy who can score posting up, drawing fouls, shooting mid-range fade always and stepping out to the three-point line. Gorgui has a very accurate mid-range shot, can score a bit in the paint and has added three-point range to his arsenal. Then there's Ricky, the mistro conductor and distributor. That's pretty impressive.

If Thibs can get these guys to play defense at a high level and add some depth, especially 3-point shooters off the bench, then sky's the limit for this team.

Yeah, every shot is important in a classic close Game 7 like this one. And I would say the most important were the critical 3-point attempts at the end of the game. Robson tweeted it best: "Make or miss league. Irving made. Curry missed."

Curry had one of the greatest NBA seasons we have ever seen, but I feel his star is a little tarnished after this series. His foolish errant behind the back pass to Klay at a critical moment in the game is a memory I won't soon forget.

monsterpile wrote:I agree I didn't like Kerr's playing Ezeli it was kinda weird. I didn't agree with that either. Starting him made sense and it was actually looking smart but he didn't finish those plays early.

Good point about Ezeli at the start of the game, monster. Kerr and the Warriors actually looked kind of brilliant with those easy looks for Ezeli at the start of the game, but he couldn't convert any of them. Who knows how the flow of the game might have changed if he had made those early shots. The Cavs might have had to pay some attention to him, and that might have made things easier on the perimeter for Klat and Steph. But Kerr needed to see right away that it wasn't working for Ezeli and go small.

longstrangetrip wrote:

monsterpile wrote:I agree I didn't like Kerr's playing Ezeli it was kinda weird. I didn't agree with that either. Starting him made sense and it was actually looking smart but he didn't finish those plays early.

Good point about Ezeli at the start of the game, monster. Kerr and the Warriors actually looked kind of brilliant with those easy looks for Ezeli at the start of the game, but he couldn't convert any of them. Who knows how the flow of the game might have changed if he had made those early shots. The Cavs might have had to pay some attention to him, and that might have made things easier on the perimeter for Klat and Steph. But Kerr needed to see right away that it wasn't working for Ezeli and go small.

Or maybe be gone with Spieghts who was playing with a ton of energy of Kerr wanted to play another big. Personally one of the things so would have done was figure out how Ali could get Barbosa on the floor more the last 3 games. He had been terrific I may have even played him some over Livingston who scored 10 total points after game 1 but obviously brings more to the table other than scoring but wow.