Minnesota Sports Forum

Signature moment for Durant.

So, the Cavs' stars play out of their minds at home, and they still can't beat the Warriors...says a lot about the difference between these two teams.

I know I'm a constant Kevin Love detractor (and even I will admit how well he rebounded last night...he had some terrific contested rebounds), but you can't ignore his negative impact on the Cavs last night. And I'm not talking about his 1-7 on threes, I'm talking about his ridiculously poor defense that I think hurts the Cavs badly. Yes, I recognize that he showed some good instincts and unusually quick hands last night, and it resulted in 6 steals. But there is a reason he was a team-worst -11...he is an uncommonly poor defender, and his bad defense stands out in a finals where the other guys on the court are busting their asses on defense almost unfailingly. Last night reminded me how frustrating it was to watch Love's lazy and selfish defense when he was a T-Wolf. 3-4 times last night he looked at the ref with his palms-up whining for a foul while the Warriors easily scored on a 5-4 fast break. Other times he fought to get into rebounding position (gotta pad those stats, Kev), when he should have been providing help defense...resulting in an easy layup. If someone watched a replay of the game last night with an eye toward baskets resulting from poor effort or technique by Love, I think the number of points would be alarmingly high. Sure, Wig has his flaws on defense, but I am feeling more grateful than ever this morning for the deal Flip made to bring him here and ship Love's selfish ass out of town!

Love - and even Irving to a degree - have been overmatched by the Warriors' firepower. But the bottom line is he has a championship ring and played a big role in the Cavs bulldozing their way through the Eastern Conference playoffs this year. Wiggins has yet to produce in the same way Love did for the Wolves, although we all hope that comes in time.

My prediction for tonight is that the Warriors close it out to win it all after a chippy, ugly game but bigger margin than game 3. Technical fouls and shoving matches galore mostly instigated by Cleveland's anger, the city is out for blood in their home arena tonight

My prediction is Doris Burke says something stupid and yet gets universally praised for her work during the series.

Holy s*** props to Cleveland for not going down without a fight I thought it was about to be half-time for a second with this score

BloopOracle wrote:Holy s*** props to Cleveland for not going down without a fight I thought it was about to be half-time for a second with this score

Anyone else wondering if the officials got a demand from the TV networks... "We want a game 5!"

BloopOracle wrote:Holy s*** props to Cleveland for not going down without a fight I thought it was about to be half-time for a second with this score

Imagine if they had hit a couple more FTs they would have had 50 in a quarter. In the Finals. Against one of the most talented teams of all time. Not too shabby. 3 quarters to go.

60WinTim wrote:

BloopOracle wrote:Holy s*** props to Cleveland for not going down without a fight I thought it was about to be half-time for a second with this score

Anyone else wondering if the officials got a demand from the TV networks... "We want a game 5!"

22 free throws in a quarter in the NBA finals is a fucking joke. The whistle Cleveland gets at home is ridiculous. Good for the NBA for giving Cleveland enough of a lead to maybe win this game and go to 5.

Holy smokes, 49 points in one quarter, is that a final's record?


Edit: I am researching my own question and so far it seems to be "yes". Only once did a team score more points in a quarter in the playoffs (Lakers scored 51 against Detroit in 1962), but it wasn't the finals. There are three other instances where 49 points were scored in a quarter in playoffs, but I haven't checked these yet as to whether these were final games.