Monday, May 23, 2016

NBA Update

For months now, everyone has been waiting for an NBA Finals rematch between the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Now that both those teams have reached the Conference Finals, it feels like we're almost there.  But this weekend was a bad one for people who are looking forward to the rematch.

On Saturday, the Toronto Raptors ended Cleveland's 17-game playoff winning streak against Eastern Conference foes with a 99-84 win.  To be honest, that's probably not that big a deal.  But last night, in Oklahoma City, the Thunder absolutely pasted Golden State.  They beat the Warriors 133 to 105, and it was not that close.

Now we know that a fair amount of blowouts take place in the NBA playoffs, and they usually mean that the losing team basically decided to rest up for the next game.  Since OKC beat Golden State 108-102 in Game One, these two teams have exchanged laughers:  118-91 for the Warriors in Game Two, and 133-105 for the Thunder in Game Three.  But the Warriors can't afford another blowout -- they can't afford to fall behind three games to one.  So Game Four, tomorrow night, will probably tell us whether Golden State is returning to the finals -- or whether the Thunder will get their own rematch with LeBron.

EASTERN CONFERENCE:
Cleveland 2 - 1 Toronto

WESTERN CONFERENCE:
Golden St. 1 - 2 Oklahoma City

5 comments:

  1. I'm starting to feel a little shaky about my Warriors-in-six prediction after the Game 1 loss, given that Golden State is down 12 early in the fourth quarter and trailing 2-1 in the series.

    But that's not why I'm here. I'm here to say that the Kobe Bryant "Future of Television" commercial is my favorite moment from his career.

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  2. It was good to see ex-Murray State star Cameron Payne cheering on the Thunder from the Oklahoma City bench.

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  3. Well, this is not the Raptors' night. It's midway through the fourth quarter, and the ESPN announcers are arguing about what TV shows in history were great versus which ones were merely very good. Turns out Chris Webber is a big Too Tell the Truth fan.

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  4. People are talking about how horrible the NBA is. Well, all I know is that this is the most I've watched the NBA since at least the Michael Jordan years--and maybe even since the early 1980s when I watched everything on TV. I've really enjoyed these playoffs.

    Westbrook, by the way, has been the best player in the league for at least the last week or 10 days. And the Thunder have Enes and Cam Payne. And Golden State broke my 7-year-old heart in 1975. Still, I find myself rooting for the Warriors in this series.

    GO, RAPTORS!

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