By: Rashad Milligan
This is what the people wanted, right?
A Finals series with multiple superstars, whose names have been mentioned countless times by hip-hop artist and even has a rapper in the thick of off-court drama. It’s the hipster city of Oakland, California “The Bay” as the kids call it, against the hometown team for the best basketball player on the planet right now.
One third of the three musketeers is out of the picture, Uncle Drew’s years of playing have caught up to him and the significant “other” splash brother is recovering from a massive concussion, but all-in-all, the people will still take this series right? Of course, the casual fan is probably thanking the basketball God’s they didn’t have to sit through a couple of weeks of Zach Randolph and Pero Antic competing to get eight inches off the court to end an exciting postseason highlight reel. Hey, the NBA themselves put the logos of these two teams in the middle of a photo promoting the conference finals, although one of them aren’t even seeded first in their conference.
After a very long week without the live sport on television, Game One with the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers tipped off. And the highest rated game one ever on ABC’s network, did not disappoint.
Cleveland got off to an early start and led by double digits to finish the first quarter. Andre Iguodala and Maresse Speights came off the bench for the Warriors in the second quarter, which kept the Warriors within striking distance. Later in that same quarter, however, Stephen Curry found his grove, which gave Golden State a brief lead. JR Smith appeared to have another unrealistic Game One, as he ended the first half with a tough buzzer beater to give Cleveland the lead back heading into halftime.
The second half included more of the same from the tail end of the second quarter, when Klay Thompson knocked down a trio of three’s, Kyrie Irving got anywhere he wanted on the court and Timothy Mozgov was looking more like DeAndre Jordan with seemingly countless posters on the Big Men of the Warriors. This guy named LeBron James had a personal Finals career-high 42 points as well, but he could’ve had 45.
In the closing moments of the fourth quarter in a tied game, every spectator in the world knew who was going to get the ball. And as that man came off a screen with only a few moments to spare, former Warriors coach Mark Jackson reminded his audience of the game-winner James hit in the same ballistic Oracle Arena a year ago. The move James made was a near mirror image of the play he made in 2014, a step back 3-pointer. But this time, the ball bounced off the back of the rim and Iman Shumpert put up a last second jumper which went in the basket, before falling out.
Five more minutes of the basketball series everyone wanted.
Unfortunately, overtime was extremely anticlimactic, as both team’s stars now carried over 40 minutes for the night. Neither squad appeared as if they couldn’t score the basketball at all if they weren’t at the free throw line and Kyrie Irving went down once again with another gruesome looking injury. The only bucket Cleveland logged was a James garbage time layup in the closing seconds to give him 44 points on the night and Game One was in the books.
An ugly ending to a beautiful night, just like one may describe the entire NBA season, so one may guess: it’s a fitting start to the series everyone wanted.
This is what the people wanted, right?
A Finals series with multiple superstars, whose names have been mentioned countless times by hip-hop artist and even has a rapper in the thick of off-court drama. It’s the hipster city of Oakland, California “The Bay” as the kids call it, against the hometown team for the best basketball player on the planet right now.
One third of the three musketeers is out of the picture, Uncle Drew’s years of playing have caught up to him and the significant “other” splash brother is recovering from a massive concussion, but all-in-all, the people will still take this series right? Of course, the casual fan is probably thanking the basketball God’s they didn’t have to sit through a couple of weeks of Zach Randolph and Pero Antic competing to get eight inches off the court to end an exciting postseason highlight reel. Hey, the NBA themselves put the logos of these two teams in the middle of a photo promoting the conference finals, although one of them aren’t even seeded first in their conference.
After a very long week without the live sport on television, Game One with the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers tipped off. And the highest rated game one ever on ABC’s network, did not disappoint.
Cleveland got off to an early start and led by double digits to finish the first quarter. Andre Iguodala and Maresse Speights came off the bench for the Warriors in the second quarter, which kept the Warriors within striking distance. Later in that same quarter, however, Stephen Curry found his grove, which gave Golden State a brief lead. JR Smith appeared to have another unrealistic Game One, as he ended the first half with a tough buzzer beater to give Cleveland the lead back heading into halftime.
The second half included more of the same from the tail end of the second quarter, when Klay Thompson knocked down a trio of three’s, Kyrie Irving got anywhere he wanted on the court and Timothy Mozgov was looking more like DeAndre Jordan with seemingly countless posters on the Big Men of the Warriors. This guy named LeBron James had a personal Finals career-high 42 points as well, but he could’ve had 45.
In the closing moments of the fourth quarter in a tied game, every spectator in the world knew who was going to get the ball. And as that man came off a screen with only a few moments to spare, former Warriors coach Mark Jackson reminded his audience of the game-winner James hit in the same ballistic Oracle Arena a year ago. The move James made was a near mirror image of the play he made in 2014, a step back 3-pointer. But this time, the ball bounced off the back of the rim and Iman Shumpert put up a last second jumper which went in the basket, before falling out.
Five more minutes of the basketball series everyone wanted.
Unfortunately, overtime was extremely anticlimactic, as both team’s stars now carried over 40 minutes for the night. Neither squad appeared as if they couldn’t score the basketball at all if they weren’t at the free throw line and Kyrie Irving went down once again with another gruesome looking injury. The only bucket Cleveland logged was a James garbage time layup in the closing seconds to give him 44 points on the night and Game One was in the books.
An ugly ending to a beautiful night, just like one may describe the entire NBA season, so one may guess: it’s a fitting start to the series everyone wanted.