The Golden State Warriors are the 2014-2015 champions of basketball. The team that earned a 67-15 record during the regular season, that also excited us with an MVP in Stephen Curry, lifted the trophy for the second time in their franchise history.
This Warrior bunch on paper, at the beginning of the season, wasn’t championship worthy, especially when looking in on the competitive western conference. This year’s change at the head coaching position, which saw Tim Kerr take over as the skipper, changed the dynamic of the team. Kerr implemented a better defense, when needed, alongside a fast pace offense. It allowed the best shooter off the dribble to blossom into this year’s MVP.
Cleveland came a long way this year. Unfortunately, losing Kyrie Irving, their point guard, and Kevin Love didn’t bode well. Lebron James, game after game, during this post season performed like an MVP. Being shorthanded must have been pretty tough for Lebron. Playing 40 minutes plus throughout the finals isn’t an easy thing. Truth is, after seeing the level of talent the Cavs had in comparison to the Warriors, Lebron was at a huge disadvantage. Luckily, with Lebron, the Cavs won two games and made the series quite interesting.
The X factor in this series was a man from Illinois, an ex Arizona Wildcat and leader of the Sixer’s. Andre Iguodala came over to Golden State and accepted the role of being sixth man. That’s not an easy task after having been a starter your whole career. During this final, when the Warriors were down 2-1, a video man for the Warriors coaching staff spotted the mismatch in the lineup that was giving the Cavs an edge and had them leading in the series. Steve Kerr switched the lineup, went small, and brought in Andre. Andre was responsible for guarding Lebron. He did a decent job considering eighty percent of the offense goes through him. Iguodala scored at key moments and was a huge part of the game six victory. He was so good that it earned him an MVP award for the finals.
I salute the Warriors and their coach Steve Kerr for giving us an exciting team to watch. However, for them to repeat will be a tough task. To get out of the west they will have to face a man named Kevin Durant who’s healthy and most probably hungry.
Free pick record: 3-2
Thursday’s pick will be a late night game. I’ll take the giants at +130 .
