Final thoughts

The recently concluded NBA Finals between Golden State and Cleveland was not the same as the previous championship series as it was the longest seven-game title series in the history of the modern day NBA.  Under the league’s rest-conscious schedule, it ran for 18 days. 

It used to air in the mornings of Monday, Wednesday and Friday PH time but was changed to Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

The first six games were not your usual games as they were decided in double digits, with the Warriors and Cavs exchanging 30-point routs in Games 2 and 3.  Not your average tight and close finals series.  It looked over when Golden State had a 3-1 lead which no team, until Cleveland, overcome in the Finals.  It made the Cavs just the fourth team since 1978 to win a Finals Game 7 on the road.

The 2015-2016 title showdown was also the most watched with 20.2 million viewers since the 1998 title series between Chicago and Utah with 29 million viewers.  To date, the Bulls-Jazz series still stays at the top as the most watched NBA championship series.

Everything went right for LeBron James in the final three games.  Kyrie Irving found his rhythm and Kevin Love came up big with 14 rebounds and nine points when Tristan Thompson had foul trouble.  Even JR Smith had a mini explosion.

Everything went wrong with the Warriors.  Andrew Bogut injured his left knee and it was a big blow to Golden State’s perimeter defense. In lieu of the big Aussie, Anderson Varejao and Festus Ezeli played a good number of minutes but only combined for 1 point.  Draymond Green was questionably suspended.  IMHO, the league should not impose any suspensions in a title series.  Slap then with huge fines and penalties instead.

Nearing the end of the game, Stephen Curry made a stupid behind-the-back pass to Klay Thompson that went out of bounds.  The league’s best offensive team ran out of firepower at a wrong time.  As the first team in the NBA to make 1,000 3s in a season, they missed 9 shots in the closing minutes.  Curry went 0-4 on that stretch, going 1-6 in the final quarter.

Failures and frustrations make good motivation.  Likewise, success sometimes gets into our heads that we tend to go easy and take things lightly.  With several players becoming free agents, Golden State surely will adjust and find ways to recover from the hurt.   Mistakes are tools for learning and from that, recovery can be made.  Curry and his band of Warriors must look back at the series struggles and come back the next season mentally prepared, wiser and adjusted to the challenge.  The 3- 1 series lead was a wasted opportunity and LeBron and his Cavaliers took advantage of their lapses.