Even if Kawhi were healthy that series was at best going 6, especially because it was Pop vs. Mike Brown (who is improved, but not very good). I think a lot of the first half was just that the Warriors hadn't played much recently, and hadn't played a really good team since before the playoffs.
I feel like the Spurs haven't been closed out at home in forever which is why I though if they won this one, there was a chance it could go 7. Now we have nothing to look forward until the Final because if the Celtics advance they are going to get massacred by the Cavs.
Why bring race into the discussion? You sound like a liberal snowflake
You know the guy who is most notorious for this move? Bruce Bowen. Is he only being blamed because of the color of his skin?
I don't even think it was necessarily intentional but Pachulia is a thug on the court and does not receive the benefit of the doubt.
Played a lot of ball, seen a lot of ball. The only time I ever ended up on the other side of the 3 point line, in the area the shooter was landing, is when I followed through on a jump incident to defending, and in those cases, because I was the defender, I'd always be coming down on top of the shooter, not the other way around. In this case, the defender doesn't jump. He's not even near the ball. He weakly puts a hand "in the face," which is moot immediately upon Kawhi jumping, and then, after the ball is released and the shot can't be contested further, he slides his foot into the landing area.
He's pure class. No excuses. All the more reason to come down hard on the other guy.
I think they'll bring it in game 2. They have a classic game 7 hangover from the Wizards. Cleveland working on a week's rest. Would have been Herculean for the C's to pull it off tonight. They need to win game 2 and steal one in Cleveland.
Friday will tell if the Celts will make it a series. Clearly, their defense was lacking tonight and match-up problems galore. Still, if the C's were hitting 3s in the first half at a normal pct, would have been a much closer game.
Match-ups aside, C's are fatigued. After an 82 game regular season they have played 5 more playoff games than Cleveland, and that has certainly translated to defense. But where you could really see it was in the shooting. Thomas making 1/3 FTs in that one foul, many players missing terribly ugly off the front of the rim... Cavs dominated a healthy C's team like Golden State dominated a Kawhi-less Spurs team Tuesday.
