Keidel: Once Thought To Be A Laugher, This NBA Finals Is Making History
By Jason Keidel
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A few funny things have happened on the Warriors' march to NBA royalty.
The NBA princes have bumped into the King.
The script has been flipped on the defending NBA champs. Once left for dead, assumed hardwood carrion after getting smoked by the Thunder to go down, 3-1, Golden State stormed back to beat Oklahoma City in seven games.
And once they charged out to a 3-1 lead in the NBA Finals, we assumed Game 5 was the official, hardwood execution. Two games later, we have practically a coin-flip for immortality.
And instead of a coronation, we saw the Warriors unravel like a rug, with their two-time MVP reduced to a bewildered teenager, whining to the refs, hurling his moist mouthpiece into the stands after being ejected and being schooled by LeBron James.
Either the Warriors will repeat as NBA champs and put some punctuation on arguably the best single season in history, or the Cavaliers will vanquish Golden State, become the first team to win three straight in the process, bring a forlorn franchise their first title ever and bring the tattered town of Cleveland their first title, of any kind, since Jim Brown led the Browns to the NFL championship in 1964.
Here are some of the more intriguing numbers so far in this rather intriguing series:
• In the NBA Finals, a team has had a 3-1 lead 32 times, and they are 32-0. Only twice has the team trailing even forced a Game 7.
• James is the fifth player in NBA Finals history to drop 40 points in consecutive finals games. The other four are a roll call of the Hall of Fame -- Jerry West, Rick Barry, Michael Jordan and Shaquille O'Neal.
• This is the first time in the history of the NBA Finals that the winning team has won every game by at least 10 points.
• Stephen Curry is the eighth reigning MVP to play in Game 7 of the NBA Finals. The prior seven are 6-1. (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, of the 1974 Milwaukee Bucks, is the only one to lose.)
• Perhaps the most surreal stat of all: Each team has scored exactly 610 points. This is the first time the NBA Finals has reached Game 7 with each team scoring the same total after six.
• James is leading everyone in everything. Over six games, he's tied for first in rebounds, and otherwise alone at No. 1 in every salient statistic -- points, assists, steals and blocked shots. That includes the Warriors.
• During one stretch in the second half, James had a hand in 27 consecutive points, and 35 out of 36 overall.
• Like he did in Game 5, King James spread his stats like butter across the box score -- 41 points (on 16-of-27 shooting), 11 assists, eight rebounds.
• For the series, he's averaging 30 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists, two blocks, three steals. This should put to bed all the nonsense that Curry deserved to be the unanimous league MVP. Great player, for sure, but Curry gets a pass for bad nights and bad moments. He had both last night.
MORE: Keidel: His Haters Will Never Admit It, But LeBron Still Rules The NBA
Indeed, can you imagine the blowback if James had that meltdown last night? Imagine the fallout if he threw a shoe into the stands and got booted from the arena?
We love to debate or measure the pressure on each team and every player. To whom does this game, this series, mean more?
They all want the Larry O'Brien Trophy. You don't bag 73 wins after winning the NBA title if you're not singularly gifted and focused. The Warriors proved that last year was no fluke, that they're not a circus act of NASA-range shooting.
Likewise, James is a basketball savant who not only has a sense of spacing on the court but an equally keen sense of self. He realizes that the window is slowly closing on the Cavs. He may only be 31, but he's got the wear and weakening legs of someone who has played nonstop since high school.
As Klay Thompson said after the game, had you told the Warriors before the season that it would all be decided by one game, at home, they all would have darted to the dotted line.
And while James' legacy is perhaps more Game 7 dependent than anyone else's, there has to be ample pressure on Golden State. For all the glory and confetti swathed around James if his Cavs win, this would go down as the most epic choke job in NBA history, just a notch below the 2004 collapse of the New York Yankees. So many agendas, lives and legacies intersecting in Oakland, for four quarters. How many moments will be made in 48 minutes?
The Cavs may have won last night, but we all win today. We have a Game 7 between one team trying to repeat last year's result against a team, and a man, looking for a new mandate.
Follow Jason on Twitter at @JasonKeidel
