Steelers' 2018 Year of Travesty

Before the season began, the Pittsburgh Steelers were touted as a Super Bowl contender.  A slimmed down Big Ben was throwing bullets at training camp.  Antonio Brown was back, one of the best receivers in the game, if not the very best.  And despite his evident dissatisfaction with the Steelers' management, Le'Veon Bell, one of the best if not the very best running back in the game, would still be a Steeler for at least this season.

In an unprecedented situation, Bell did not come back for training camp, then for much of the season.  Nevertheless, after a shaky start, the Steelers compensated and started winning.  They found another stellar running back in James Connor, and another wide receiver threat in JuJu-Smith Schuster.  Their suspect defense jelled.   The Steelers ripped off six straight victories and at 7-2-1 they seemed poised to win their division.  With Bell widely believed to be rejoining the team, they could challenge anyone in the playoffs.

Then it all started to fall apart.  Steelers management again would not meet Bell's demands, and he did not rejoin the team.  Then the Steelers lost consecutive games to the Broncos, Chargers and Raiders.  They rallied for a rare win against the Patriots before losing a must-win to the New Orleans Saints.  Not only did they lose the division to a resurgent Baltimore, they didn't even make the playoffs. The season ended on the football field with a whimper, when Smith Schuster fumbled before the tying field goal could be attempted.  An earlier game slipped away when a field goal attempt ended with the kicker falling down.  An anemic victory over the Bengals came too late.

Some of it seemed like the law of averages catching up--they'd won a few games with last minute scores, then they lost a few when they didn't score at the end of the game.  But there was trouble behind the scenes, and once the season was over, the whimper became a bang.

The explosions are still going on.  Antonio Brown seems about to be in open warfare against his coach and Steelers management.  Other players are at each other's throats in social media.  This team is blowing itself up, and nobody knows who is going to be left standing.

The factors involved seem to range from Steelers' management's fatal errors in dealing with Bell to the multiplier effect of social media in creating drama.  This is not the cohesive,  disciplined Steelers team of historical lore.  It's a mind-boggling sight for Steelers fans, and it's far from over.

A Tale of Two Dubs

Embarrassed by a blowout home loss to the Bucks, the Golden State Warriors went to Milwaukee and controlled the game for the victory.  It was a low-scoring game that the Dubs won with a smothering defense--Coach Kerr called it their best defensive effort of the year.  The Bucks tried to replicate the game plan they won with--swarming the Dubs' scoring stars and daring others to make shots.  But those others made shots, and so at key moments did the stars.  Key lesson: defense can win low scoring games, i.e. games when your shots aren't falling.

The Warriors had lost in Toronto while short-handed.  But the Raptors came to Golden State on the second night of a back-to-back, without their star player, and handed the Dubs a 20 point loss.  For the Warriors it was low-scoring, with Steph Curry in particular not hitting.  But it seemed to be the successful execution of a sophisticated game plan that won it for the Raptors, who are now officially the beast of the East and the favorite to wind up in the finals with Golden State.

The Warriors' energy was lacking, and after his long absence while injured, Curry was due for a letdown game.  Key lesson: ineffective defense can lose low-scoring games. But also, there exists a strategy that can win against the Warriors.

After this game, TO lost to Portland while the Dubs pulled out a last minute win in Sacramento--with lots of scoring but a final score that indicated less than stellar defense.  Curry suggested that with the return of Draymond Green the Warriors are still getting used to their rotations again.  Now the Dubs face a bunch of games in December, mostly at home, that this recent experience suggests they'll need to play focused to win.

It Won't Be Easy

To think I've been reading about the Warriors to escape from politics.

Sports commentators started out saying the Draymond Green conflict with Kevin Durant was no big deal; now they're certain that it means Durant will leave the Warriors this summer.  Meanwhile the Dubs have lost three of their last four games, and face some tough competition in the coming week on the road.

But conventional wisdom is..well, conventional.  It's what everybody says because..everybody is saying it.  For example, the loud complaints that the Warriors were unbeatable and the season could just as well be cancelled.  Now the warning that the only way the Dubs get defeated is due to internal strife.

The season is still very young, and some teams doing well now may fade while others now struggling could get themselves together.  But even when the Dubs were on a long winning streak, it was becoming clear that there is competition in the NBA, and not just for second place.

In the western conference, Houston has reemerged as the Warriors nemesis in their lopsided victory this week.  Their defensive switching still mesmerizes the Warriors.  If a playoff series goes to the team that wants it more, then Houston--with a weaker bench but more experience--could knock them off.

Meanwhile the Lakers could be the Cavs of the western conference--a team that can do just enough to let King James win them a series, or a team that can't cope at all.  Portland at this point is maybe a team to watch later.

But what's clear now is that, without Steph Curry or a theoretical Boogie Cousins, the Warriors can be defeated.  Injuries in the playoffs could be enough to dethrone them.

That's even before they face the Eastern champs, be it Boston, Toronto or Milwaukee, any of them pretty much guaranteed to be stronger competition than the Cavs.

The Warriors lost in Dallas tonight but by only a bucket, without Curry or Green, and with a good spread of scoring beyond Durant's 37.  Now they play a better team on the second night of a back to back.  The coming week may not be pretty, but the Warriors will rise again.

On the other hand, if anybody thought it was going to be easy, welcome to the NBA.

Klay Thompson--Remember Him?

 Klay Thompson had made 5 three point shots out of 36 tries--in the previous 8 games this season.  In Chicago he made 6 three pointers-- in the first quarter.  And by the third quarter he set a new NBA all time record for made threes: 14.  The record-holder had been (of course) Steph Curry.

I saw a YouTube full game video with the Chicago announcers who never had a clue that Klay had broken this record.  They made up something for why Steph raised his hands in celebration and the bench went wild.

But the above video of Klay's points (including the 14 threes) has the Warriors announcers and they were on it.  There's no streak shooter like Klay, and though the Bulls' defense was terrible, defenses don't much matter when Klay gets hot.  Another one for the ages.

Not to be overlooked, but all the Warriors were setting up Klay's shot, and Steph Curry sacrificed continuing his record-setting pace in points and three point shots to help Klay go for the record that erases Curry's record.   It's also worth mentioning that Curry had 11 threes in three quarters the other night, and could have broken his own record if he'd played the fourth quarter, chalking up 15 or more threes.

Then again, Klay didn't play the fourth quarter on Monday either.

Steph Curry--Remember Him?

Just a few games into the season, but so far Steph Curry is reclaiming his status as a wonder of the basketball world.

 A two-time MVP and 3 point shooting phenom who literally changed how NBA basketball is played, he's been kind of an afterthought the past two seasons.  But in this young year, he's back. He's scoring at around a 30 point game average, but last night against Washington he had one of those signature Curry games.  He scored 51 points in three quarters (really, in two quarters plus a little more.) He hit 11 three point shots, and extended his series of records for 3s that is too dominant to go into.

The Warriors were so far ahead after 3 quarters that he didn't play in the fourth, so there's no telling what records he might have set.

 Here are two things I think about now when I think about Steph Curry.  First, that he ends his daily shooting regimen with 100 three pointers.  That's 100, to end his workout.

Second, there are these video ads on YouTube with famous people in various fields--acting, film directing, writing, etc.--advertising their Master Classes.  In his, Curry talks about what shooters focus on when they shoot.  The front of the rim of the basket?  The square over the basket on the backboard?  Curry says he focuses on the metal rings through which the nylon of the basket are threaded.

 He said that from any angle he can usually see at least two or three of them.  He focuses on these as he takes his shot.

Consider then that Steph Curry, the documented best long range shooter in NBA history, is often shooting from about 30 feet away, or a little less and a lot more.

He is also known for one of the quickest releases in basketball--and he's even quicker this year.  No stare at the basket, dribble and set his feet and shoot.  His shot is off in a shot, as you can see from several long-range shots in the video from last night.  How can he even see those metal rings from 30 feet and beyond, let alone focus on them in a millisecond?

 Apparently Curry was hitting regularly from half court in his warmups last evening.  But it isn't until the game starts that shooters know if they're hot.  Game announcers often suggest that a particularly long range shot after several makes is a "heat check."  Once a shooter is hot, teammates look for them to shoot.  And in the first and third quarters last night, Curry's shot was on fire.  Several shots were not only from amazing distances and in difficult situations, they were beautiful. So it's more than distraction.  It's wonder.


In the MLB postseason, I've gone from a Yankees fan (because Cutch was starting) and Brewer's fan to a Red Sox fan.  I've got some Boston cred--I lived and worked there in the 70s.  For all their power hitting rep, I've been most impressed with their fielding. Andrew Benintendi's leaping catch in the second game was a thing of beauty.

Start Times

The NBA preseason is over, the 2018-19 season about to begin.  As of this writing, the Golden State Warriors still have roster moves to make, and I'm guessing there may be surprises, and maybe even an acquisition.

The Dubs enter as heavy favorites to win it all.  However, the preseason suggested some vulnerabilities.  The starting All-Star four seem absolutely ready, though they haven't played together much.  In both games against the Lakers, one star was on the bench.

But the bench players are another matter.  Against the Lakers last night, they were the gang that couldn't shoot.  The Lakers enter the season with a much more productive bench.

Add to this the mystery of Patrick McCaw, that the Dubs were treating like a star of the future.  He didn't sign either of the generous contracts he was offered, and is reportedly not even talking to the club. That's a loss to the bench, though also an opportunity for someone to step up.  So far, it doesn't look like anyone has.

The vulnerability seems to be on the wings, and perhaps at the point.  The Warriors need production out of the second unit, and don't want to depend on the veterans who will be crucial for the playoffs.  They hope that Jonas Jerebko will be a three point threat, something the second unit lacked last year.  But the preseason didn't show it.

The starting five looks solid, though, with Damian Jones and Kevon Looney ready to be the big until the much anticipated entry of All-Star acquisition DeMarcus Cousins.  Jordan Bell seems more of a project but has a lot of potential.

Maybe the sloppy play of the reserves against the Lakers will turn out to be just a learning experience.  And the overall team will look different by the time the season actually starts on Tuesday against the Thunder.

End Times

The San Francisco Giants hit into five double plays--two to end the 8th and 9th-- in a futile effort to stop the Dodgers in the first game of the last series of the season, losing by the familiar score of 3-1.  The 1 is the familiar part.

Madison Bumgarner started, and though he has a year left on his contract, lots of speculation that it's his last year in San Francisco.  That seems nearly certain for outfielder Hunter Pence, who has been making the best of his last few games with home runs and exciting play.  He gave what may have been an exit interview about why SF fans are special.

Everyone expects a lot of changes, on the field and off, for the Giants for next year, as the championship seasons of 10, 12 and 14 become distant memories.  Remaining players of those years--especially Pence--are still fan favorites.

And so the inexplicable season ends with only one obvious observation: it turned out after all that the vulnerability wasn't pitching--both the young starters and the bullpen did pretty well for the last part of the season--but hitting, especially hitting for power.  That may turn out to be even harder to remedy than pitching.

The postseason is still undecided for a number of other teams--including the Dodgers--so it's time for my annual lecture on the proper use of the term "clinch."  A team clinches something--a division championship, a wild card berth for instance--when they will win it at the end of the season even if they lose every game still to be played.  The term only has meaning when there are games yet to play.  Otherwise teams "win" championships etc.

Yet "clinched" is often misused when the proper term is "won."   In other words, when a team wins the final game of a series, or in the NBA for example when they win four games in a playoff series so that the full seven are not played, they have won--not clinched--the championship.  It is possible in the NBA to clinch a playoff spot in the regular season when there are games yet to be played, but a team can only win (or lose) a playoff series.

End of lecture about the end of the season.  I must add that I've become a temporary Yankees fan since Andrew McCutchen has been playing left field for New York.  He got a hit, scored and drove in a run in today's win over the Red Sox.  I should give props to the SF Giants front office for making sure they traded Cutch to a contender, so that he can play in the postseason.  In Pittsburgh he played in a couple of wild card games and one division championship series, but not beyond that.

I'm not yet sure however that my Yankeeness will overcome my Boston ties if and when they play each other for the division championship.  Then again, the Yankees were the first AL team I followed as a kid, when they had Mantle, Maris, Moose Scowron etc. and one of my pitching heroes, Whitey Ford.  But I think seeing Cutch get into the World Series will overcome my Boston reflex.

And with the end comes a beginning--of Golden State Warriors basketball!  It should be an exciting season.  It starts with nearly everybody healthy, a lot of young players who will get big minutes, and the integration of Boogie Cousins into the starting lineup, which may start sooner than later.

Shame

In his first season in San Francisco, Andrew McCutchen leads the Giants in home runs, RBIs, hits, runs scored, doubles, stolen bases and walks. He leads the team in games and innings played.  And the Giants reportedly just traded him. Apparently for a mediocre minor league infielder they don't need. And on a day that another Giants outfielder goes on the DL and requires surgery.

They didn't even give him a full season--a player of his calibre, and a standup guy. This is a day of shame for the San Francisco Giants.

Giving Up

Update 8/30: In his first season in San Francisco, Andrew McCutchen leads the Giants in home runs, RBIs, hits, runs scored, doubles, stolen bases and walks.  And the Giants reportedly just traded him.  For next to nothing.  Shame.


The last straw was Buster Posey requiring season-ending surgery.  Pablo Sandoval needing same was a mere warmup.  The San Francisco have lost six of their last seven, scoring three runs or fewer for--well, living memory--and they've put Andrew McCutchen on trade waivers.  They've given up.

Here's the thing: it wasn't the best year of Cutch's career, and he had his ups and downs at the plate, but over the season it's hard to name a Giant player who was better. He's played more games and more innings than any other position player.  He was more than competent in the field and as a hitter.  He's admitted that the trade from Pittsburgh was wrenching, so feeling comfortable in San Francisco was going to take some time.  He didn't get it.

The Giants' fall is in some sense inexplicable so it's anybody's guess how they improve next year.  But getting rid of Cutch after one season does not sit well with me.  So for now, if they indeed trade Cutch, I'm giving up on the Giants until they give me a reason to think better of them.

25

I've just watched video of the ceremony in San Francisco Saturday to retire Barry Bond's number 25.  The Giants organization planned it well: 25 years after Bonds joined the Giants, and before a game with the only other Major League team Bonds played for, the Pittsburgh Pirates.

I only saw Bonds in one game at the San Francisco ball park (he struck out twice.)  But I saw him in probably a dozen games in his Pittsburgh years.  In one of the last games, I saw him hit safely to all fields, at least 4 hits, mostly rocket line drives that could take your breath away even if they stayed in the park.

So perhaps it was fitting that the most important words spoken about Bonds at this Saturday's ceremony were from his Pirates manager Jim Leyland--that is, at least in one important context.

There are probably Giants fans who were surprised that Bonds' number hadn't been retired long ago.  We all know why not.  But now with the entire organization behind him, this ceremony, this display provides a powerful boost to Bonds' chances of finally getting into the baseball Hall of Fame.

Willie Mays spoke at the ceremony, though apparently he wasn't scheduled to do so, and he issued the call: vote him in.  Maybe I'm prejudiced by my Pittsburgh roots, but I believe Leyland's carefully worded statement was even more important: "Without question, [Bonds] is the best player I ever managed in my 22 years as a major league skipper."  

Those are powerful words coming from one of the most revered managers (he won a World Series title with the Marlins) who is himself likely to be voted into the Hall.

Bonds won the National League MVP twice in his six Pittsburgh seasons. He won his first in 1990 when he hit .301 with 33 homers and stole 52 bases, and won a Gold Glove.  He won his second in 1993 with similar numbers.  He wound up winning 7 MVPs--no other player has won more than 3.  That's just the beginning of his records, which no other player in any "era" in which he played could equal.  Barry Bonds belongs in the baseball Hall of Fame, or nobody does.

Don't Trade The Cutch

It's not just because I'd be crushed if the San Francisco Giants traded Andrew McCutchen before I had a chance to see him play in a Giants uniform.  I'm against trading him in August (as the depressing consensus seems to say the Giants might like to) for non-personal reasons as well.

Cutch has just been moved to leadoff, and he seems to be thriving there.  He brings stability to a lineup that needs it, with all the injuries this year, and all the experiments based on performance.  Though they seem to lack the starting pitching to go far (see below), the Giants could make some noise the rest of this season with this lineup. San Francisco is hungry for that.

The other reason goes to credibility.  If the Giants want to acquire star players, they have to treat them well when they move out there.  Cutch has been uprooted from his hometown of Pittsburgh.  Based on his past performance and status, he deserves at least a full season in San Francisco.  But also, not giving him at least that long might make the Giants' organization look bad to prospective stars.  The Giants apparently missed out on free agents because they thought the team wasn't ready to contend.  If it also gives the impression of treating players like meat, stars are going to be even more leery of coming to the Bay.

The Giants return home after their first winning road trip since June.  The last part of the trip was notable for two players the Giants traded for this year with high and so far unfulfilled hopes.  Andrew McCutchen had a five hit game, including a homer, though unfortunately in a lost cause.  But he hit and got on base in other games as well.  Evan Longoria hit two home runs, including a solo shot that won the key game of the trip, the final game in Arizona that meant a split in that series and a 4-2 trip.  So maybe they've turned a corner.

The young players continue to perform well, and the combination should make for some good baseball and exciting games at home.  But their season is likely to founder on what once was their strongest feature: starting pitching.  They had three veteran starters at the beginning of the season, and lost all three to injury.  Now one of them--Cueto--is out for the year, and the other probably is.  Madison Bumgarner is still a great pitcher, but a contender needs more than one veteran star starter.

The Giants have several good young starters, but as the games in Arizona suggested, they haven't yet developed quite enough to carry a team that doesn't score many runs.  Still, there is a sudden youth movement on the Giants, which combined with the established stars, the younger veterans (like Kelby) and the new veterans (Cutch and Longoria) could make for unpredictable brilliance in any given game.

The Bad Luck Giants

The San Francisco Giants run of bad luck continues in terms of injuries.  Their second best starter Johnny Cueto, out for most of the season, now faces the likelihood of surgery that will end his season and threatens his career.  Hardly a game goes by that doesn't see a Giants player heading for the DL, the latest being Pablo Sandoval.

Another aspect of luck that was once with the Giants and has since disappeared was the luck of the trade.  In their glory years, nearly every trade the Giants made paid off, some of them--like obtaining Hunter Pence--big time.  But in recent years their high profile trades have largely been busts.  That was once again dramatically demonstrated on the field Monday in San Diego.

The Giants had a 3-0 lead thanks to one hit--a homer by utility fielder Chase d'Arnaud.  But they couldn't add on and the Padres chipped away until it was 3-2 going into the eighth.  Manager Bruce Bochy chose Mark Melancon to pitch the bottom of the eighth.  When the Giants traded for him, Melancon was a premier closer.  Injuries and ineffectiveness have made him a liability in close games, so it was completely predictable that the Padres would hit him and score.  The only unusual event was that they only tied the game.

In the top of the tenth, the Giants had runners on first and third with two out, thanks to some actual good luck within the game, on bounces and bad throws.  The Padres are not a good team.  Up came Evan Longoria, another high profile trade for a veteran All-Star.  As Dave Fleming said on the radio, they traded for him for just these moments.  He popped up on the first pitch.

Fortunately, however, the Giants gritted it out to win in 12 innings on a home run by one of their pleasant surprises, Gorkys Hernandez, and bravura pitching by Will Smith.

When they traded for Andrew McCutchen, they hoped he would give them the combination of power, average, speed on the basepaths and brilliant fielding that ignites a team.  He's given them at least something positive in all those departments except power, so he's been moved to lead-off batter in the hopes that he can ignite the team from there.

It could be a long rest of the season.  With their upgrade trade, the Dodgers are clear favorites in the division, and the Giants had another hitting drought after the break to fall pretty much out of contention.  But they can still play exciting baseball. They have found a number of really good young players, and they have core stars like Crawford, Posey and Bumgarner, and undervalued players like Kelby Tomlinson who keeps bouncing back from the minors to play key roles, as he did Monday.  It seems they've finally found a closer in Will Smith, who struck out four Padres in a row to win (and save) the 12 inning game on Monday.

Meanwhile there are a few hours before the trading deadline. McCutchen is being talked about in the media as a possible trade.  That would be depressing--I haven't even had the chance to see him in a Giants uniform. In any case,  I almost cringe at the idea of a trade now.  Not for the Bad Luck Giants.

Update: The trading deadline came and went without the Giants making a move.  In a quick turnaround day game, their rookie phenom Rodriegez lost a deserved win when Longoria failed to come home on a passed ball to the backstop.  He sort of made up for it with a triple in the 10th, as did Brian Crawford who singled him in, after striking out looking at three pitches with the bases loaded in the 8th.  So the Giants barely survived two games in extra innings against the weakest team in the division.

Meanwhile, the Dodgers got more depth via trade, and the surging Pirates went all in to try to challenge for a playoff spot this year.

Will They Be Giants?

Someone somewhere posted a comparison between where the San Francisco Giants are this year at the All Star break, and where they were in 2010, the year of their first of even-year championships this decade.  This year and 2010 are pretty much identical: in fourth place but not very many games back, with a barely winning record.

It's true that the Giants' division is not especially strong this year, but do the Giants have a chance?  Probably not.  They've got a few very promising young pitchers, but not what they had in 2010.  They don't have a dominant closer, as they did then.
But what the Giants this year really don't have that they had then is luck.  The Giants were very good in their championship years, but they were also lucky. Fairly nondescript players came through with heroic moments, especially in the post-season.  There were players like Cody Ross who had never been that good before, and he never was again.

Now there is a momentum to luck, a belief, when the team gets on another level. It's something that feeds on itself, the fans become part of it, and it's one of those wonders that makes baseball fun.  But it also comes and goes.

Luck translates most obviously into staying healthy.  And that's partly where the Giants' run of bad luck began at the All Star break two seasons ago, and continues.  This year they survived the first half with their three top starters and their star closer injured.  Now two of the starters are back and working themselves into form.  But the third is injured again, and the closer is not what he was. As for position players, as soon as one comes back, another gets injured.  Now it's Joe Panik.

So could the Giants make a run for the division?  Sure, it's possible--with luck.  Getting deep into the postseason would require even more luck: team of destiny kind of luck, the kind they had in 2010.  At least a couple of position players and several pitchers who are having good years will need to be phenomenal in the second half, and those having so-so years will need to be great, or at least have great moments in key games.  The talent is there.  It could happen.  With luck.  A lot of luck.

Warriors Winning Summer, Giants Poised

 The above excerpt about says it all concerning the Warriors and Boogie Cousins joining the team.  The consensus of smart people seems to be that Cousins could well be a tremendous addition late in the season and in the playoffs, depending on how well he comes back from a serious injury.  It certainly ups the excitement level for Golden State fans.

This happened a day after LeBron announced he was signing a four year deal with the Lakers--a coup for the great Magic Johnson that will add to the western conference sizzle next year.

Meanwhile the Warriors Summer League team looks pretty good, too.  So far they are indeed winning the summer.

In baseball, until they arrived in Colorado, the Giants were on a roll, winning 9 out of 10, including a sweep of the Diamondbacks.  They did so with some young arms they discovered because their starters were injured.  All three injured starters will be back by next week.  Will Smith is dominating the bullpen, though a right handed closer is still elusive.  With Strickland's stupid injury and Melancon's slow slow return to effectiveness, it's the team's biggest vulnerability.

But if things fall into place, the Giants are in fine position to make their move.  The second half of the season could be really interesting.

NBA Nonsense

It's blathering time for NBA talkers and writers.  How smart do you have to be to know that LeBron James is not staying in Cleveland, and is not going to Golden State?  Nor are the Warriors going to be trading any of their major players for anybody--who thinks like this?  Beyond that, it's a long summer.  Most likely for LeBron, though: the Lakers.

Sweep

The Golden State Warriors swept the Finals for their second championship in a row, and third in four years.

A few particularly good pieces on game 4, on Steph Curry, and FiveThirtyEight on the Warriors culture contributing to a dynasty, similar in some ways to the ESPN piece before the finals started.

Kevin Durant got his second Finals MVP in a row, though many observers thought it should have gone to Steph Curry.  But today's sportswriting is enthralled with stats, and KD's were arguably better.  That doesn't make him the MVP.  It was Steph.

Everybody's got their narrative, especially now that LeBron James revealed that he played the last 3 games with a hand he injured in frustration after the first game. But here's mine.

In these playoffs LeBron has often spent the first game feeling out the opposition, but in the first game of the Finals he came out firing.  The Dubs were good defensively but not quite keyed in to LeBron and the Cleveland players they'd never seen before.  At the end of the game, GS unquestionably got the breaks to keep the game tied in regulation, and they blew Cleveland away in overtime.

Another factor in game 1 was how to compensate for Andre Igoudala still being out.  Coach Kerr solved it by starting JaVale McGee, who jumpstarted the Warriors energy, especially in the second game.  The Dubs upped their defense, especially on James, and Curry caught fire late, pumping in a Finals record 9 three pointers.

Iggy came back for the third game but the Warriors had some difficulty integrating him again early, and his rust showed.  The Cavs decided to trap Curry, and Steph had an off night shooting as well.  But it was Iggy's presence on defense that freed KD from responsibility for James, and the combination of that with the Cavs obsession with Steph gave KD openings on the offense.  He responded with a magic touch on short, mid-range and especially long range shots, and carried the offense.

Statistically Steph had a bad shooting game but he made key buckets--especially his only three in the fourth quarter, which gave the momentum back to the Warriors.

Game 4 saw the Warriors take defensive intensity to a new level, while the Cavs sagged.  Numerous commentators saw the Cavs give in, but the Cavs weren't that good on defense the entire series.  It was their lack of defensive skills and defensive energy vs. Golden State, and the Warriors tremendous defense that made for the sweep.

At least one commentator criticized the Warriors bench before the Finals started, but even though starters always play more minutes in the Finals, the Warrior bench contributed mightily.  It was a team effort that won the championship, again.  Congratulations to the Golden State Warriors, 2017-18 NBA Champions!

After All That It's..Warriors v. Cavs

The seventh game of the western conference finals was as schizophrenic as the first six, but this time--and perhaps earlier-- it was likely due to the attrition of fatigue.  The Rockets set a record for 3 point futility--they missed 27 in a row.  It's still amazing to me that teams shoot as many as 27 threes.  As in game 6, they were energetic and sharp in the first half and fell apart in the second.  The Warriors had their monster third quarter, and kept the pressure on in the fourth.

The key to the Rockets taking this game--though nobody would ever say it--was to get at least one of the key Warriors in foul trouble early.  The likely candidates (because of their defensive responsibilities) were Green and Thompson.  They succeeded with Thompson, who was guarding Harden.  They limited him to 31 minutes and 19 points.  But a lot of those points--especially 3s--came at big moments in the game.

However they didn't succeed otherwise: KD, Steph Curry and Green all played exactly 44 minutes.  Green was a defensive beast, and chipped in 10 points.  Steph went off in the third, finished with a loud 27.  Kevin Durant redeemed himself with a quiet but lethal 34.

James Harden took a ton of shots, missed three quarters of a ton and ended up with 34, not many of them in the second half.  Chris Paul missed his second game in a row with the hamstring injury he suffered at the end of game 5.  Andre Iguodala was also out again for the Warriors.

By purist standards, it's amazing that either team won.  Golden State started with what their coach called "the worst quarter I've ever seen this team play" and Houston had a historically cold shooting night.  Which is why it was reasonably close at 101-92.

But credit the Warriors: it's the first game 7 they've ever won on the road, and their defense kept the mighty Rockets offense below 100 points most of the series.

So the Warriors meet the Cavs, beginning on Thursday at Golden State.  It should not be a close series, but this Warrior's team has become unpredictable.  They could lose the first game on sheer soreness and exhaustion, although LeBron is likely fatigued as well.

Anyway, it's the series that nobody wanted to see again: the pre-season favorites that as late as last week, didn't look like they would be meeting again, the fourth consecutive time for the championship.  I'm willing to bet that no game in the finals will eclipse the ratings for the game played tonight in Houston.  But it's LeBron and Steph and KD, so game on.

Remains of the Conference Finals

Update: After game 6, the Warriors titanic second half demonstrates which is the better team.  The question for game 7 Monday is will the better team show up.

Two games in a row in which the Warriors lost by 3 and 4 points, and didn't score 100 in either game.  One game can be nothing but itself.  But two games in a row starts to look like a pattern.  It starts to look like the Rockets have found something that works.

The Warriors must win their next two games to make the finals.  It is their test of character as a team, and it is specifically a test of Kevin Durant.

LeBron James has taken Cleveland to a seventh game in the East.  If he succeeds in carrying the Cavs to the Finals and Durant does not contribute to winning the West, the debate over who is the best player in the league is over.

The finals could be nothing like what everyone expected.  How weird if neither Golden State nor Cleveland is in them.  How much weirder still if Cleveland is, but the Warriors are not.

Going Into (and Out of) Game 5

The Western Conference finals enter the usually crucial fifth game, which the Houston Rockets made crucial again by winning the fourth game, topping the Warriors by 3 points at Golden State.

By doing so, the Rockets made it a series, and could take control of it with a game 5 win at home.  Because of home court and the short duration between games 3, 4 and 5, Houston will be the favorite.

The won't win, though.  If game 4 was a test of James Harden's legacy, game 5 is a test of the Warriors, and specifically Kevin Durant.  Durant had chances to nail down the win in game 4 but rushed his shots and failed to play Warrior team basketball.

The team that wins game 5 has two games to win their fourth, with both teams having a home game remaining.  They both won a game on the road.  By winning the first game, the Warriors still have an advantage in the game to game adjustments, going into game 5.

They should have Iguodala back, a crucial player against this Houston lineup.  The first three games were blowouts.  In game 4, the two teams alternated dominating quarters: the Warriors won the first and third, the Rockets won the second and fourth.  Game 5 may finally be the game that is close from start to finish.  Or not. These two teams are unusual.

The Rockets are hungry.  They know that the winner of this series is a prohibitive favorite to win the championship.  But the Warriors are champions, and more than in any game in the past two playoffs, they must prove it in game 5.

The Warriors will win game 5 on the road, and game 6 at home to wrap up the series.

There is not much to say about the Eastern conference, except that with both teams winning their home games, the advantage still lies with Boston.  The likely remaining question is whether they win it in 6 or 7.

Going Into Game 4

The Golden State Warriors won game 3 at home by the historic margin of 41 points, and set a new NBA record for consecutive wins at home in the playoffs.  Best of all for the home team, Steph Curry had a monster third quarter, hitting 7 of 7, including four 3s.  He became the game's high scorer with 35.

As one commentator observed, when Steph gets hot at the Oracle Arena, for fans it's like a religious experience.  It envelopes that building in wonder and joy.

But as the Warriors know, this is half of what they must do.  Houston must win game 4 to have any reasonable chance in the series, and the Warriors must win it to stay in control of the series.

The anomaly of the series so far is that there hasn't yet been a game in which both teams play at a high level.  We haven't yet seen that game that comes down to the last minutes.  If we are going to see one, it's probably going to be game 4.

James Harden's likely MVP won't be worth much to his reputation unless he can lead his team to a victory in game 4.  Chris Paul must be hearing the talk that he doesn't look right on the floor.  Can he counter that talk, as Steph Curry did?

 But the Warriors at home know this is their best shot at avoiding the uncertainty of a game 7 in Houston.  It's usually game 5 that is the most significant, after game 1.  But in this series, it's game 4.  The situation suggests it will be a brutally physical game, and the final score will be close.

The fly in the ointment for the Dubs is whether Andre Iguodala is healthy enough to perform well in game 4.  On Monday he was listed as doubtful because of a bruised knee.  However, X-rays came back clean, so it will all depend on how sore his knee is on Tuesday morning.

Game 4 is at 6 pm at Oracle.

In the East, Cleveland won their home games and the series is tied at 2-2.  So it's still a series.  It was all LeBron in game 4, so it seems the series is up to him. Boston doesn't have to win anywhere but in Boston.  Cleveland has to take one on the road--even if it's game 7.

In baseball, Brandon Belt is on a home run tear.  He's hit 5 homers in the past seven games, including a three run shot that provided the winning margin on Sunday for the San Francisco Giants.  Brandon Crawford is also having a terrific month at the plate.  After winning streaks, losing streaks and splits, the Giants head out on an 8 game homestand at .500, and in the hunt.