NBA Finals – Basketball Elite

The Fearless NBA Finals Preview

The time is now upon us! The big time matchup is on the horizon between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors. This is the matchup which seemed to be pretty much inevitable all season. All NBA fans worldwide will get to see a rematch of the 2015 NBA Finals which the Golden State Warriors won 4 games to 2. However, the outcome could be a lot different his time for a few reasons. Stephen Curry won his back to back MVP award this season but he sprained his MCL at the beginning of this year’s playoff run. He has been playing very well as of late. He scored 36 points during Golden State’s game 7 series clinching victory over the Oklahoma City Thunder. There have been some questions whether he is at 100% or not. The injury he sustained can be a little tricky and flare up but Steph will fight through whatever pain comes because this is all stakes on the line. This is the NBA Finals. To battle against such physical pain, products such as CBD Oil UK can be utilized.As an athlete you apply greater stress to your body, leading to pain and inflammation greater than what your endo-cannabinoid system can handle. Browse around here to find delta 8 near me that will be very helpful to handle these kind of situations easily. As suggested by the experts, adding exogenous CBD may help this overloaded system get your neurotransmitters back under control and help athletes maintain homeostasis, look at the Exhale Wellness delta 9 gummies.

The Cleveland Cavaliers are looking for redemption this NBA Finals run. They lost last season 4 games to 2 and actually had a 2 games to 1 series lead with a chance to go up 3 games to 1 on their home floor. They could not get the job done however and went on to lose 3 games straight and lose the series. Kyrie Irving was lost for the rest of that NBA Finals when he suffered a fractured knee cap on a freak collision with Warriors guard, Klay Thompson. Kevin Love did not play since the first round of the playoffs when he was lost for the rest of the playoff run because of a shoulder injury he sustained due to a seemingly malicious take down by Celtics forward/center Kelly Olynyk. This year both Irving and Love are healthy and the Cavaliers’ big three of James, Love, and Irving are ready to roll. The Cavaliers are actually a deeper team than they were last year with veteran additions of Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson, and Mo Williams. A guy like Mo Williams hasn’t played much in a few months but could be called on for big buckets off the bench if he is needed. Along with other key guys like JR Smith, Matthew Dellavedova and Tristan Thompson and the Cavaliers look like a much deeper and confident team than they were last year. They will be taking their 12-2 playoff record so far into this series and will be looking to seal the deal. We will see if they can do it.

The Golden State Warriors are looking to repeat as NBA Champions and will be looking to be the first team to do some since the 2012 and 2013 Miami Heat. The Warriors are led by of course the current back to back NBA Most Valuable Player, Stephen Curry. Even though Curry is the guy who gets most of the attention this team is very deep and has great players top to bottom. Klay Thompson shoots lights out and put on a classic performance in game 6 of the Western Conference Finals. Draymond Green is a guy that does it all for Warriors. Points, rebounds and assists this guy is close to a triple double on a nightly basis. If these three can play big time they can win the series. They will also need big plays from their supporting cast as well like Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes and Andrew Bogut.

This series has all the makings of being an instant classic. These two teams are evenly matched with big time star power on both sides. This is the matchup the entire basketball world has been waiting for and is sure to live up to the high expectations everyone has for it. Be sure to tune into game 1 of the NBA Finals on ABC at 9pm Eastern Time!

(image via gazettenet.com)

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Every Single Harrison Barnes Dunk From This Season

You do have to wonder what happened to all of the people who claimed Harrison Barnes was a bust in college.

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Why It’s So Easy To Hate Lebron

By Marcus Shockley

It’s an understatement that Lebron James has become the most hated man in the NBA. While most reporters and fans seem to have turned on Lebron following last summer’s egotistical display of announcing his free agency destination on a 30 minute television special, the roots of the sudden vitriol for All Things James go back much farther than that. It’s really something that two of the most likable personalities in the NBA, Chris Bosh and Dwyane Wade, have become tied to the outpouring of hatred that has been aimed at Lebron.

The hatred for Lebron is actually rooted in the way that he’s been foisted on fans as the greatest player ever, long before he ever stepped on an NBA court, and continues to be called ‘King James’ regardless of how he plays. It’s backlash, not just for ‘The Decision’, but for his entire career of being rabidly hyped by the media and NBA, and possibly just as much, his sense of entitlement to that hype.

A perfect example, in a nutshell, was on a single play in Game 3 of the NBA Finals this year. Lebron, who is an excellent passing forward, sent a routine pass to Chris Bosh, who was on the move through the lane. Bosh caught the pass fluidly in mid-stride, went airborne, rose over and through two defenders, slamming down a two handed dunk in an effortless move. Bosh took an ordinary pass and showed what being bigger, faster and more agile can accomplish. The announcers, however, did not mention Bosh at all, instead gushing about how Lebron is ‘such a gifted passer’ and ‘sees everything’. That plays poorly with the fans, who already are weary of poor officiating and players’ manufacturing of fouls through acting. When Mark Jackson or Jeff Van Gundy tell us a lie about what we saw, it goes against our collective sense of what makes sports great. It also feels like we’re being told that Lebron is amazing despite the fact we just witnessed a different player, on that particular play, doing something amazing.

Therein lies the problem. Nobody needed to tell the fans that Micheal Jordan was great, or that Magic Johnson, Larry Bird or Dr. J were some of the best of all time. Fans already knew. What has rubbed fans wrong for so long about Lebron is the incessant praise he’s received his entire career, even when he hadn’t earned it. This is not to say Lebron is not a great player. He’s had many legitimate highlights in his career and there’s no reason to assume he can’t achieve greatness. It is to say, okay, if he’s great, shut up about it, and we’ll see it on our own in due time. We see when Lebron makes a great play. If Lebron has a career in which he leads a team to multiple titles, we’ll see that too. In other words, stop telling us it’s already happened.

If the NBA has such a hard time grasping why fans are rooting against Lebron, they should start by looking in the mirror.

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The Smallest Loser

By Marcus Shockley

When it comes to trying to predict the winners in any sport, it’s not just random numbers, despite what XKCD may claim. Trends in sports are often more reliable than trends in the stock market, and one of those trends is that perpetual runners-up rarely get over the hump.

That is to say, losers consistently lose. The Buffalo Bills are the most cited example of this, a team that was good enough to get to the Super Bowl four times but not good enough to win it. The reality is that the Bills were good enough to win a Super Bowl, but for whatever reason, most likely mental, they could not close the deal. This trend holds true in all sports, although not always as clear cut as the Bills, and of course there are exceptions.

That brings us to this year’s NBA Finals. The reality is that the Finals are loaded with runners-up. Lebron James, Dirk Nowitzki and Jason Kidd are all players who have tasted the championship only to see it slip away. Chris Bosh has never been on a real contender. In fact, the only real winner in the group is Dwyane Wade, who teamed up with Shaq for Miami’s lone title run. You could also add in Pat Riley and the Miami Heat organization if you are looking for some kind of added leverage.

So when predicting this NBA Finals, you have a team with a ton of experience and drive in the Mavericks, versus a team loaded with scoring talent. On paper, it gives Miami a slight edge simply because of Wade and Riley. This is a chance for one of the two groups of losers to land on the winning side, and only time will tell who is able to buck their own history.

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No Fluke: Why The Boston Celtics Won

The Boston Celtics were not supposed to be returning to the NBA Finals.

They were, according to the prevalent thinking among fans and media, supposed to be past their prime.

Old.

They were supposed to be beaten easily by Lebron and the Cleveland Cavaliers, or at least by the steamrolling juggernaut from the south, the Orlando Magic.

As the Celtics gathered at mid court to celebrate their return to the championship series, Boston fans cheered and NBA fans wondered: what happened?

How did the Celtics, supposedly a team of old, over the hill veterans who couldn’t win consistently in the regular season, suddenly look so amazingly good?

The answer lies in two parts, both equally important.

The first part is more due to the nature of the modern NBA, and how an experienced team approaches the regular season.

It’s no secret that the NBA season is far too long, with too many guaranteed contracts. As a result, teams like the Celtics, much like San Antonio has done in previous years, will pace themselves all season. The coaches rest their older players much more during the season, trading the meaningless wins and division leads for a spot in the playoffs, when it suddenly matters.

The NBA regular season is nearly a preseason, and the playoffs are the actual season. Players try a lot harder in the playoffs. Suddenly the lights come on, fans are tuned in and players want to win. And that’s why players like Lebron suddenly look less incredible and more like ‘just a pretty good player’. The NBA has loads of talented guys, and when playoff time arrives, the experienced players suddenly flip the switch and pour it on.

So the Celtics have experienced players in spades, mixed in with the energy of youth, with Rondo, Perkins and Big Baby Davis providing the athletic exuberance to fit in with the older players’ basketball smarts.

But the second big factor as to why the Celtics have been winning isn’t so obvious.

Sure, they’ve got Garnett back, but even though his intensity is great and he has a nasty mid range jumper, he’s not the raging athletic he once was. He’s not the only reason the Celtics are winning.

To find that out, you’ve got to look at a single, easily missed statistic.

For the last seventeen games in a row, no player has led in scoring back to back.

What does that mean?

It means the Celtics have a lot of weapons, and whoever you leave open is going to kill you. All they have to do is figure out where your team is weak.

This only works because the players understand it. With a lot of teams, the star player is going to get his shots no matter if he’s being triple teamed or not. And if a team has two star players but both are being held in check by the defense, the depth of most rosters is not enough to get points.

And so the Celtics have put aside egos, and ignored the silly rantings of the media. If Ray Allen torches an opponent one night, journalists will write about the lack of scoring from Paul Pierce or Garnett.

A few nights later, when Allen is being smothered and Pierce is lighting up the scoreboard, it’s Allen who the writers will blast.

But none of that matters, because winning is the thing, and for the Celtics, it’s working perfectly.