Preview/Live Thread: The Finals Game 1
2015-06-04
Never before has eight days seemed like such an eternity. But in just four hours, we will finally witness an end to that excruciating wait with the tip-off Game 1 of The Finals. The storylines have been dissected, regurgitated and picked apart ad nauseam. Articles have been written. Pods have been cast. Analytics have been scrutinized. Debates have raged. And now, the games will, at long last, be played.
Can the best player on the planet overcome the best team? Exactly what percentage of Kyrie will be available? Can either the current MVP or the four time MVP be stopped? Who will Delly be accused of knee-capping next? Which “rookie” coach will pull off the unimaginable? Will TT or Draymond be the bigger man underneath? Which “Son of Akron” will bring home the hardware? All of these questions and more will finally be put to the test on the NBA’s two grandest stages.
There is nothing more to do today but to somehow make it through the end of the workday, then get home, to a friend’s house, or your favorite sports bar, get your Cavs gear on and get ready for the epic showdown that so many of us hoped for from the moment that LeBron made his decision to come home.
For me, between the late-night podcast, reading endless articles and tweets, watching tons of Cavs hype videos and recaps of how they got to this point, and debating the outcome of this series with so many of the Warrior bandwagon fans in my neck of the woods, I’ve barely slept in the last 24 hours. I’ve somehow managed to survive on Red Bull and adrenaline, as well as a continuous loop of some of my favorite musical anthems to get me pumped up for the impending Cavs foray into the Finals.
I’m sure everyone has their own particular music that gets their blood pumping for the wine and gold. Here’s my top five…
#5 (For the EDM crowd)
#4 (For the old-school hard rock crowd)
#3 (For the dub-step/hip-hop crowd)
#2 (For the Indie Anthem crowd)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5OmMPaLmxKg
#1 (For the Hans Zimmer superhero crowd)
And here it is used in my personal favorite LeBron Playoff Hype Video…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xOLID82bESs
Enjoy the listens… share your own… and GO CAVS!!!
Sweet. Tt a monster. Sit draymont and all the rebounds belong to us
They’re not going to sit him. They’ll let him foul out.
We are lucky Green missed that layup
For the first time all playoffs, I’m nervous.
Moz made the difference on Curry that time!
Green with 5th foul!
Those transition 3’s my gosh are killers and crowd pleasers.
Don’t know how LeBron is hitting these shots!
Keep this lineup until the end
Curry looks a bit sloppy with his passes. I hope it continues.
My heart is already beating so fast and we still got 5 minutes to go, damnn
They are making lebron a scorer and trying to keep him from distributing. It actually has helped them a lot…but it is starting to open up the court for lebron.
YESSSS , Kyrieeeee we needed that
KYRIE!!!!!!
No shoe three?
Lebron is doing his thing but the defense has to do better. They are getting high quality shots most of the time.
Bron with only 5 boards and 4 assists… but 37 points…
We are witnessing true greatness by Lebron today.
We’ve got to get some stops right now and extend the lead. Can’t waste great games by Lebron and Kyrie with a loss.
That’s right baby, that’s right
Can I point out the we have held the best offense in a long time in the NBA to 82 points through 3.5? This is a fantastic finals matchup.
And without love and Andy. I’m about to go all sunshine bear on the comments.
LeBron boringly brilliant. Postup manimal.
Keep doing it. Hopefully he will get them in foul trouble. It pass to the open wing.
love that line. He needs to be boringly brilliant for 6 more minutes and I’ll be good.
Feeling it in the paint. Once he passes to the wing the 3’s will be wide open.
Lebron WORKINGGGGGG in the Paint, thats what we need. and with the game face
I feel we’ve had more defensive breakdowns tonight than all 4 games of the ATL series combined.
GSW is by far the best team we played. Makes the breakdowns more obvious.
Yah i know. Was just an observation because as you said, it is very obvious.
Lebron with the tough game face!
TOUGH SHOT by LBJ!
Moz can’t switch like TT can…
Hit this ft, Kyrie
Let kyrie shoot the tech
Classic skyhook
I think mozzy is coming in next whistle
Speights killing us this game
Meanwhile… Curry and Thompson chilling on the bench
In the second half I find JR hasnt been very helpful on offense . Bench 28 for Warriors to Cavs 9 (JR)
Too many contested stepbacks
You know, for the playoffs, they should have 5-6 refs. Baseball adds more and the NBA makes enough money to afford it.
Has TT taken a rest yet?
He’s not going to get one unless he collapses.
Lets go back to our big lineup soon.
I hope so. Mozzy is a load and can get to the line. Or lobs for dunks.
I can’t take how close this is. They just keep missing opportunities to get some distance.
Kyrie is 1-6 on 3, 8-13 on everything else. If he can hit 1-2 more 3’s that would be great. Our defense hasnt been great to start the quarter. We needed to get a lead while Klay and Curry was sitting and couldnt do it, SMH
Wow this feels like 2007. Blatt needs to get on them about running an offense. Zero cuts…standing around…and it has led to jogging back on defense cuz we’re disengaged after ISO ball. It’s working for now but we could be ahead by a lot more cuz defensively we are doing well
Wow what didnt they see right there? If it was my hand instead of Lebrons it would be broken.
Ugly offense helping the Warriors.
Oy. How did they miss that hack
CAVS need a repeat of 1st quarter.
Missed call there.
Watch Speights… he holds TT EVERY time under the hoop…
Yeah I wondered tt was nowhere to be seen in that exchange.
Yep. He’s worse than green and bogut. Blatt needs to point it out to the refs
Kyrie is magic…
Let’s go CAVS!
Iggy making a difference…
Damn it! Damn it!
We need to extend the lead while the bench plays. And Barnes outplayed the whole Cavs right there
That will be difference in this series….. They are just too deep.
Two rebound fails lead to an Iggy three..
Tough shot.
Kyrie!
It’s Kyrie time.
LET’S GO CAVS!!!
Need to move the ball, GSW has focused their defense solely on Lebron.
Delly is giving them nothing, but LBJ making some weird plays. How about feeding JR with a spot up three?
Ok. It’s getting late guys. Bedtime for me. I’m confident Cavs are going to win . . . at the Oracle. GSW can’t afford to lose there.
Wanna see Mozzy in the early fourth.
Hope the bench can hold their own at start of 4Q with Lebron out. Didn’t go well in 2Q.
Kyrie needs to come in to run the offense when Bron is out, we need him and JR to score. Felt like I havent seen Mozgov in awhile
K we’ve given ourselves a chance here on the road
Usually I would say that’s all you can ask for, but I want the win. I think we need the win on the road.
Silly needs to spot up, but we need someone to get bron the ball in the post so he can pass to the spot up shooters. Hard to find reasons to keep delly on the court so far
Tough end to quarter, but I remain confident.
Glad you do. I haven’t seen cols so I look to you for faith. Myself I think I won’t sleep tonight independent of the outcome.
Aargh. But they’re even after 3.
That was vintage turnover LeBron.
Just embarrassing right there… twice Iggy finishing quarters with dunks…
Again, Iguodala with a dunk to end the quarter, this shit pisses me off
Need a score to close the quarter
Good foul by JFJ… Delly almost had it…
Touch call there.