Defense wins championships, and Game 1 was just an appetizer. With great defense, the Warriors rallied in the fourth, and suffocated LeBron and company in overtime.
The bad news? Kyrie Irving seems to have re-aggravated his injury right there in the last few minutes of overtime. How unlucky.
The bad news? Kyrie Irving seems to have re-aggravated his injury right there in the last few minutes of overtime. How unlucky.UPDATE: Fractured left knee cap :(
What does this mean for DTTF? If Irving sits out Game 2, here are some of those who may have a boost on PRA:
What does this mean for DTTF? If Irving sits out Game 2, here are some of those who may have a boost on PRA:
- LeBron James. He will most likely handle most of the point guard duties in the second half. When Irving was out in the Hawks series, James got PRAs of 50 and 68.
- Steph Curry. In Game 1, he was defended well by Irving whenever they got matched up. When guarded by any other Cav, Curry shot well above average. Lights out?
- Matthew Dellavedova. Game 2 might be the only chance Della gets the most minutes. He doubled his PRA when Irving was out back in the Hawks series. 21 PRA.
- Iman Shumpert. He was about +5 PRA in the two games missed by Irving last round. Without Irving, the Cavs bench has pressure to step up.
My tentative pick: LeBron James. Down 0-1, he knows they need this game. If they lose Game 2, Cavs Nation may have to wait for next year to end the drought. He may look to involve others on offence early on, but soon he'll have no choice but to take over.
Game 1 he scored 44. Game 2 he'll have his triple double.
Let's get it on!
Thanks to "hearing" that Kyle Irving wouldn't be 100% going into the Finals, I took JR Smith, got a lousy 13 (including a horrid TWO in the 2nd half and OT combined), while a player that "didn't feel very good" managed to get 36 PAR, 23 more than the invisible disgrace I got AND is now out for months, lost for those like me who didn't take him, joining Kevin Love as permanently gone for the 2015 DTTFs. Thanks to being fooled into the wrong player at the wrong time, this year's DTTFs is a TOTAL FAILURE!
ReplyDeleteSucks to lose Irving, but I knew the risks going in. Wanted to wait a game for him to get a feel for the NBA Finals and pick him in Game 2. Didn't expect it would happen so soon, but not surprised that he's out, again. This year hasn't been all that great for me, so I'm not going to lose sleep over missing out on Irving. I'll just make the best of my remaining picks and hopefully enjoy some fun with LeBron before bowing out and preparing myself for next year.
ReplyDeleteTonight is Tristan Thompson. No particular reason, just waiting on LeBron and waiting to see who is better between Dellavedova and Shumpert with Irving out. Hoping he can score a bit more than he did in Game 1 and keep up the excellent rebounding.
Curry can only score one way, Dellavedova and Shumpert have him on lock down, if not for Klay, no telling where the Warriors would be.
DeleteGolden State won Game #1 in OT to take a 1-0 lead in this series. Cleveland started well, then faded to allow Golden State to tie at the end of regulation. Once the game went to OT, Cleveland completely fizzled out, and the Warriors emerged victorious. The Cavs could still win tonight, and make this interesting, but as long as they don't lose any home games, they still are not out of it.
ReplyDeleteHowever their task of winning this series got a whole lot more difficult as Kyrie Irving (36 PRA) suffered a disastrous injury that will sideline him for the rest of the year. That is a devastating blow to Cleveland's chances of beating the Warriors, and an even more devastating blow for anyone that had not yet picked Kyrie Irving for DTTF. For those that rolled the dice on Irving in Game #1, Kudos to you. You gained a huge advantage over everyone else that did not pick him yet, both for overall and especially for the 4th Round prize. It's not like these teams have 36 PRA players just waiting to happen. Not getting to pick Kyrie Irving and his potential PRA score is a devastating hurdle to overcome for those that never got to play him, one that almost definitely will not be overcome. Congrats to those that picked Kyrie Irving on the right and now only day for the 4th Round. You are well on your way to taking home the 4th Round prize.
My pick of Andrew Bogut (14 PRA) was very disappointing, as he neither looked to score nor had a huge impact rebounding (only 7 boards). I figured he was at least good for double digit boards, even if he didn't score much. In his best games (all two of them) in the Playoffs, Bogut had 12-14 points to go with double digit rebounds vs. Houston resulting in 26 PRA and 25 PRA performances. In this game Bogut only put up 14 PRA, so that was a Net Loss of -12 vs. his best.
Best pick of the night: Obviously Kyrie Irving (36 PRA) who put up one of his better efforts of the playoffs (best was 38 PRA done 2x), and now can't be used by anyone again this year.
Other top picks: LeBron James (58 PRA), Klay Thompson (28 PRA), Timofey Mozgov (25 PRA), Andre Iguodala (20 PRA). Stephen Curry (38 PRA) was okay, but he is capable of far better, and anyone that picked him, I am sure is disappointed with that total.
Horrible picks: Iman Shumpert (8 PRA), Matthew Dellavedova (4 PRA) didn't really play much as expected. Although both of these picks will most likely do better in the days ahead with Kyrie Irving now lost for the year. JR Smith (13 PRA) and Andrew Bogut (14 PRA) were also disappointing.
Cleveland now gets another chance to steal a road game tonight. Without Kyrie Irving though that task seems monumental at this point. Still Cleveland can do themselves a world of good by not punting away any home games. Any home loss by them, will most likely cripple them, and end this series rather abruptly.
ReplyDeleteFor tonight I will pick Klay Thompson of the Warriors playing at home once again. In Game #1, Thompson proved he was healthy and very capable of still doing well putting up a very decent 28 PRA effort, which was only 3 less than his Playoff best 31 PRA. I would be ecstatic if Klay Thompson could put up another 30+ PRA effort again tonight when I pick him.
Irving out for the playoffs? That's too bad. You know, for him personally, for the Cavs chances in the series, for the whole city of Cleveland that awaits a championship since 1843, but of course, most of all, for all those unfortunate not to have picked him yet. They are the real losers in this. Don't let reality fool you ;)
ReplyDeleteMy prepicks for game 2 was Curry, James for game 3. That kind of makes sense, Curry wants to win game 2 against Irving-less Cavs, James has to win game 3 to avoid the unsurmountable 0-3 hole. I guess a lot of people will pick this way.
That's way I am going to take one for the team again. I screwed up this DTTF campaign anyway, so I might as well help you all out. So now it's LeBron in game 2, probably Steph in game 3. The thinking behind this switch: James will do even more than he did in game 1 (like that's even possible, but he will try, anyway), to get the split every road team wants out of the first two games of a series. Then, after the surprise win, the Warriors will try to instantly get back homecourt by winning game 3 in Cleveland, which hinges on Curry going off. That's my plan.
What might happen? The Cavs get kind of overwhelmed by the Wa4riors behind a 45-13-6 from Curry and James goes nuts in Cleveland for a 51-12-12. If that happens, then that is my gift to all of you.
If my plan works, that would be nice, too. But I won't hold my breath.
another OT. unbelievable
ReplyDeletesteal:
ReplyDeleteTimofey Mozgov 4% 17 11 0 28
winners:
LeBron James 14% 39 16 11 66
Klay Thompson 24% 34 5 2 41
loser:
Stephen Curry 21% 19 6 5 30
Got bron bron today. Kne w he step up considering down 1-0. Couldn't afford a 2-0 hole especially without irving. A total of 66 PRA second highest this postseason
ReplyDeleteIt's not everyday I get to feel great about a DTTFs pick and tonight was my all time best score with LeBron James putting up 66 PAR. I got a taste of it last round with 43 from Teague and I hoped to get 50+ from LBJ and it's even an understatement to say he did not disappoint and even got an(other) OT to boot which is something, I have begged for all playoffs long! Dann if I wasn't tricked out of Irving in G1 I'd be in serious contention for the R4 prize, however I still are aiming to raise my percentile as much as possible. I came into this game at just 68P and hope LBJ's 66 puts that at 80+ with Stephen Curry (who was subpar tonight) on deck for G3!
ReplyDeletewe are seeing greatness personified.. what lebron is doing right now is straight bonkers. no matter how much you hate him, you just can't deny it. taking this team with all the injuries to the finals and now winning one (and almost two) against the toughest home team... WOW.
ReplyDeletestill think the warriors pull this off, but man. everybody should realize that we're witnessing something special.