I’m a little surprised that there a new concept floating around in the NBA Finals coverage, and it’s the sudden discovery that the Cavs might be ahead 2 games to 1 because they have several players who’ve been to the Finals before, and one who has dominated it.
I’m surprised because I thought everyone covering the Finals read my feature on the 1975 NBA Finals, in which the Warriors pulled off a shocking upset of the Washington Bullets:
This is the last paragraph:
This is written on the day that the 2015 Finals are to start, so let me leave you with this:
The thing that is a little eerie for Warrior fans who remember this series is that the 2015 Finals have a similar narrative, except that the Warriors are the team that “can’t lose.” What’s disconcerting to Warrior fans with a sense of history is that while the 1975 W’s had one great player, just as the Cavs do today, there was nobody else on the team who had been to an NBA Final. Cleveland has several. Meanwhile, they were playing against a team in the Bullets which, while owning a gaudy regular season record, possessed only one player, Unseld, who had seen action in an NBA Finals series (1971 versus Kareem, Oscar, and the Milwaukee Bucks). The 2015 Warriors do resemble their 1975 ancestors in many ways, but in terms of where and who they are coming into the Finals, they more resemble the Bullets.
And that was before Kyrie Irving went out!
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I wanted to post this today, before Game 4, because suddenly it seems like people are waking up to the the realization that NBA Finals experience matters. The similarities between the 1975 series and the one we’re watching now are striking, with the exception being that the 1975 Bullets were unable to win Game 1. They lost 101-98, but had they won, they would have bought themselves some time to get things figured out. The series moved to the Bay Area for Games 2 and 3 that year because of an arena scheduling conflict, and had the Bullets held on to win Game 1 (they led by 16 in the third quarter), they would have had Games 4 and 5 at home to try to take control of the series. Instead, they returned home for Game 4 down 3-0, and while they led for large stretches of that game, they were unable to extend the series.
I am on the record as saying that I don’t agree that because both the first two games were close, the Warriors were “lucky not to be 0-2.” My reasoning was that they would have come out with more urgency and intensity in Game 2 had they lost Game 1. Having now seen them in Game 3, where they didn’t really seem to “get it,” I now wonder if that is what would have happened. I think it’s at least as likely that had they lost Game 1 they could have dropped Game 2 as well, and headed to Cleveland needing to win four out of five with only two games left at home.
As I wrote in my Game 3 story, I believe that a player is no longer an “NBA Finals Rookie” once he’s played a few games. The number of games it takes will vary for each player, of course, depending on his skill, experience and basketball IQ. I think it’s interesting that the Warrior who has unquestionably been the most comfortable has been Andre Iguodala, who, while never having played in the Finals before this year, has played 66 playoff games. I also think the fact that he played most of his career in the Eastern Conference has helped, as he’s more accustomed to the physical style of play that the Cavaliers employ. Lastly, Iguodala has matched up with LeBron James a number of times over the years, as his 76ers would play either the Cavs or the Heat four times a year.
I think it’s interesting that David Lee’s contribution to Game 3 was so positive. I have been saying all year that I thought Lee would have his moments, but he was obviously running out of time. I wonder if his five years with the Knicks prepared him for facing Cleveland in this series, and I wonder if in retrospect we all should have seen this success coming. The thing that has kept Lee on the bench most of this year is a lack of quickness on defense, but the pace of these games has been much to his liking.
In the past, it’s been said that the thing that hurts teams from the West in the Finals is a lack of a center, and Tim Duncan certainly is a great example of how a great low-post player can pile up championships. I wonder, though, as we see this series develop, if we might be discounting the possibility that Duncan’s Finals experience, and that of his teammates, is a bigger factor in their success than what offense the San Antonio Spurs chose to run.
