Golden State Warriors Head Coach Steve Kerr’s team won game five decisively tonight, and he’s excited that his team can play even better going into game six.
The game started out in the Golden State Warriors favor as Cleveland had four turnovers in the first four minutes and LeBron’s first shot was an air ball. On top of that, the next time Cleveland came down the court LeBron passed the ball out-of-bounds for a turnover. Sign of things to come, although LeBron pulled out a stellar performance by the end of the game.
More from Cats in the Pros
- From Arizona Wildcat to New York Yankee, Austin Wells gets called up
- Rondae Hollis-Jefferson’s FIBA World Cup performance is reminiscent of Kobe Bryant’s
- Rawle Alkins a star in the Drew League this summer
- Former Wildcat Scooby Wright wins Second USFL Title
- The Edmonton Elks have re-signed former Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate
The game was pretty close, hard fouls back and forth, clock stoppage for possible flagrant fouls, one was called correctly and the other foul was on Iggy in mid-air when he went up for a lay-up and was tackled. It was a tackle. The announcers disagreed among themselves, I am not sure when grabbing someone by wrapping both arms around them as they jump into the air is just a normal foul, but that is how it was called by the NBA referees.
There were 12 lead changes in the first half alone.
A third of the way into the third quarter, Iggy had accumulated 7 rebounds, 7 assists, 3 steals and 5 points. The game was very tight at this point Cleveland 57, Golden State 56. Travelling calls, foul calls, it was a whirlwind type of game and GSW’s Draymond Green (GSW) contributed a lot to the physicality of the game.
There’s a lot of talk lately of Green being the next Ron Artest/Metta World Peace. Metta showed up at the end of Game 4, after he had joined in some post-game analysis with the broadcasters, sat in the back of the room during the post-game presser. Green saw him sitting there and called him out pointing at him and said “I see you..Living Legend!”
METTA WORLD PEACE PODIUM GAME (note: he's in the audience) pic.twitter.com/4zGkzaNTgb
— Evans Clinchy (@evansclinchy) June 12, 2015
Coach Kerr was asked if it was tough to keep his team focused being one win away from a championship, “The closeout game is always the hardest game of the series, particularly in the finals. What I’m excited about is, I think we can play a lot better, that’s what I told our team I think we can do much better…we can be a little more organized offensively, all in all I loved the defensive intensity. We made a few mistakes here and there but our guys are competing like crazy and that’s what it takes.”
Jun 14, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors head coach Steve Kerr reacts during the second quarter against the Cleveland Cavaliers in game five of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Bob Donnan-USA TODAY Sports
Leandro Barbosa (@TheBlurBarbosa) also stepped up scoring 13 points off the bench, Coach Kerr acknowledged the effort, “LB was fantastic, he gives us 13 points in 17 minutes when we were in foul trouble…he’s had an excellent series for us.”
On why the closeout game seems so challenging, “Just is. There’s a lot of emotion, you are right there on the cusp of something but you still have to get the job done, and in this case we’ll be on the road against a great team, it’s going to be hard, it’s just the way it is.”
With 3:45 left in the game, Iggy shot a three-pointer and then on the next play made an offensive rebound and a put back for two and a foul. He walked back to his bench “Shaq style” with confidence. Igoudala’s final stats were as follows: 14 points, 8 rebounds, 7 assists, and 3 steals.
On the flip side, the player he was guarding, Cavs LeBron James, earned a triple double scoring 40 points and making 14 mostly defensive rebounds and 11 assists. Tristan Thompson scored a double-double: 19 points and 10 rebounds.
There was not much more Coach David Blatt could ask from his star. Matthew Dellavedova (not Delladova) wasn’t his normal self and couldn’t guard Curry the way Cavs fans were used to prompting tweets a plenty and this vine captured as “When you know you just broke Delly’s spirit,” care of SBNation.com:
“The mental challenge is just you’re not going to give up no matter what. You might feel some fatigue, you know I think there were some moments where I think he got the better of me,” explained Andre Igoudala.
June 14, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Andre Iguodala (9) celebrates a basket scored by forward Harrison Barnes (40) against the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first half in game five of the NBA Finals. at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
The regular season MVP Steph Curry came through with flying colors in Game 5. Curry scored 37 points, including 7 three-pointers (7-13), 7 rebounds, 4 assists, and 2 steals. The MVP has his mojo back and it couldn’t have come at a better time than at that point and as they say, “better late than never!”
Coach Kerr felt it too, “I thought from the very beginning when they went small..I thought this is Steph’s night, you know this is going to be a big one for him because he has all that room, and he took over the game down the stretch and was fantastic.”
Cavs Coach David Blatt agreed, “Sometimes you gotta take your hat off to the other guy, he made some tremendous shots.”
When Steph got his hot hand and added to the 10 point deficit with Igoudala and went on an 11-2 run with five minutes left, that was basically all she wrote and Golden State went on to win Game 5.
These NBA Finals games have been so exciting that Jimmy Kimmel commented on the NBA finals getting the highest ratings ever for the finals series on ABC, “They are saying that the NBA may get picked up for another season.”
I wish! And I wish the next season started in two weeks so the NBA season and cheering on former Arizona Wildcats would not end so soon! But the NBA draft has to come first, and Zona Zealots has their own mock draft in the works by Mark Barerra, so stay tuned.
Beardown Coach Kerr!
Next: Andre Igoudala is the President of the Arizona Triple Double