CLEVELAND — The clock is close to striking midnight for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
Who would’ve ever predicted a team led by LeBron James and two other superstars would be rendered the Cinderella story in the NBA Finals?
“Not one, not two, not three, not four…” LeBron infamously said about how many championships he’d win when he arrived in Miami back in 2010.
Actually, King James, Steph Curry is now the one likely saying those very words privately — and they’re about to come true.
For the second straight season, the Golden State Warriors have taken a blowtorch to the Cavaliers, leaving the rest of the NBA frozen in envy. The Warriors are a blazing inferno and a league full of firefighters — James, Durant, Westbrook — haven’t been able to put out the flames. They’ve conquered the NBA with their shooting, with their impossible-to-mimic small-ball and with their unbreakable determination.
You had to have seen it coming in Friday’s Game 4, the avalanche that defines this budding Warriors dynasty. Andre Iguodala corralled a rebound, started a fast break and launched a one-handed laser to a streaking Klay Thompson. The shooting guard found Curry out of the corner of his eye, whizzed a pass toward the baseline and the MVP splashed home a three, putting the Warriors up 72-69 in the third quarter. Check. Mate. The game was over then and there.
“I mean, sooner or later it’s going to happen,” Steve Kerr said. “With guys like that, you can’t keep them down forever.”
After that Curry bucket, hope began seeping out of Quicken Loans Arena. You could hear the hearts breaking in Cleveland. The Warriors have become more hated than the Pittsburgh Steelers and Baltimore Ravens in this forlorn Midwest town.
What’s become an indisputable fact over the course of the last two seasons, is that LeBron’s athleticism is no longer the scariest thing in basketball. That title belongs to Curry’s three-point shot. After three straight shaky games — where Draymond Green said his teammate was being fueled by slander in the media — Curry’s rhythmic grace emphatically returned, to the tune of 38 points and seven three-pointers. You could visibly see the pep in his step, you could see Cleveland’s body language start to sag. You could see Curry rising from the theoretical ashes.
When LeBron returned home to Cleveland in the summer of 2014, he had no clue he’d run into a player and team revolutionizing the sport. Steph Curry’s about to have the same amount of rings as LeBron James. Let that sink in for a moment. After a first round loss to the Clippers in seven games, Steph Curry was not even on LeBron’s radar two years ago.
Now?
“He made us pay every time we made a mistake,” James said at the podium on Friday.
This is the problem for James and why the Warriors can start booking another parade for June 2017: 3 > 2. Three is greater than two. It’s mathematics — nobody can keep up with Golden State’s pace from behind the arc. They hit an NBA Finals record 17 triples and did it feel like anything extraordinary? Nope. It felt normal. They’ve created new standards for excellence in basketball. If LeBron wants to topple the Warriors and seize a championship for Cleveland, he should spend every waking moment in the gym this summer shooting threes. Adapt or die. The Cavs were 6/25 from downtown. It’s actually incredible the game was as close as it was, a testament to Kyrie Irving’s 34 points.
If the Warriors have taught us one thing, though, it’s that they rarely lose a close game. Every nail biter besides a Game 3 first round loss to Houston — where Curry was sidelined with an ankle injury — has swung the Warriors’ way. If you let Golden State hang around, like Cleveland did in Game 4, they’ll kill you in your sleep.
On the surface this series was in doubt the last couple of days. Curry seemed stuck in his own head, phased by how Cleveland was defending his favorite shooting spots on the court, and quite possibly phased by the gravity of this dream season slipping away into a slugfest of a series.
But in reality, with the help of his teammates, Curry continues to shatter every narrative that’s ever dared to doubt his career. He’s too skinny, right? He’s just a gadget shooter, right? Well, he’s too injury-prone to thrive, right? You can’t win a playoff series with him as your best player, right? His MVP season was a fluke, right? LeBron’s finally got him pinned down right where he wants him…right?
Wrong.
“I mean, it’s business as usual,” Curry said, “you know, we answered the bell.”
If LeBron wants to take down the Warriors, he has no other choice than to shuffle new superstars into Cleveland. Irving is fun to watch, but the 31-year-old James doesn’t have precious years to wait for him to fully develop his game. Here’s a hint: make sure the new stars can consistently drain three-pointers AND play defense at the same time. Those guys are hard to find, by the way. Whoever is taking orders from LeBron next June, it may not matter.
The Warriors are ruthless in their pursuit of championships and barring anything drastic, many more successful trips to the NBA Finals are on the way.