Game 3

Caution to any of the people who may read this: I may or may not rag on LeBron frequently during this.
Not because I don't think he's good, but because HE NEVER SEEMS TO BE CALLED FOR OBVIOUS FOULS. The calls in game three were ridiculous. I sat there watching the game with my family (minus my Bron-Bron loving little brother) and my older brother and I were appalled by the amount of no calls there was for the Warriors, but I guess I can now say I know how the Cleveland fan base felt after Game 2 when Iggy hacked LeBron all game. Still, how is LeBron diving and practically tackling Steph not called late in the game? How is Draymond killed every time he drives in the lane and puts up a shot? If places were switched and LeBron drove in the lane as much as Draymond did in Game 3 without a foul being called, my money is on the following things happening:

1. LeBron yells at ref
2. LeBron doesn't play defense because he is still yelling at the ref
3. LeBron calls Silver and the next day said ref is without a job

I'm not sure someone talks to the refs more than LeBron. Besides Rasheed Wallace who racked up like 900 techs with the Pistons. I'm sure the stat is close to the real amount. Check this link and see if I was right. Okay so 317 over his career is kinda close to 900. My bad.

Despite the refs falling asleep when the Cavaliers did anything wrong the Warriors were still in this game, surprisingly so due to Yoda Curry not doing anything the first three quarters. Good thing Curry only was Jedi Mind Tricking everyone and nearly brought his team back from a 20-point deficit. Who was Curry's running mate in said comeback? Not really Klay. Definitely not Draymond. It was David Lee! The white guy who played at University of Florida and with Al Horford and Joakim Noah most notably. The same David Lee that I fouled late in games of 2K basketball with my roommate down at State because I knew my roommate couldn't make the free throws with him (most likely because the 2k14 version of his free throw release was legitimately terrible, at least compared to the release I saw in The Finals last night). Point to be made here is that David Lee was scoring, passing, rebounding, and playing defense (I think, I don't have any distinct recollection of astounding defensive play from Lee, but I'm sure it occurred) in a very large, very surprising comeback in Game 3 of The Finals. Surprising because

1. I don't know if anyone predicted the Warriors to be down 20 going into the 4th quarter
2. David Lee was part of the comeback

I mean I kinda forgot about David Lee all season, and I'm sure many of you did too. After all, Draymond stole so much spotlight from the team, and David Lee didn't really play much, so that might have played a factor. Which raises another question: WHY HAS DAVID LEE NOT BEEN PLAYING LOTS MORE MINUTES THAN HE HAS???? David Lee is a guy who has impressive career stats (he averages 14.7PPG and 9.5RPG on his career) if you ask me, that's pretty good for a guy selected at the end of the first round, and is only 6'9" (smaller for a big man). Instead they have been playing Maurice Speights who does this:

Notice at the end of the video how he almost body slams Matt Dellavedova (defintely had to google the spelling for that). This lead to an interesting coversation between my older brother, Dillon, and I:

Me: Wow. Iggy gave it to fatass who botched a dunk.
Dillon: Yeah, He sucks.
Me: Iggy? are you- HOLY COW WE ALMOST HAD A DELLY PANCAKE MESS ON THE COURT!
Dillon: Imagine the injury report for the Cavs if that were to happen. Kevin Love: separated shoulder. Kyrie Irving: broken knee. Delly: pancake.
Me(imitating news anchor): And tonight at 6, we have the story of they scraped up Matt Dellavedova off the floor in Cleveland, and the promotion IHOP is now going to hire the poor Matt Dellavedova for.

Anyways, WHY HAVE THEY BEEN PLAYING SPEIGHTS OVER LEE?? It just does not make sense to me. Yes, Speights can give you "consistent" offense, and is a big body to deal with on the court, but come on. I can go through all the reasons in the world why Lee should have been playing Speghts' minutes all year and all post season, yet the only one you need to know is SPEIGHTS ALMOST CRUSHED SOMEONE. Kidding, the best reason is that just TWO years ago Lee was an All-Star and an All-NBA third team member. What has Speights done so far? He's not nearly as proven as David Lee, and I'm not sure Steve Kerr could make a good case for Speights having more mobility. I don't know what more I need to say about this. Play David Lee.

Did anyone else see the Kevin Durant's commercial commercial for Sonic during Game 2? Might have been the highlight of the game for me. Yoda Curry was off, the Cavs offense is awful to watch because it only involves LeBron posting up. I even thought about being responsible and going to sleep and turning the game off so I wasn't dead tired at work come Wednesday. Then the Durant commercial came on. This was better than any Superbowl commercial for the last x-amount of years. My Grandpa couldn't stop laughing about it. I couldn't stop laughing about it. My older brother has even started to quote the commercial from time to time, and I actually can't hold back a laugh. I've taken the liberty to include this commercial right in this post! You're welcome! Watch it and I'll talk to you in a second.

Funny, right? I'm glad that Kevin Durant is a jolly rancher. I just want to know if he ever shot the free-throw.

Honestly, who expected the Cavaliers to do this to the Warriors after losing Kyrie for the series, summer, and whatever else? Either the Cavaliers team is vastly underrated, and Delly is going to be MVP next season, or LeBron is just THAT good. Whichever one it is I'm excited for it. My money is on LeBron stepping up his game, because he is THAT good. After losing his starting point guard he's averaged 9.5 assists over the next two games. Pretty good. He has attempted 30 free-throws since Kyrie went down. Pretty good. His defense has been solid too. I'm not sure the "emergence" of Delly really has so much to do with how the Cavs are doing in the finals compared to how LeBron is leading his team.

For the Warriors, I'm hoping Steve Kerr sent out an SOS to Draymond, Barnes and Curry. They've been missing so far (save for the Steph in the 4th quarter of Game 3) and the Warriors need them badly. Barnes didn't score in Game 3. That was a loser effort, and he apparently falls apart when he has a bad game so this can not mean good things for him. Start Iggy. Klay Thompson has played solid basketball, but I don't think he can churn out another superhuman quarter, they just don't happen often. Draymond needs to shoot the 3 with some confidence. He's shooting 12.5% (1-8) from deep in the finals. If this keeps up I would rather have him and Bogut switch roles. Watch this video and try and tell me that you don't have confidence Bogut could play like this consistently

Okay, that was far fetched, but you never know.

So, things to look forward to in Game 4 tonight.

• David Lee hopefully playing tonight more than he has been the whole playoffs
• Stephen Curry finally starting to have a whole-game impact
• Hopefully that Durant commercial again
• Dellavedova hustling his ass off (Have to commend him for it. His effort is grade-A)
• Guillermo still trying to get LeBron to talk to him

• LeBron will most likely post a triple-double again (His stats this series are beyond impressive)
• One of these games Klay or Steph will go CRAZY and drop 20 in a quarter. I'm feeling it and I'm hoping its tonight.
• Maybe Green will snap out of his funk too
• Did I already say that Durant commercial? Funny how Durant isn't even in the Finals and he still stole the show, well, at least the stole the attention of me and my family.
• Hopefully Speights doesn't play

Warriors in 6. DubNation. I still think Steph is Yoda.

- The Occasional Bird