The end of the series, season and maybe his second stint in Cleveland, are near.
The Golden State Warriors have made his eighth straight NBA Finals – and their seasonal rivalry with the Cavaliers – very one-sided.
Still weary and wrestling with emotions after losing Game 3 on Wednesday night, when Kevin Durant scored 43 points and shot the Warriors within one win of their third title in four years, James pointed out Thursday what has become terrifyingly obvious.
The Warriors are at another level. And may be for a while.
”Obviously, from a talent perspective, if you’re looking at Golden State from their top five best players to our top five players, you would say they’re stacked better than us. Let’s just speak truth,” James said before rattling off Golden State’s embarrassment of riches.
”Kevin Durant,” he said. ”You’ve got two guys with MVPs on their team. And then you’ve got a guy in Klay (Thompson) who could easily be on a team and carry a team, scored 40 in a quarter before. And then you have Draymond (Green), who is arguably one of the best defenders and minds we have in our game. So you have that crew.
”Then you add on a Finals MVP coming off the bench (Andre Iguodala), a No. 1 pick in (Shawn) Livingston and an All-Star in David West and whatever the case may be. So they have a lot of talent.”
Too much, it seems [url=http://www.authenticsclevelandbrowns.com/cheap-antonio-callaway-jersey]Antonio Callaway Color Rush Jersey[/url] , for these Cavs.
James wasn’t making excuses for Cleveland’s postseason pickle because if not for a reversed official’s call or J.R. Smith’s brain-lock in the closing seconds of regulation in Game 1 or Durant’s brilliance in Game 3, the Cavs could be leading the series.
The three-time champion, though, was being open and honest about the Cavs’ chances to become the first team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in the playoffs.
To this point, 131 have tried, and 131 have failed.
”We’ve been in a position where we could win two out of these three games,” said James, who had 33 points and his 10th Finals triple-double in Game 3. ”So what do we have to do? Do we have to make more shots? Is it we have to have our minds into it a little bit more? Is it if there is a ball on the ground we can’t reach for it but you’ve got to dive for it?”
Those were today’s relevant questions. Tomorrow, they’ll be different ones if the Warriors, who have dealt with adversity all season, sweep the Cavs.
James is headed toward free agency and then where: Los Angeles? Philadelphia? Houston?
Or will he decide it’s too painful to part again with Cleveland, his basketball home for 11 seasons and just up the highway from his actual home in Akron?
The 33-year-old plans to consider everything once the season ends, but he offered some clues about what he’ll consider before making his next move, a decision that will dwarf any other NBA news in July. James also laid out a potential blueprint for the Cavs to follow if they want to keep him.
Bottom line: James needs better [url=http://www.coloradoavalancheteamshop.com/authentic-martin-kaut-jersey]Martin Kaut Blackhawks Jersey[/url] , smarter teammates.
No player in the league understands the current climate better than James, who formed a super-team in Miami with Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh and won two NBA titles before returning to Cleveland and joining forces with All-Stars Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving. The Cavs’ reign lasted only one year, destroyed by Durant’s shocking departure from Oklahoma City for the 73-win Warriors, a team he couldn’t beat but was glad to join.
James said his decision to bolt from the Cavs the first time was simple.
”I knew that my talent level here in Cleveland couldn’t succeed getting past a Boston, getting past the San Antonios of the league or whatever the case may be,” he said.
But beyond the talent disparity, James said the key to winning a championship is ”you’ve got to be very cerebral too.”
James then explained what it takes to be the last team standing, and in the process seemed to take a swipe at unnamed current and former teammates.
”So now everyone is trying to figure that out,” he said. ”How do you put together a group of talent but also a group of minds to be able to compete with Golden State, to be able to compete for a championship? That’s what GMs and presidents and certain players, it’s not every player. Every player does not want to – sad to say – but every player doesn’t want to compete for a championship and be in a position where every possession is pressure.”
Months of weight will lifted off him once the Warriors, who haven’t lost four straight games since 2013, are crowned again.
This series has been a painful reminder to James that the great teams have more than one king.
”When you make mistakes they make you pay,” he said [url=http://www.cardinalscheapshops.com/cheap-authentic-mason-cole-jersey]Cheap Mason Cole Jersey[/url] , ”because they’re already more talented than you are but they also have the minds behind it, too, and they also have the championship DNA.”
—
Perhaps there will come a time when Carson Wentz wants to talk about having to watch the Philadelphia Eagles win their first Super Bowl.
For the man expected to be the next franchise quarterback for the Eagles, it wasn’t going to be the moments after Nick Foles led a 41-33 win over Tom Brady and the New England Patriots on Sunday night.
Wentz said he just wanted to celebrate with the Super Bowl MVP and the rest of his teammates, which he did. He shared quiet conversation in the locker room with owner Jeffrey Lurie before tight end Brent Celek grabbed him by the shoulders and said, ”Brothers for life.”
A few minutes later, Wentz, Foles and Nate Sudfeld, the backup since Wentz’s season-ending knee injury in Week 14, huddled near their lockers and bolted out a door, headed to an area off-limits to reporters.
Wentz didn’t flat-out say no when asked if he wanted to talk, and got a little testy when a reporter tried to find out what ”soon” meant. The No. 2 overall pick in the 2016 draft smiled a lot, too, as he wandered the locker room.
”You just know it’s tough when you talk to him sometimes [url=http://www.authenticsnewyorkgiants.com/cheap-will-hernandez-jersey]Will Hernandez Color Rush Jersey[/url] ,” receiver Torrey Smith said. ”It would be tough for me. He would have been the MVP of the league if he didn’t get hurt. You know that’s tough.”
Wentz, who walked gingerly and didn’t step into throws while making tosses alongside Foles during warmups, tore two ligaments in his left knee in a win over the Los Angeles Rams in December.
Foles and the Philadelphia offense were up and down through three regular-season games and the playoff opener, a 15-10 win over Atlanta.
But in his final two postseason games, Foles threw for 725 yards and six touchdowns, three in each game. He even caught a scoring pass in the Super Bowl.
After the Eagles fell behind for the first time in the fourth quarter against the Patriots, Foles guided 14-play, 75-yard drive to what ended up being the winning score – an 11-yard touchdown pass to tight end Zach Ertz.
When Brady’s desperation pass hit the ground in the end zone on the final play, Wentz stormed the field alongside everyone else. And that sideline had some other key players in street clothes – two-time All-Pro left tackle Jason Peters and speedy running back Darren Sproles.
Oh, and Wentz held the Lombardi Trophy over his head during the celebration.
”When he went down, the foundation had been laid so strong that we weren’t usually swayed by anything,” Ertz said. ”We lost so many guys through this journey. Carson just gave us confidence every time we stepped on the field at the beginning of the season.”
Coach Doug Pederson lauded Wentz for staying engaged with his teammates after the injury. He was leading the NFL with 33 touchdown passes when he got hurt and finished just one behind league leader Russell Wilson of Seattle.
”He was in there in the mornings studying the tape with the quarterbacks like he always does,” Pederson said. ”And then he’d come to practice and just watch. Any advice that he had for Nick he would give it. If he felt like it wasn’t necessary, he wouldn’t give it. Just a great resource for Nick.”
Wentz says he plans to be ready for the regular season in September. If not [url=http://www.thelionsfootballauthentic.com/da_shawn-hand-jersey-authentic]Youth Da'Shawn Hand Jersey[/url] , Foles is under contract for another season, and the Eagles could get offers from teams looking for a starter after what the sixth-year pro did in the playoffs.
”I’m not going to say it’s bittersweet,” Smith said. ”But you know as a competitor you want to be on the field. I know he’s genuinely happy for Foles and this team. And I know more so than anything this is motivation for him to come back stronger than ever and to help lead this team back to this position.”
From time to time during the offseason, the Eagles will also get the question some just can’t resist asking after a backup becomes a Super Bowl MVP. Who’s the starter?
”Man, here you go,” receiver Alshon Jeffery said. ”Shut you off, man. You know who is throwing the ball. Carson, of course.”
As far as talking, though, Wentz deferred to Foles on this night.
—
.
You have performed a great job on this article. It's very precise and highly qualitative. You've managed to make it readable and easy to read. You have some real writing talent. Thank you so much.
dubai exposition universelle 2020