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2015 NBA Finals (Game 6): Strength in Numbers


The exact words printed on the T-shirts of the Warriors’ players and fans sitting in Oracle Arena. Indeed, they had the strength in numbers. After a virtually perfect season for the Warriors, they finally nailed the NBA title after 40 years. A fantastic season that will be hard to emulate in the future. They finished off the regular season with a 67-15 record, their best record in franchise history.

They also had some luck on their side. The Warriors didn’t suffer any major injuries. The front office took a gamble by hiring a rookie coach. And also, playing with teams in the playoffs that are facing injuries issues. Although it shall be mentioned that, they earned that luck because of the strength of the bench they had. GM Bob Myers made significant additions to the bench before the start of the season, bringing in Shaun Livingston and Leonard Barbosa, both who made significant contributions during this playoffs run.

For basketball neutrals, perhaps everybody could have a different conversation if the Cavs have Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love in this finals. But nonetheless, everybody can unanimously agree that the best team since the first day of the regular season won the title.

Steve Kerr sticked with the same small ball lineup that won the last two games. Andre Iguodala was once again consistent in his performance, and again contributing on both ends of the floor. Andrew Bogut didn’t even have a single minute in this final game with the success the Warriors gained with this lineup. In this game, Festus Ezeli was huge coming of the bench and he showed his great physical ability to pounce on second chance opportunities to give this team the offensive push during transition. Throughout the entire series, the Warriors with a much deeper team are able to making changes to their roster to win games. Much credit have to be given to Kerr and his coaching team for able to realize the changes they need to make.

For the Cavs, David Blatt decides to give more playing time for Timothy Mozgov after reducing his minutes greatly in Game 5. He had 17 points in 33 minutes and that must make Blatt wondered, did he make a mistake not playing Mozgov more in the previous game. Despite not knowing for his defense, Mozgov was another player other than James who played a great series and is expected to stay with the Cavs after a successful season since being traded from Denver. JR Smith heroics late in the game must have Cavs wondered why didn’t he play like that in the earlier stretch of the game or the previous two losing games. LeBron James did put up a spectacular effort to save his team, but ultimately it was not enough to save the Cavs from losing.

This was the celebration that most of the Warriors fans have been waiting for a very long time. The success of this team all started from scratch. Four of the five players (Curry, Thomspon, Barnes, Green) who started for the Warriors are draft picks of the Warriors. Despite having a rookie coach, they got a guy who has the experience of winning an NBA title before. At the end of the day, the best team this season ultimately won the title, and fully deserved to be called champion.

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