The odds are longer than a Stephen Curry 3-pointer Mark Scheifele Jersey , Kevin Durant’s wingspan or Draymond Green’s catalog of technical fouls.
LeBron James and the Cavaliers are being given little – or no – chance of winning their fourth straight NBA Finals matchup against the Golden State Warriors, who have been installed by Las Vegas bookmakers as the heaviest favorites in the past 16 years.
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The Warriors are 12-point favorites to win Thursday’s Game 1, the largest spread in a Finals game since 1991, according to ESPN Stats & Information.
Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue isn’t blinking.
”We’re all focused on winning a championship,” Lue said Tuesday before the team flew to California. ”We played our best basketball going into the playoffs. We’ve gotten better and better throughout the course of the playoffs. Our main focus and our main objective is to win a championship, so we can’t worry about what the outside guys are saying and who’s being picked. We know what we have here and what we’re trying to do.”
Cavs vs. Warriors, Part IV: an expected conclusion to an unpredictable season.
Lue said All-Star forward Kevin Love remains in concussion protocol and his status for the series opener is in question. Love sat out Cleveland’s Game 7 win at Boston on Sunday after suffering a head injury when he and Celtics rookie forward Jayson Tatum accidentally banged heads during the opening minutes of Game 6.
Love was replaced in the starting lineup by veteran Jeff Green, who stepped up and scored 19 points as the Cavs completed their comeback after trailing 2-0 and 3-2 in the series.
Love is expected back for the Finals, and Lue needs his experience against the Warriors, who like the Cavs rallied to win the Western Conference finals by taking Game 7 on the road.
There was a moment when it looked as if both Cleveland and Golden State could miss the Finals.
It disappeared quickly,
”They’ve been tested. We’ve been tested,” Lue said. ”They’ve been to Game 7s. We’ve been to Game 7s. We’ve won championships and they’ve won championships, so they understand what it takes and they knew what it took.”
Since the playoffs opened, Cleveland has embraced the ”Whatever It Takes” mantra that began as a catchy organizational slogan and morphed into a way of survival.
The Cavs have twice been pushed to seven games, overcome injuries and gotten much-needed contributions to ease the burden on James from role players Green, Jordan Clarkson and Larry Nance Jr.
However Youth Matt Duchene Jersey , in this series when every possession will be magnified, Lue will count on four players who have been around since the Cavs first met the Warriors in the 2015 Finals.
And because they won a championship in 2016 together, the core four of James, Love, J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson share something special.
”Just having these guys here who have been through it, been through the tough times, been through the great times as well, this is a bond that can’t be broken,” Lue said. ”Just reminds me a lot of guys I played with back in the day when you see Horace Grant, Robert Horry, Derek Fisher, just something about winning a championship with those guys that you will never forget, and it’s a bond that can’t be broken.”
While Love has been solid, Smith and Thompson haven’t always come through this season for Cleveland.
One of the streakiest shooters in the league, Smith has had prolonged slumps. Thompson, who missed time with a severe calf injury Authentic Melvin Gordon Jersey , wasn’t a factor until Lue started him in Game 7 of the Indiana series.
Lue never lost faith in either player. It’s a trust that can’t be measured.
”I’m always going to stick behind my guys,” Lue said. ”Even when they’re struggling, I just have confidence and a belief that when we need those guys, and we call on those guys, they’ll be ready and they’ll produce. You’ve seen that throughout the course of the playoffs this year and you’ve seen it the last three years, that those guys are up for the challenge. They rise to the occasion. And just because a guy is not playing well, you can’t give up on a guy.
”You gotta give those guys a chance, especially when you’ve been there before with them and you know who they are.”
Unlike the past three Finals, Lue won’t have Kyrie Irving, traded to Boston last summer.
The All-Star point guard was Cleveland’s not-so-secret weapon, the one the Cavs turned to in order to spell James and keep the Warriors off-balance.
”He allowed us to go one on one against the mismatches and can’t nobody stop him one on one,” Lue said. ”We’re gonna miss that, but we’re just going to have to play a different style of basketball without him being here.”
Now that’s a safe bet.
—
TAMPA, Fla. — The Washington Capitals know they have a lot of work to do.
The Tampa Bay Lightning know their work is far from done.
Both teams expect to be at their best on Monday for Game 6 of the Eastern Conference finals at Capital One Arena with Tampa Bay holding a 3-2 series advantage and the chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Final.
The Capitals, a franchise haunted by the failures of postseasons past, are staring down another one heading in to their first elimination of this playoffs.
After finally pushing past the Pittsburgh Penguins and advancing past the second round for the first time in 20 years — and the first time in the Alex Ovechkin era — Washington kept rolling right on in to the conference finals Rasmus Ristolainen Jersey , winning the first two games on the road.
But since grabbing that 2-0 series lead, the Capitals have dropped the past three games and are once again facing questions about seeing a big series lead dissipate into disappointment.
In the conference era, which dates back to 1974-75, only two teams in 41 occasions have won the first two games of a conference final or league semifinal and failed to win the series: the Montreal Canadiens in 1984 and Boston Bruins in 1991.
“It’s OK,” Washington captain Alex Ovechkin said. “We’re going to play better in Game 6 and we have (to) bounce back and come here and play a Game 7 and that’s it.”
The Capitals are leaning on some of the adversity they have faced this season, including being down 0-2 themselves in the opening round after dropping consecutive home games to open the series against Columbus.
“We kind of had our backs against the wall a couple times this year in this playoffs. We can draw from those experiences,” defenseman John Carlson said. “Just got to go out there and play hockey. That’s what we do. Just all about upstairs and what you can control. I think if you stay in the moment like we have, we got a pretty good chance of winning.
“I think these guys are a very capable group that is very capable of winning the next game. That’s all we’re worried about.”
History is not on Washington’s side, however.
When a series is tied 2-2 in a best-of-seven format, the team which won Game 5 has an all-time series record of 215-55, a 79.6 winning percentage.
But the Lightning are well aware that a 3-2 series lead means the next victory is going to be the hardest to earn.
Twice in the previous three years Tampa Bay has been in this same position in the conference finals. In 2015, they held a 3-2 lead against the New York Rangers heading back home but lost Game 6 before winning in seven games. In 2016, the Lightning were up 3-2 on the Pittsburgh Penguins in the conference finals and lost Game 6 at home and eventually the series in seven games.
Now, they are back in the same situation in 2018, but instead are heading on the road with the chance to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals for the third time in franchise history.
“We have a lot of unfinished business,” Lightning forward Ryan Callahan said. “This isn’t even close to being over. This last game’s definitely the hardest Nikita Kucherov Jersey , against a very, very good Washington team and to go in their building and try to close them out it’s going to be tough.”
Tampa Bay has been a strong road team in these playoffs, posting a 5-1 record away from home with four consecutive road victories. The Lightning have also never lost a playoff game in Washington in three all-time postseason meetings, which also includes 2003 and 2011, with a 7-0 record.
Yet, all that matters is what Tampa Bay can put forth on Monday.
“We’re going to have to match their urgency,” Lightning head coach Jon Cooper said. “The closeout games, potential closeout games, they just seem to bring out the best in everybody. For us, we’ve had some success when we’ve gotten the lead. When you do that, you put a little pressure on the other team. Something we’ll try and focus on (Monday) night.”
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06.10.2018 07:37
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