BEFORE the 2015 NBA Finals simply become part of the league’s incandescent 69-year history, here are some notes from the thrilling six-game series that saw the Golden State Warriors buck a 2-1 deficit before romping away with the Larry O’Brien trophy with a 4-2 decision over the injury-plagued Cleveland Cavaliers.
Television ratings from the 2015 Finals showed an average of 19.9 million viewers per game — up by 30 percent from a year ago. It was also the highest rating for an NBA Finals since 1998 or Michael Jordan’s sixth and final championship campaign with the Chicago Bulls.
Underrated swingman Andre Iguodala, a Warriors reserve from the start of the regular campaign till being elevated to the starting lineup in the fourth game of the Finals, earned the nod of the 11-member medial panel that picked for the Finals Most Valuable Player award with seven votes and to emerge as the first Finals MVP ever not to start in every championship-series contest.
Cavaliers cornerstone LeBron James, a four-time regular NBA MVP and a six-time Finals veteran with a pair of title rings, secured the other four votes.
Iguodala’s more illustrious teammate Stephen Curry, the Dubs’ leading scorer and the league’s reigning regular NBA MVP, was shut out from the Finals MVP balloting despite norming 26 points, 6.3 assists, 5.2 rebounds and 1.83 steals.
Iguodala snared the Finals MVP honors for his consistent performance during the entire six-game duel on both ends of the floor. In addition to making James work hard for his points with his suffocating defense, the 6-foot-6 Iguodala also averaged 16.3 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.0 assists and 1.33 steals a game while shooting .521 (37-for-71) from the field, including .400 (14-for-35) from the three-point area.
Note that Iguodala’s three-ball percentage was even higher than those of “Splash Brothers” Curry (.385, 25-of-65) and Klay Thompson (.300, 12-of-40, 15.8 ppg) and his triple total was two more than Thompson’s.
Another major force (or unsung hero) in Golden State’s first NBA title finish since 1975 was the energetic play of Draymond Green. In the series-clinching Game Six, Green, a natural 6-foot-7 forward who was transplanted into a center starting Game Four when rookie Warriors mentor Steve Kerr employed a quick-paced “small ball” scheme that turned around the series, came up with a triple-double with 16 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists (plus three steals) in 41 minutes.
Green’s second T-D of his three-year career marked only the seventh time in NBA Finals history that a player had registered a T-D in a series closeout victory. Others to turn in the trick were James (Miami, 2012, vs. Oklahoma City), San Antonio’s Tim Duncan 2003 vs. New Jersey), James Worthy (Los Angeles Lakers, 1988, vs. Detroit), Larry Bird (Boston, 1986, vs. Houston) and Earvin “Magic” Johnson on two occasions (LA Lakers, 1985, vs. Boston and 1982 vs. Philadelphia).
James proved he’s really the best player in the world with his astounding Finals numbers but he could not do it by his lonesome, going down with his second consecutive Finals defeat (a year ago with Miami vs. San Antonio) and third in five years.
Certainly, Cleveland overachieved during the Finals while playing without two other members of its Big Three. Power forward Kevin Love suffered a dislocated left shoulder during the first-round series closeout (Game Four) against Boston that necessitated surgery thereafter.
All-State playmaker Kyrie fractured his left kneecap in the Finals opener and was lost for the remainder of the series. To lead 2-1 in the Finals, despite a depleted cast, is in itself an accomplishment, having even won at the tough Oracle Arena in Oakland, California in Game Two to temporarily seize homecourt advantage in the series.
James normed 35.8 points, 13.3 boards, 8.8 assists and 1.33 steals in 45.8 minutes per outing. The 6-foot-8 do-everything forward’s total of 215 points, 80 rebounds and 53 assists all topped players from both teams. He is the first player ever to lead a Finals in points, rebounds and assists.
With the loss of Love and Irving, the Akron, Ohio-born James, who left the Miami Heat a year ago to rejoin his hometown Cavaliers, became a volume shooter during the Finals but was not as efficient as he was during the regular wars when he shot .488 from the field on just 18.5 attempts an outing.
While he chalked up three games with 40 points or more (44 in Game 1, 40 in Game 3 and 40 in Game 5) and had pair of triple-doubles (Games 2 and 5, the 30-year-old James averaged 32.7 field attempts and hit an ice-cold .398 from the field. He missed 20 or more attempts in the first, second, third and sixth games.
For the entire 2015 playoffs, James posted averages of 30.1 scores, 11.3 reebies and 8.5 dimes but shot only .417 on 27.2 field tries in 20 appearances for the 14-6 Cavaliers in their first trip to the championship round since 2007.
Both Golden State and Cleveland have several players on the line entering free agency on July 1. Green is a restricted free agent, meaning any other team can sign him to an offer sheet but the Warriors own the right of first refusal and can match the offer to retain his services.
Reserve Brazilian guard Leandro Barbosa is an unrestricted free agent-to-be, seldom-used Brandon Rush has a player opt-out clause and the champs from the Bay Area have a team option on substitute frontliner Marreese Speights.
James, Love, J.R. Smith and Mike Miller have the option to give up the final year of their respective deals with the Cavs (the announcement of their intentions must come before or on June 30) and become unrestricted free agents. Shawn Marion, James Jones and Kendrick Perkins are unrestricted free agents-to-be.
The Wine City squad also has a trio of restricted free agents in Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson (who averaged 10 points and 13 rebounds in the Finals and had a double-double in the last four games) and Matthew Dellavedova and the club must decide if it wants to pick up the option year on Russian center Timofey Mozgov’s contract.