The 2016 NBA season was magical. The playoffs didnt get off to a great start, but it got intersting quickly....lets break it down round by round.
1st Round
I'll start with the west....The Golden State Warriors were 73 and 9 in the regular season, the best mark in league history. They easily dispatched the Houston Rockets in 5 games....what was so remarckable is Steph curry didnt play for most of the games. Portland upset the L.A. Clippers in 6. I undertand tho, the clips had too many key injuries to win. OKC Thunder easily beat the Mavericks.....but at this point i wasn't too sold on OKC...The Spurs swept the Grizzlies. No surprise there.
In the East, the Cavaliers barely beat the Pistons in 4. I really knew the Pistons had no chance. Atlanta dispatched Boston in 6 rather moderately. I think injuries played a factor. Miami barely beat Charlotte, i think home advantage played a factor. Raptors barely beat the Pacers....it was very very close. Both of those serieses went 7.
2nd Round
GSW defeated Portland easily here. I was very disappointed but looking back i dont think the Clippers would have done much better. The Spurs and Thunder was a MONSTER series. Spurs blew out the Thunder in game 1...but THunder won the next game...adn lost the next, won the last 3! The Thunder were peaking at the right time.
Cleavland dispatched the Hawks just as easily as last year.....lol. Miami went toe to toe with Tornoto, but the Raptorts prevailed. Injuries again played a role....
Conference Finals
The Warriors lost the first game against the Thunder....but won the next one, just to get blown out in games 3 and 4. The series then went back to GSW and the Warriors escaped wtih a game 7 stellar win...i really think the Thunder didnt play as well as they did against the Spurs.....
The Cavs Raptors series was good. LBJ led his team to win games 5 and 6 after the series was tied 2-2. Raptors could not compete......
Finals
The finals were easily the best round. Goldenstate won the first 2 games easily. Everybody said the Cavs were done, i mean it looked like they couldnt compete. After that tho, LBJ and his men blew out GSW in game 3. THey lost game 4 though, and it looked like the Warriors would go on to win back to back and complete the magical season.
The king and his men had other plans. LBJ and Kyrie Irving both had 41 pts in game 5. Then came game 6....a very easy win for the Cavs. Then came game 7...it was a dogfight all the way through. late game heroics by Irving gave the Cavs a 3 point lead...and that was all she wrote.
Congrats to LBJ for getting one for the land......it wasn't easy. It looked like they couldnt beat the warriors but they had a game plan for the splash bros. and it worked.
Congrats to LBJ for getting one for the land......it wasn't easy. It looked like they couldnt beat the warriors but they had a game plan for the splash bros. and it worked.