09-10-2018, 08:10 AM
Stephen Curry and coach Steve Kerr’s Golden State Warriors have repeatedly said they want to build something special for the long haul Authentic Logan Woodside Jersey , to compete for championships year after year.
LeBron James considers his familiar NBA Finals opponent among the best teams ever.
Where the Warriors stack up if they win a third championship in four years will make for a dynasty debate. And their domination doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, so if they keep winning Golden State will have its place in history.
”As a fan of the NBA, you could go down the list of the teams that won multiple years and just dominated the league for stretches of time,” Curry said.
The Warriors are trying to join Bill Russell’s Celtics, the Bulls led by Michael Jordan and the Lakers’ trio of title runs fueled by George Mikan in the 1950s, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the `80s, and Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant nearly 20 years ago as the only franchises in NBA history to capture three championships in four years.
The Warriors are halfway there, holding a 2-0 lead against the underdog Cavs as the series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3 on Wednesday.
”Listen, Golden State is one of the best teams I’ve ever played. It’s one of the best teams that’s ever been assembled,” said James, who is playing in his eighth straight NBA Finals and fourth in a row against Golden State.
Curry, sharp-shooting Klay Thompson, fiery Draymond Green and 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala make up an All-Star-studded squad trying to repeat after James thwarted that quest two years ago when the Cavs stopped the defending champs. Kevin Durant bolted from Oklahoma City to join the cast last season.
”You look at it, they’ve got four Hall of Famers on their team in Klay, Dray, Steph and KD. They’ve got a Finals MVP that comes off their bench,” James said in reference to Iguodala. ”… I don’t know where they will fall in my book, but they will have a nice chapter.”
Not everybody is ready to crown the Warriors as a dynasty, not just yet anyway. Not even if they win the title this year.
”I don’t like to go dynasty stuff, they’ve been the team of the decade Cheap Dorian O'Daniel Jersey ,” said Gary Payton, the longtime Seattle SuperSonics point guard who played 17 seasons through 2007. ”That’s what it is. They’ve been doing their thing. When we get into a dynasty is Michael Jordan and them winning six, that’s a dynasty. The Golden State Warriors (would have) won three out of four, that’s great.
”It’s coming to be a dynasty. If you win a couple more, then you’re talking about a dynasty. So three of them is in the right stage and the right movement to becoming a dynasty, yes.”
The defending champions are playing in a fourth straight finals chasing a repeat they couldn’t pull off in 2016 after capturing the franchise’s first title in 40 years during 2014-15 with Kerr as a rookie head coach.
TNT analyst and former player Charles Barkley wants nothing to do with dynasty talk regarding the Warriors.
”We don’t have any dynasties. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a dynasty,” Barkley said. ”The Bulls won six, the Spurs won five. We’ve had a lot of really good teams. I think the only dynasty is the Spurs. They’ve been great for 20 years. The Warriors are not going to win. Winning two in four years is not a dynasty.”
Golden State would love nothing more than to continue building momentum as the franchise approaches the opening of its new San Francisco arena, Chase Center , in summer 2019 if all remains on schedule. That leaves one last season at Oracle Arena.
B.J. Armstrong earned titles alongside Jordan with the Bulls from 1991-93. If the Warriors win another, they will join dynasty status in Armstrong’s mind.
”They’re right there,” Armstrong said. ”For them to have a sustained level of excellence like they’ve had, I don’t take that for granted and I think anyone who’s played or observed this game knows how difficult that is for one, let alone to be able to get here four times and have an opportunity to win three speaks for itself. …
”If they win this one, they’re right up there with all of the teams for a dynasty-type caliber situation up here in Golden State.”
Curry was around for all the losing: 26 wins his rookie season of 2009-10, 23 two years later then gradually building to more victories each season thereafter.
He is proud to be part of a transformation – one the two-time MVP hopes they contend for titles for years to come.
”What we’ve been able to do here … kind of taking a small step every year until 2015, winning our first championship, it is a sense of pride around that,” Curry said. ”Being the elder statesman here and seeing what has all gone into being on this stage every single year – when it comes to the guys that I get to suit up with every single night, from Bob Myers down to the coaching staff to the ownership – it’s just a transformation that I got to see firsthand and all the details that went into it.
”So at some point Breeland Speaks Jersey Elite , when this is all said and done, I hope to kind of just sit back and really truly appreciate, from start to finish, all that went into it. But there is an awareness of where we were to where we are. And I appreciate it.”
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The toughness that Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and the rest of the veterans brought to the Minnesota Timberwolves this season was on display from start to finish.
Finally, after a 14-year absence, the long-languishing franchise is back in the playoffs.
Fittingly, it took until the last game and then some to get there.
Butler scored 31 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 26 points and 14 rebounds, and the Timberwolves outlasted the Denver Nuggets 112-106 in overtime Wednesday night in the first final-day play-in game in the NBA in 21 years.
No team in the league had gone longer without a postseason appearance than the Timberwolves, who took Towns with the first overall pick in the 2015 draft and traded for Butler last summer to put themselves in position to return.
”I’ll probably fall asleep tonight and wake up in the middle of the night and start crying,” said Towns, who was 8 years old the last time the Wolves were in the playoffs. ”It’ll hit me, what happened.”
The Nuggets won six in a row to force this elimination game, including a 100-96 decision in Denver last week that was the last time the Wolves (47-35) played without Butler, and went 23-12 over their previous 35 contests.
Nikola Jokic locked in a classic big man battled with Towns, finishing with 35 points and 10 rebounds, but he missed six of his last eight shots after the third quarter as the valiant finish to this season fell just short. The Nuggets (46-36) haven’t made the playoffs in five years.
Now it’s the Timberwolves who are moving on to play, gulp, the NBA-best Houston Rockets.
”I feel like our effort was outstanding. Theirs was too Leonard Williams Jersey ,” said Will Barton, who had 24 points but shot just 3 for 12 after halftime. ”They just made the plays at the end. Give them credit.”
Barton’s 3-pointer beat the shot clock for Denver’s first lead, 104-103, since midway through the first quarter. After Gibson hounded Jokic to force an air-balled 3-point try, Jeff Teague swished a floater with 1:19 left in overtime to put the Wolves back in front for good.
Andrew Wiggins sank two foul shots with 15 seconds remaining to make it 110-106 and finish with 18 points, and the Wolves were finally on their way to a celebration more than a decade in the making. Butler, who has not held back from openly challenging Wiggins and the other junior members of the team to play with more tenacity, walked up to Wiggins before the free throws with some forceful encouragement.
”I was like, `Wiggs, I know you can do this,”’ Butler said. ”And he told me to move. He did. He’s like, `Move!’ I’m like, `OK, excuse me.’ And he stepped up and hit both of them. So, from now on, stay in my lane.”
The Wolves were ahead by as many as 10 points in the second quarter and took a 99-91 lead on Teague’s 3-pointer with 4:26 left in regulation, but just like with this whole regular season the Nuggets wouldn’t go away.
Jokic answered with a 3-pointer, and Butler missed both of his free throws. Back-to-back jumpers by Jamal Murray, the last one from 3-point range, tied it. Butler put the Wolves back in front with a 13-footer Phillip Gaines Jersey Elite , but he missed twice more from the floor in the final two minutes. Murray’s off-balance bank tied it at 101, so the Wolves needed Gibson’s defense to save them down the stretch.
He forced Jokic into the baseline for a forced layup that missed badly. Then Gibson stripped the ball from the 7-foot Serbian in the corner to give the Wolves the ball back with 1.6 seconds remaining in regulation. Jamal Crawford’s heave from just inside half court was on line, but it fell short.
”I just took one dribble,” Jokic said, ”and Taj made a really good defensive play.”
PLAY NOW, REST LATER
Gibson played through a sore neck that forced him out of the last game in the first quarter, finishing with eight points in 35 minutes. Butler logged 42 minutes after playing 23 minutes apiece in his previous two games.
”He told me after the shootaround that he’s from Brooklyn,” coach Tom Thibodeau said, ”and he said he’d be fine.”
DRAMATIC FINISH
The game marked only the third time since the NBA’s current 16-team format began in 1984 that two teams met on the last day of the regular season with the winner qualifying for the playoffs and the loser being eliminated. Washington beat Cleveland in 1997 and Denver beat Sacramento in 1995 to claim the final spots.
DIVISION DOMINANCE
With the loss, the Nuggets finished last in the Northwest Division, a mere three games out of first. This was the first time in 14 seasons since the NBA realigned into six divisions of five times apiece that the last-place team was less than 11 games behind the leader.
TIP-INS
Nuggets: Jokic posted his seventh 30-point game of the season, three of those in the last six games. … Wilson Chandler went scoreless in 48 minutes. … The Nuggets had 15 turnovers, turning into 24 points for the Wolves.
”You can’t go on the road and beat yourself in the most important game of the season,” coach Mike Malone said.
Timberwolves: Towns finished the season with 68 double-doubles, the most in the NBA. His streak of 246 consecutive games played, every contest of his career, is the longest current run in the league. … This was the 16th sellout crowd for the Wolves, their most since the 1991-92 season.
UP NEXT
The Wolves will start the first round in Houston, on either Saturday or Sunday.
—
Michael Porter Jersey
LeBron James considers his familiar NBA Finals opponent among the best teams ever.
Where the Warriors stack up if they win a third championship in four years will make for a dynasty debate. And their domination doesn’t appear to be ending anytime soon, so if they keep winning Golden State will have its place in history.
”As a fan of the NBA, you could go down the list of the teams that won multiple years and just dominated the league for stretches of time,” Curry said.
The Warriors are trying to join Bill Russell’s Celtics, the Bulls led by Michael Jordan and the Lakers’ trio of title runs fueled by George Mikan in the 1950s, Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in the `80s, and Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant nearly 20 years ago as the only franchises in NBA history to capture three championships in four years.
The Warriors are halfway there, holding a 2-0 lead against the underdog Cavs as the series shifts to Cleveland for Game 3 on Wednesday.
”Listen, Golden State is one of the best teams I’ve ever played. It’s one of the best teams that’s ever been assembled,” said James, who is playing in his eighth straight NBA Finals and fourth in a row against Golden State.
Curry, sharp-shooting Klay Thompson, fiery Draymond Green and 2015 Finals MVP Andre Iguodala make up an All-Star-studded squad trying to repeat after James thwarted that quest two years ago when the Cavs stopped the defending champs. Kevin Durant bolted from Oklahoma City to join the cast last season.
”You look at it, they’ve got four Hall of Famers on their team in Klay, Dray, Steph and KD. They’ve got a Finals MVP that comes off their bench,” James said in reference to Iguodala. ”… I don’t know where they will fall in my book, but they will have a nice chapter.”
Not everybody is ready to crown the Warriors as a dynasty, not just yet anyway. Not even if they win the title this year.
”I don’t like to go dynasty stuff, they’ve been the team of the decade Cheap Dorian O'Daniel Jersey ,” said Gary Payton, the longtime Seattle SuperSonics point guard who played 17 seasons through 2007. ”That’s what it is. They’ve been doing their thing. When we get into a dynasty is Michael Jordan and them winning six, that’s a dynasty. The Golden State Warriors (would have) won three out of four, that’s great.
”It’s coming to be a dynasty. If you win a couple more, then you’re talking about a dynasty. So three of them is in the right stage and the right movement to becoming a dynasty, yes.”
The defending champions are playing in a fourth straight finals chasing a repeat they couldn’t pull off in 2016 after capturing the franchise’s first title in 40 years during 2014-15 with Kerr as a rookie head coach.
TNT analyst and former player Charles Barkley wants nothing to do with dynasty talk regarding the Warriors.
”We don’t have any dynasties. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a dynasty,” Barkley said. ”The Bulls won six, the Spurs won five. We’ve had a lot of really good teams. I think the only dynasty is the Spurs. They’ve been great for 20 years. The Warriors are not going to win. Winning two in four years is not a dynasty.”
Golden State would love nothing more than to continue building momentum as the franchise approaches the opening of its new San Francisco arena, Chase Center , in summer 2019 if all remains on schedule. That leaves one last season at Oracle Arena.
B.J. Armstrong earned titles alongside Jordan with the Bulls from 1991-93. If the Warriors win another, they will join dynasty status in Armstrong’s mind.
”They’re right there,” Armstrong said. ”For them to have a sustained level of excellence like they’ve had, I don’t take that for granted and I think anyone who’s played or observed this game knows how difficult that is for one, let alone to be able to get here four times and have an opportunity to win three speaks for itself. …
”If they win this one, they’re right up there with all of the teams for a dynasty-type caliber situation up here in Golden State.”
Curry was around for all the losing: 26 wins his rookie season of 2009-10, 23 two years later then gradually building to more victories each season thereafter.
He is proud to be part of a transformation – one the two-time MVP hopes they contend for titles for years to come.
”What we’ve been able to do here … kind of taking a small step every year until 2015, winning our first championship, it is a sense of pride around that,” Curry said. ”Being the elder statesman here and seeing what has all gone into being on this stage every single year – when it comes to the guys that I get to suit up with every single night, from Bob Myers down to the coaching staff to the ownership – it’s just a transformation that I got to see firsthand and all the details that went into it.
”So at some point Breeland Speaks Jersey Elite , when this is all said and done, I hope to kind of just sit back and really truly appreciate, from start to finish, all that went into it. But there is an awareness of where we were to where we are. And I appreciate it.”
—
The toughness that Jimmy Butler, Taj Gibson and the rest of the veterans brought to the Minnesota Timberwolves this season was on display from start to finish.
Finally, after a 14-year absence, the long-languishing franchise is back in the playoffs.
Fittingly, it took until the last game and then some to get there.
Butler scored 31 points, Karl-Anthony Towns had 26 points and 14 rebounds, and the Timberwolves outlasted the Denver Nuggets 112-106 in overtime Wednesday night in the first final-day play-in game in the NBA in 21 years.
No team in the league had gone longer without a postseason appearance than the Timberwolves, who took Towns with the first overall pick in the 2015 draft and traded for Butler last summer to put themselves in position to return.
”I’ll probably fall asleep tonight and wake up in the middle of the night and start crying,” said Towns, who was 8 years old the last time the Wolves were in the playoffs. ”It’ll hit me, what happened.”
The Nuggets won six in a row to force this elimination game, including a 100-96 decision in Denver last week that was the last time the Wolves (47-35) played without Butler, and went 23-12 over their previous 35 contests.
Nikola Jokic locked in a classic big man battled with Towns, finishing with 35 points and 10 rebounds, but he missed six of his last eight shots after the third quarter as the valiant finish to this season fell just short. The Nuggets (46-36) haven’t made the playoffs in five years.
Now it’s the Timberwolves who are moving on to play, gulp, the NBA-best Houston Rockets.
”I feel like our effort was outstanding. Theirs was too Leonard Williams Jersey ,” said Will Barton, who had 24 points but shot just 3 for 12 after halftime. ”They just made the plays at the end. Give them credit.”
Barton’s 3-pointer beat the shot clock for Denver’s first lead, 104-103, since midway through the first quarter. After Gibson hounded Jokic to force an air-balled 3-point try, Jeff Teague swished a floater with 1:19 left in overtime to put the Wolves back in front for good.
Andrew Wiggins sank two foul shots with 15 seconds remaining to make it 110-106 and finish with 18 points, and the Wolves were finally on their way to a celebration more than a decade in the making. Butler, who has not held back from openly challenging Wiggins and the other junior members of the team to play with more tenacity, walked up to Wiggins before the free throws with some forceful encouragement.
”I was like, `Wiggs, I know you can do this,”’ Butler said. ”And he told me to move. He did. He’s like, `Move!’ I’m like, `OK, excuse me.’ And he stepped up and hit both of them. So, from now on, stay in my lane.”
The Wolves were ahead by as many as 10 points in the second quarter and took a 99-91 lead on Teague’s 3-pointer with 4:26 left in regulation, but just like with this whole regular season the Nuggets wouldn’t go away.
Jokic answered with a 3-pointer, and Butler missed both of his free throws. Back-to-back jumpers by Jamal Murray, the last one from 3-point range, tied it. Butler put the Wolves back in front with a 13-footer Phillip Gaines Jersey Elite , but he missed twice more from the floor in the final two minutes. Murray’s off-balance bank tied it at 101, so the Wolves needed Gibson’s defense to save them down the stretch.
He forced Jokic into the baseline for a forced layup that missed badly. Then Gibson stripped the ball from the 7-foot Serbian in the corner to give the Wolves the ball back with 1.6 seconds remaining in regulation. Jamal Crawford’s heave from just inside half court was on line, but it fell short.
”I just took one dribble,” Jokic said, ”and Taj made a really good defensive play.”
PLAY NOW, REST LATER
Gibson played through a sore neck that forced him out of the last game in the first quarter, finishing with eight points in 35 minutes. Butler logged 42 minutes after playing 23 minutes apiece in his previous two games.
”He told me after the shootaround that he’s from Brooklyn,” coach Tom Thibodeau said, ”and he said he’d be fine.”
DRAMATIC FINISH
The game marked only the third time since the NBA’s current 16-team format began in 1984 that two teams met on the last day of the regular season with the winner qualifying for the playoffs and the loser being eliminated. Washington beat Cleveland in 1997 and Denver beat Sacramento in 1995 to claim the final spots.
DIVISION DOMINANCE
With the loss, the Nuggets finished last in the Northwest Division, a mere three games out of first. This was the first time in 14 seasons since the NBA realigned into six divisions of five times apiece that the last-place team was less than 11 games behind the leader.
TIP-INS
Nuggets: Jokic posted his seventh 30-point game of the season, three of those in the last six games. … Wilson Chandler went scoreless in 48 minutes. … The Nuggets had 15 turnovers, turning into 24 points for the Wolves.
”You can’t go on the road and beat yourself in the most important game of the season,” coach Mike Malone said.
Timberwolves: Towns finished the season with 68 double-doubles, the most in the NBA. His streak of 246 consecutive games played, every contest of his career, is the longest current run in the league. … This was the 16th sellout crowd for the Wolves, their most since the 1991-92 season.
UP NEXT
The Wolves will start the first round in Houston, on either Saturday or Sunday.
—
Michael Porter Jersey