Back in the day, when Jerry won the MVP despite Lakers losing, Havlicek had a hell of a series too. Just saying .
Arguments for Iggy: Highest +/- in this series (with Curry coming in 2nd). Upped his FG% to 54.9% Upped his 3P% to 40.7% His defense on LeBron: With Iggy on court, LeBron is shooting 37.6 FG%, 36.0 3P%, and 68.0 FT%. With Iggy off court, LeBron is shooting 45.7 FG%, 28.6 3P%, and 88.9 FT%.
According to NBA.com, in the 2013-14 finals... With Kawhi on court, LeBron shot 59.4 FG%, 57.1 3P%, and 76.0 FT%. With Kawhi off court, LeBron shot 50.0 FG%, 33.3 3P%, and 100 FT%. (Small sample size though. In one game, I think Kawhi played every minute that LeBron was on the floor) LeBron did score really efficiently last year, but I wouldn't use that as a knock on Kawhi because the Spurs did not double LeBron. Kawhi defended LeBron by himself so to illustrate this, LeBron averaged only 3.6 assists and 3.6 turnovers with Kawhi on him. In other words, he turned the ball over a lot, didn't really get his teammates involved, and just had an overall 1:1 assist:turnover ratio when Kawhi was guarding him.
But will the voters look this deep into the numbers and not just the surface numbers like points, rebounds, assists per game etc.
Interesting. My point still stands though. Here's their stats so far side by side: Kawhi / Iggy 17.8 ppg 14.6 ppg 6.4 rpg 6 rpg 2 apg 3.8 apg 1.6 stls 0.6 stls 1.2 blks .4 blks 33 mpg 37 mpg 61 FG% 55 FG% 58 3PT% 41 3PT% So not quite as great as Kawhi, but Iggy still deserves SOME consideration when you consider how well he's played LeBron defensively. He's been the only one to slow him down at all.
Cleveland had to employ high pick and rolls to peel Iguadala off James. The numbers aren't as great because of increased activity from James as he has no security blankets around him like the two he had in Miami. Iguadala should get tons of credit as he is doing this in single coverage. Leonard attacked James with his constant movement and opportunistic play. Iguadala doesn't as much.
Unless we see a hero, historical performance from Curry and Iggy disappears, Iggy gets my vote. Missed FTS and all, he's shown up on, ready to play on both sides of the ball every game. The only Warrior who can say that. Curry has had some awful stretches and has been one of the worst superstars defensively that I've seen in the finals in a long time.
Just read this on an ESPN article's comments: if lebron pissed himself espn would spend three days declaring the best player on the planet has figured out a way moisten his legs while in action so he can run faster and jump higher then mere mortals!
Yeah. But.....I'd bet my purple Lakers bottle of water and Lakers #1 foam finger from the Kobe / Pau 2 peat years that no Finals MVP has ever been chosen that missed 8 or 9 freaking FT'S in a row in one game. WTF ...Iggy??
Saw that. I think Broussard asked a room full of chairs and the voices in his crazy eyes told him LeBron rulez.
Klay Thompson and Harrison Barnes tonight need to contribute more than they have...not just in spots.
Klay has been wildly underwhelming thus far... Barnes was great last game, but has been flat out bad the rest of the games.
If either of them decides to step up, GSW win by double digits. Klay alone scores 22ppg. OK, I know he was used mostly as the defensive stopper during playoffs, but still. With him and Steph both being "on", the Warriors are almost unbeatable.
My prediction, Cavs (Lebron) starts off really well and get out of the gate with an early lead but then flame out before the half ends. Warriors go on a big run and end up winning in convincing fashion. Big games from Curry, Klay and Iggy.
