Curry named AP athlete of the year

“You’ve got to stay ready”, Paul said. “That locks me in even more”. We were getting shots.

Curry did little to diminish that claim after helping lead the Warriors past James and the Cleveland Cavaliers 89-83 in their Christmas rematch of last season’s Finals. Curry has improved his scoring from 23.8 points per game last season to 30.8 this year. “We gave ourselves a chance”, James stated. The reliance on the three pointer and the modern evolution of basketball goes way beyond Steph Curry, he’s just been the one to ideal it.

Cleveland star LeBron James had a game-high 25 points and nine rebounds for the Cavaliers. After Tim Duncan’s layup reduced the margin, Harden brought the crowd to its feet with an off-balance 3-pointer from the corner that made it 84-75.

IF you are going to make fun of LeBron James, at least try not to do it right to his face.

Draymond Green ran the show with a double-double (22 points and 15 rebounds).

He finished with 19 points.

Mark Jackson rankled some with his comment on Friday that Stephen Curry was hurting the game. “That’s more of a statement”. Klay Thompson and Shaun Livingston had 18 and 16 points respectively. So instead of young players practicing between the legs dunks trying to be Kobe, they’re practicing dribbling back to the three point line and launching it like Steph. “As fun as today should be, it’s not about making drastic changes for one game and then going back to something else the next game”. “They are such a huge part of our success”.

The other problem that was apparent was Cleveland’s continued use of isolation plays. If they do, Curry’s legend will only grow. Too many times during the game, especially when the margin was close, the Cavaliers chose to play “iso” rather than draw screens for better shots. When Nash was developing, the stuff Curry is doing was thought to be impossible.

The Cavaliers missed four free throws in the final 1:33. Nash, in fact, said he wished he was growing up now, modeling his game after Curry. In the early part of the game, he’d caught his rhythm after draining several shots in a row.

After a rare tripleheader on ABC-ESPN last Christmas Day, when two games migrated from ESPN to TNT, the Disney networks reverted to their regular slate of five basketball games, with rating up +9% from last year’s three-game average. The Warriors have also taken their home record to 14-0. This is only the third time that the team has had its full lineup together after All-Star guard Kyrie Irving returned in the game against Philadelphia.