NBA MVP Stephen Curry shoots way to AP Male Athlete of Year

Even when all those long-range shots aren’t falling like usual, the defending-champion Golden State Warriors showed they are quite comfortable grinding out victories.

It’s safe to say that Golden State won the first battle against their finals opponent from last season.

“If our defence offence shows up we’re in pretty good shape to win games”, said Curry, who added seven rebounds and as many rebounds despite being slowed by a calf injury.

“I’m a guy that gets hacked sometimes to go to the free-throw line and you have to knock them down, if you can go one for two at those points then good – it’s (hacking a poor shooter) an interesting one, more and more teams are starting to do it,”Bogut said. That just trickled down to everyone else, and we missed out on a great opportunity”. Kyrie Irving and Love, the players the Cavaliers were without because of injuries during the Finals, combined to shoot 0 for 11 from 3-point range. They had their six-game winning streak snapped.

“Through 48 minutes we followed our defensive game plan and made it tough on them but offensively we were out of rhythm and have to be better”.

Curry “is special, really special and we all know that”, James said.

That the Warriors were able to brush aside the Cavs without Barnes, without having to start Iguodala – Rush did a perfectly acceptable job of guarding James while he was out there – and while making only as many three-pointers collectively as Curry typically does just on his own (they shot 5-of-18 from downtown) speaks volumes of the chasm between these two clubs.

James responded with a pair of dunks and a blocked shot on Thompson before Love’s tip-in made the score 81-77 with slightly more than two minutes to play. Golden State has the best record in the National Basketball Association at 28-1.

James shot an air ball from 3 with 12.7 seconds to play to end Cleveland’s comeback attempt.

Warriors center Andrew Bogut, who also played under Jackson, didn’t appreciate his former coach’s remarks.

For months, since the NBA announced this Christmas Day rematch of last season’s Finals, basketball fans have waited in breathless anticipation for Christmas at Oracle Arena. His 3-point talents were non-existent, as he shot 0-5.

Leandro Barbosa also suffered a left shoulder sprain in the quarter and did not return. On Christmas day, theWarriors team not only dispatched the Cavs – for the fourth time in a row – but put to rest all the “what ifs” but one. Who would have ever thought that on a court with Curry, Lebron, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, and Klay Thompson, Draymond Green would be the best player in the game. They did the exact opposite of what the 28-1 Warriors have been doing for the past year, at least.

The way that I play has a lot of skill but is stuff that if you go to the YMCA or rec leagues or church leagues around the country, everybody wants to shoot, everybody wants to handle the ball, make creative passes and stuff like that.

The NBA Finals rematch was as fascinating as it was expected to be and everything was said about such a high stake match was really, really true.