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Figure this one out: Cavs star James’ leadership called into question ... Curry, Durant simply do their thing ... DeRozan honoured by writers ... Raptors eyeing Euro coach?
CLEVELAND — By the time the teams in the NBA Finals were practising on Tuesday afternoon, it had been five days since the wild end of Game 1.
And yet, we are still talking about it.
LeBron James was asked about a video clip that showed him sitting down immediately after J.R.
Smith had absent-mindedly run out the clock in a tie game. James looks lost in thought for a moment. Then the coaches come over. James asks if the Cavs had a timeout left. He is told they did. He puts his hands to his head, bends over, and presumably mutters several naughty words to himself.
James, after joking on Tuesday that he had finally gotten Game 1 out of his head, said he remembered sitting on the bench and contemplating the last few seconds of regulation, which included a missed free throw and Smith’s blunder. James said he knows he tried to call timeout, but it all happened fast. (There were less than five seconds on the clock.)
“So I asked our coaching staff if we had a timeout,” James said. “And they told me, yes. I guess y’all probably seen the reaction from that point on.” James said he wasn’t mad at the coaching staff, but frustrated that they could have had a chance for another play.
Somewhat amazingly, questions were asked on Tuesday about whether James had been a good leader in that moment, whether he should have done more to rally the troops before overtime.
Here’s Kevin Love on that idea: “I mean, I don’t know what he had at that point, but he ended the game with 51-8-8, so he did a lot. He’s been leading us and been great, not only this season, but seasons past. It’s natural for him to put out such a good effort and be frustrated.”
James laughed off the idea that he might be taking heat for his alleged leadership faults. “I mean, we’re in the NBA Finals. I mean, how much more picking up of teammates do you want me to do?”
Man has a point.
‘OUR GUYS JUST PLAY’
Asked on Tuesday if the Golden State staff ever makes a conscious decision to direct more of the scoring load to either Stephen
Curry or Kevin Durant, coach Steve Kerr said, in a word: No.
“There is just a sense that we’re all on the same team and nobody cares about whose team it is and all that stuff. Our guys just play. There have been games where K.D. has had to take over. There have been games where Steph takes over. And there are lots of games in between,” he said. “We literally never have a conversation about who needs to take over. What we do is we decide where are we going to attack? How are we going to attack? Every team presents a different challenge. So we try to find areas where we can attack and take advantage of matchups and give ourselves the best chance to score.”
It helps, of course, that Curry and Durant are both deadly scorers.
DURANT NO CHANGED MAN
In last year’s finals, the Warriors came to Cleveland with a 2-0 lead, but found themselves trailing the Cavaliers in the dying minutes. Golden State took a lead it would not surrender with 45 seconds left, when Durant hit a 26-foot jumper in front of James for a onepoint lead. Although it took until Game 5 for the Warriors to secure the series, that shot is seen by many was the one that won it. Durant, though, disagrees with the idea that it changed him.
“It really didn’t do anything for me, to be honest. We won a championship, but me personally, I mean, there were just so many other plays in that game that helped us get that championship that were just as important,” he said. Durant said his team is approach this Game 3 knowing that all those plays will matter again. “So we just know how important every possession is. That situation may not happen again,” he said. “So we’ve just got to embrace whatever happens and look forward to a crazy, crazy environment with a team that’s desperate. Those combinations are tough to stop.”
DEROZAN HONOURED
It’s not the trophy he hoped to lift this season, but
DeMar DeRozan was on Tuesday named the winner of the Magic Johnson Award by the Professional Basketball Writers Association. The award honours “the player who best combines excellence on the basketball court with cooperation and dignity in dealing with the media and the public.”
The Raptors guard is the second Raptor to win it, following Chris Bosh in2010.
“I’m grateful to the reporters and broadcasters who cover our league, who love our game and who communicate with our fans every day. So thank you to the PBWA for this award,” said DeRozan in a statement issued by the Raptors. “It’s very special for an L.A. guy to receive an honour named for Magic.”
RAPS’ SEARCH EXPANDS?
The Raptors’ coaching search has reportedly extended into Europe.
An ESPN report on Tuesday cited league sources as saying Raptors president
Masai Ujiri has interviewed Zalgris (Lithuania) coach
Sarunas Jasikevicius for its head coaching job, left vacant following Dwane
Casey’s firing last month. Jasikevicius is a former NBA player who has won four EuroLeague titles, three Greek League championships, two Spanish and Israeli league titles, as well as the Slovenian Cup, Turkish Cup and Lithuanian league championship.