Super team making Finals super boring
16-0 run would be a dream for Golden State and tragedy for NBA, Adam Kilgore writes.
There is a sign posted on the wall inside the Golden State Warriors lockerroom, high above the corner stall belonging to Kevin Durant. It keeps with the tradition of cheesy team slogans, meant to convey the importance of the group above all else. It reads: Must be just about us.
The message has taken on new meaning during the NBA Finals after the Warriors’ 132-113 demolition of the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 2, and not in a promising way for the NBA. Basketball waited for this matchup. An epic Finals would be worth the cost of a non-competitive playoffs. June would redeem April and May, and the NBA would sail into the summer as the hottest league in professional sports.
Instead, the Finals is in danger of becoming a competitive dud. It is performance art, and watching Durant and Steph Curry together occasionally moves the viewer to a place near levitation. But the Finals was supposed to be ultimate theatre, a historic clash, The Thrillogy. It is instead about the Warriors — just the Warriors.
These Finals must be making the league nervous. The team with the best player can never be counted out, and LeBron James remains the best player in the world, despite the argument Durant is submitting. It would be a mistake to dismiss Cleveland. It would be equally foolish not to recognize the strong chance that for the remainder of the Finals, the Warriors’ only competition will be history.
“Sure, the fan in me would love to see more competition at times,” NBA commissioner Adam Silver said before Game 1. “But on the other hand — I’ve said it before, I think we should also celebrate excellence.”
The Warriors’ pursuit of a 16-0 playoff record makes for a dramatic storyline, but the games themselves may dissuade viewership. In Game 2, Draymond Green fell into foul trouble, the Warriors committed 20 turnovers, James was a machine and the Cavs still never came within 11 points in the fourth quarter. The Warriors led by 21 with three minutes 47 seconds left, at which point Tyronn Lue emptied his bench. We waited two months to watch Dahntay Jones against Ian Clark?
The Cavaliers won the title last year and rampaged through the Eastern Conference this spring, losing once in 13 games. The Warriors have turned them into the Washington Generals.
Yes, the Cavaliers trailed 2-0 in last year’s Finals, too. They were not facing a team with Kevin Durant, or a healthy Steph Curry, or a Draymond Green who hadn’t piled up so many flagrant fouls he stood on the verge of a suspension.
“We’re different,” Warriors guard Shaun Livingston said. “We got a monster in K.D. We got a healthy Steph Curry.”
The one place unconcerned with hand-wringing over competitive concerns is the Warriors’ locker-room. Do not tell the Warriors about the death of parity, not when the 2016 Larry O’Brien trophy resides in Cleveland.
“We know this is far from over,” Durant said. “We know how hard it is to be the best team in the league. So we got to just keep going, man, keep our foot on the gas and keep getting better every day.”
That may be true, but right now the Warriors are making it look easy — too easy for the good of the NBA.