Warriors win despite James’ heroics
MYSTICS MYSTERY
The Northern Mystics are possibly the hardest team to get a read on, and that’s not helped by the fact that they may or may not have Silver Ferns star Maria Folau in their ranks for any given game.
A week after losing to the equally upand-down Southern Steel on the road, they went to Christchurch to play a Mainland Tactix team that was flying high – and won.
There is no doubt they have plenty of talent, even when Folau is absent – replacement Jamie Hume has been impressive – but they will hope they can find some consistency soon.
SCHEDULING PAINS
You’d think the schedule for a six-team competition would be simple. Every team plays each other once – five matches in total – then they do so again, then they do so again. Wrong.
Four rounds in, every team has played at least one other team twice, while the Pulse, Mystics, Steel and Tactix have played two
❚
❚
Mystics v Pulse at Trusts Arena, Auckland.
❚ teams twice, so have two teams they haven’t played once. That has made it hard to arrive at any definitive judgments about some of the teams.
Round five brings a new set of matchups, which will be repeated immediately next weekend, when everyone gathers in Christchurch for the second Super Sunday of the season.
Only after that, once round seven, starting June 17, is complete, will every team have played each other once.
BLOCKBUSTERS IN STORE
Round five’s matchups being repeated in round six could make for an exciting week.
The two clashes between the Pulse and the Mystics – one in Auckland, one on neutral territory – will be fascinating, especially if Folau is involved.
If the Pulse win both of them, they can probably start making preparations to host August’s final, but if the Mystics can even just run them close, it will give the rest of the premiership hope that all is not lost.
The Magic face the Tactix and the Steel face the Stars in the other matches, and once they’ve played each other twice, the top four could be clear of the bottom two, or there could be a real logjam on the ladder.
ATTACK MAGIC
This week began with a bit of news that Magic fans were dreading – Silver Ferns defender Kelly Jury is out for the season, needing surgery to repair a shoulder tear.
The news came a day after the Magic had notched their first win of the season, over the still-winless Northern Stars, and it is undeniably a blow to their finals hopes, but they might have enough at the other end of the court to account for it.
Their attacking trio of Lenize Potgieter, Monica Falkner and Ariana Cable-Dixon is one of the most potent in the league and they finally clicked last Sunday – albeit against a Stars defence that is giving up more goals per game than any other team. opener and Cleveland game two.
James shot 19 for 32 to go with eight assists and eight rebounds in the opener of his eighth straight NBA finals and ninth overall, as well as Cavs-Warriors take IV. James notched his eighth 40-point game during this playoff run to tie Hall of Famer Jerry West’s feat in 1965 for most in a single post-season.
James drove past Curry for a three-point play with 50 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.
But James was given a foul following a review with 36.4 seconds left and Kevin Durant converted a pair of free throws to tie it at 104. The call had initially been a charge on 2017 finals MVP Durant and James protested the change.
Durant struggled with his shot but wound up with 26 points on 8-for-22 shooting and nine rebounds.
Golden State got a serious scare when Thompson went down after Smith slid hard into the Splash Brother’s left leg at the 6:17 mark of the first quarter. Thompson lay grimacing in pain then went to the locker room with what was called a bruised left leg that needed retaping. He returned for the start of the second quarter to huge roars from the yellow-clad sellout crowd and scored 24 points. He and Curry each connected on five threes.
Curry drained one of those way-outthere three-pointers that have been hard to come by this post-season to beat the halftime buzzer and Golden State shot 13 for 36 from deep.
Kevin Love returned from a concussion to provide a big boost for Cleveland with 21 points and 13 rebounds.
The Warriors missed the defensive presence of 2015 NBA finals MVP Andre Iguodala, who missed his fifth straight postseason game dealing with a bone bruise in his left knee.