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od **panxing18** » stř 05. zář 2018 13:47:51

Here we go again.

And again.

And Sherrick McManis Jersey , well, again.

Round 4 – as many predicted, and others probably lamented – is happening. Cleveland and Golden State will meet for the fourth straight year in the NBA Finals, the Warriors looking for a third championship in that span and LeBron James and the Cavaliers trying to wrestle the crown away just as they did in the 2016 series.

On one side, the best team of this era.

On the other, the best player of this era and maybe any era.

Game 1 will be hosted by the Warriors at Oracle Arena on Thursday night.

”You’ve got to appreciate the moment,” Warriors guard Stephen Curry said. ”Somebody asked, `Four years in a row getting to the finals, do you appreciate it?’ Yes.”

Both teams are entering this title matchup with injury concerns. Cleveland’s Kevin Love is in the concussion protocol and will need to complete a series of tests before he’s cleared to return, and Golden State’s Andre Iguodala – a former NBA Finals MVP – wasn’t able to finish the Warriors-Rockets series because of a bone bruise in his leg.

The Warriors hoped Iguodala would return to the Houston series, but his progress stalled.

”That’s just not an easy injury to predict in terms of recovery,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.

There wasn’t a lot of similarity in Cleveland’s and Golden State’s seasons, but their last few days have been mirror images of one another – both teams had to win Game 6s at home to fend off elimination, then had to go on the road and prevail in Game 7s to win their respective conference finals.

”One of the most challenging seasons I’ve had,” said James, who may be playing the best basketball of his life right now at the end of his 15th season.

Here’s some of what the Cavaliers have dealt with since Golden State-Cleveland III ended last June: Kyrie Irving got traded for Isaiah Thomas over the summer, coach Tyronn Lue had to miss time to deal with health issues, Love missed two months, they lost 11 games by 16 or more points, revamped their roster in February and spent much of the season unable to guard anybody.

They’re in the finals again anyway, led by someone who will play in the last series of the season for an absurd eighth consecutive year.

”It’s been a roller coaster Nick Kwiatkoski Jersey ,” said James, who is seeking a fourth ring in his ninth finals appearance overall. ”It’s been good, it’s been bad. It’s been roses. There have been thorns in the roses. There’s been everything that you can ask for.”

This wasn’t all peaches for Golden State, either. The Warriors didn’t get the No. 1 seed out West, lost Curry to a knee injury late in the regular season, lost 10 of their final 17 games and got pushed to the brink.

”I’m glad we’re going back,” Warriors forward Kevin Durant said.

The Warriors swept the two regular-season meetings with the Cavaliers, winning by seven at home on Christmas Day (without Curry) and prevailing by 10 in Cleveland about three weeks later.

Film-wise, those two games are meaningless now. Of Cleveland’s five leading scorers against Golden State this season, three no longer play for the Cavaliers. James and Love combined to score 100 points in the two games, but Dwyane Wade, Jae Crowder and Isaiah Thomas were all shipped elsewhere by the Cavs in a series of trade-deadline moves.

”We obviously know what LeBron’s capable of,” Curry said shortly after the Warriors’ Game 7 win at Houston ended. ”It’s a new team over there, so the other guys, we’ve got to lock in on their tendencies. But we’ll worry about that when we get home.”

If the Cavaliers win this championship, it might be time to declare the regular season irrelevant.

Cleveland was only 50-32 this season. Should James and his mates get it done, that would be the second-worst, regular-season record for an eventual champion in the last 40 seasons. Houston went 47-35 on the way to the 1995 title; to find another champion who was worse, go back to Washington in 1978 when the Bullets were a mere 44-38.

”Everybody doubted us,” Cavaliers forward Jeff Green said. ”Everybody had their opinions on what our team was, what we would do Sammie Coates Jersey , what we can’t do, from the start. … And now, I mean, we’re where we want to be. We’re where we set out to be and where we knew we could be at this point.”

Same goes for the Warriors. This season was no cakewalk for them, either.

”We’ve been through a lot with this team,” Warriors guard Klay Thompson said. ”Believe it or not, it’s not all success with the Warriors. We got our bumps throughout the season. But to get to this point again, we earned it.”

And now it’s time for one of these teams to earn a title.

Again.

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Minnesota’s slow-to-develop, up-and-down defense has finally started to shine, against this high-octane Houston team no less.

There’s been no wait quite like the one for a win by the Timberwolves in the playoffs, though.

Jimmy Butler hit four 3-pointers among his 28 points and Karl-Anthony Towns snapped back from a bad start to the series with 18 points and 16 rebounds, leading the Timberwolves past the Rockets 121-105 in Game 3 on Saturday night for their first postseason victory in 14 years.

”This city deserves being in the playoffs a little bit longer,” Butler said. ”We’ll see what we have. But as long as we guard, as long as we defend, we’ll put ourselves in a good enough position to win.”

Jeff Teague scored 23 points and Andrew Wiggins pitched in 20 points with another four 3-pointers, helping the Timberwolves match the NBA’s best 3-point shooting team with 15 makes apiece from long range. Minnesota took 27; Houston launched 41.

”I tell everybody all the time, as long as you’re in rhythm, no matter if somebody’s in front of you or not, it’s a good shot for you because we think that you can make that,” Butler said after the Wolves shot 50 percent overall from the floor.

Not to be left out was Derrick Rose and his 17 points off the bench, including 10 points in nine minutes before halftime. The Wolves closed the third quarter with a 26-14 run and produced spurts of 15-3 and 11-2 in the final period Ka'imi Fairbairn Jersey , perfecting their plan to play at a faster pace.

”We’ve got to do a better job of imposing our will at the beginning of the game,” said James Harden, who led the Rockets with 29 points.

The Rockets made four 3-pointers on their last seven possessions of the first half to turn an 11-point deficit to just one in less than 3 1/2 minutes up until the break. Butler twisted his left ankle during that stretch, causing him to clutch his foot in pain and create some brief anxiety in the arena, but he didn’t require, or at least accept, any medical attention. There was no hint that he was hurt in the second half.

”He’s the heart and soul,” said Teague, who made three 3-pointers himself. ”When he’s out there competing, it rubs off on everybody.”

Taj Gibson hounded Harden and forced an airballed 3-pointer, prompting the apex of the noise throughout the night with the Wolves ahead 77-70. Towns powered his way past Ryan Anderson for a layup and a three-point play with 1:57 left in the third quarter, pushing the lead to 10 points, and he flexed his biceps to the crowd after the whistle as he walked like King Kong to the corner of the court in celebration. There was no letdown in the fourth quarter, either.

”Give them a lot of credit. A lot of their 3s were butt naked, too. We were giving them uncontested 3s, and you know we’ve got to be better,” said Chris Paul, who fouled out with 17 points.

For the first time since May 29, 2004, the fifth game of the Western Conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, the NBA playoffs descended on downtown Minneapolis. The shine of this long-awaited return to relevance by the 29-year-old franchise was dulled a bit by the team’s fade down the stretch to finish eighth in the conference and draw the most daunting matchup available against a Rockets team that won all four regular season games by an average of 16 points and took the first two games of this series in Houston.

The occasion was still plenty special Byron Jones Jersey , though, with the memory of late coach and executive Flip Saunders not far from the minds of the Target Center regulars, and the sellout crowd matched the moment to make the arena louder than it had been all season.

”It was crazy. All the fans were in the game the whole time,” Wiggins said. ”They helped us gain momentum going forward.”

HARD FOR HARDEN

Harden, who had 44 points in Game 1 but lost his rainbow jumper in Game 2 and finished only 2 for 18 from the floor for 12 points, wasn’t a whole lot sharper in Game 3. He went 9 for 21, including 3 for 8 from 3-point range.

”We stooped to their level, playing slow,” said Rockets sixth man Eric Gordon, who went 5 for 16 from the floor. ”We didn’t create.”

GOING TO TOWNS

After totaling only 13 points over the first two games, Towns was constantly double-teamed by the Rockets and didn’t attempt a shot in the first quarter. The 7-footer’s energy got going soon after that, though, with an emphatic dunk on Clint Capela after peeling away from the post-up to snag a high pass from Teague.

”You let the game tell you what to happen,” Towns said. ”Just trying to find different ways to score.”

TIP-INS

Rockets: Anderson was in action for the first time in seven games due to a sprained left ankle and had with 12 points. Houston was 18-1 during the regular season when he made at least three 3-point shots. … The Rockets lost for only the fourth time in 48 games this season with Harden, Paul and Capela all on the floor.

Timberwolves: Minnesota had 29 assists on 45 made field goals, with only seven turnovers. … Rose has 42 points in the series on 19-for-39 shooting in 62 minutes. … The Wolves beat the Rockets for just the third time in their last 23 meetings. … This was the second-most made 3-pointers of the season for Minnesota.

UP NEXT

Game 4 is on Monday night at 8 p.m. EDT.

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