Cavaliers one win from longest playoff winning streak in NBA history

76ers’ Jerry Colangelo on Lonzo Ball: ‘It’s going to be challenging with the people around him’

AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill

J.R. Smith: “If we take care of what we’re supposed to take care of… we would win”

By Kurt HelinJun 3, 2017, 9:30 PM EDT

OAKLAND — J.R. Smith summed up the theme of many of the Cavaliers the past couple of days, that they beat themselves more than the Warriors beat them in Game 1.

Then Smith took it to a whole other level. A ridiculous level.

“Watching basketball throughout the course of the season, you obviously know they’re very good,” Smith said Saturday before the Cavaliers’ practiced. “But one thing about us, it’s all about us. If we take care of what we’re supposed to take care of, it doesn’t matter if it’s the ’96 Bulls, it doesn’t matter. We would win. We just gotta worry about us, understand that no matter what they do, if we do what we’re supposed to do, they can’t beat us.”

Not the Jordan/LeBron thing again, just make it stop.

Smith was on fire with his comments Saturday. At one point he was asked about the Cavaliers wanting to get more physical and muddy the game up on Sunday, but the reporter phrased it “dirtying up the game.” Smith had fun with that.

“Dirtying up the game? I don’t know about that. They got one guy who keeps kicking people in the nuts. I don’t know about that,” Smith said. “But we won’t dirty up the game. We just play physical. Some people don’t like physicality, and that’s what it is. But we just got to play our game and the way we know how to play, and that’s what’s been successful for us.”

The game is going to get more physical, the days of the Warriors getting uncontested layups are over. Whether the Cavaliers playing better is enough remains to be seen.

Warriors not worried about Klay Thompson’s shooting slump as long as he keeps defending

Associated Press

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By Kurt HelinJun 3, 2017, 8:11 PM EDT

OAKLAND — The Finals did not shake Klay Thompson out of his shooting slump. In Game 1 he was 3-of-13 from the field for six points and he missed all five of his attempts from beyond the arc.

Nobody on the Warriors much cares — and not just because they won Game 1 in a rout anyway. It’s because Thompson is doing what every coach from YMCA youth leagues up through the NBA preaches — if you’re not scoring points, contribute in other ways. For Thompson, that is defense: Cleveland players guarded by Thompson shot 1-of-12 in Game 1, according to ESPN.

Thompson himself will take that tradeoff.

“If I score six points a game and it gets us four wins and an NBA championship, I can do that every year,” Thompson said.

His shooting slump goes back to the San Antonio series, and even beyond. Thompson is shooting 29 percent over his last five games. The best way to understand it is to look at his shot chart from the last five games.

A lot of fans want to attribute the struggles to the fact Kevin Durant is now on the team, so Thompson has slid down the offensive pecking order in Golden State. Nobody with the team is buying that.

“He averaged more points this year than last year, he averaged more shots, so I think we always look at the last game or the last week, but I don’t feel the need to overreact to any of it,” Warriors GM Bob Myers said. “I told him to have fun, it’s the NBA Finals…

“He’s a great shooter. It’s like a hitter with a great swing, they’re gonna start hitting. I’d tell him don’t change anything, just keep doing what you’re doing.”

Thompson is doing just that. He was asked how his approach to Game 2 will differ from Game 1.

“Same one I had Game 1 — just be aggressive, don’t settle for good shots but hunt for great shots,” Thompson said. “Try to get a few quick ones early; that always helps. That’s about it. Just play hard and I’ll be fine.”

When Thompson missed a couple he would normally make to start a game, he starts to hunt twos at times and takes more difficult ones than he needs. He’s a shooter, trying to shoot his way out of the slump. But the Warriors can live with that because of everything else he brings to the court.

“Well, if he’s not making shots, he’s still a respected shooter and nobody’s going to give him open shots if he starts to miss,” Kevin Durant said. “So we know the gravity he pulls when he’s out there, and his movement off of the ball is one of the main reasons why we’re a good team. And his defense is the reason why we’re one of the best defensive teams in the league as well.”

“The most important thing is the way he’s defending,” Draymond Green said. “We have enough guys who can score on this team that if one guy can’t get it going, we can go other places. Then our ball movement and our flow allows everyone else to get baskets as well. We’re not just going to say, `Oh, man, we really need to get Klay going.”‘

The Cavaliers should be worried if Thompson gets going — on a team loaded with some of the greatest shooters in the game, nobody gets as white hot for a quarter or a half as Thompson. He is capable of insane numbers.

“He’s very competitive, but he doesn’t show it like Draymond shows it,” Myers said. “His personality is to hold himself to a high standard, he’s kind of a perfectionist, but at the same time his perfection is he wants to play well for his teammates… his demeanor is he just wants to win, but he wants to do well, everyobody does.

“I think he’s focused more on our record than his own statistics. I know he wants to do better, but we’re not really worried about it.”

“Well, it is easy to overlook my shooting woes when we have been winning like this,” Thompson said. “So if we keep this up, it’s great, I can live with this all day. But I’m such a perfectionist, I try to hold myself to such a high standard that, as a competitor, sometimes it does drive you a little to the edge to be better. But you just have to keep everything in front of you.”

Another report that Lakers may not select Lonzo Ball with the No. 2 pick

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By Kurt HelinJun 3, 2017, 6:30 PM EDT

Lonzo Ball is a 6’6″ point guard who has incredible court vision and passing skills, whose ability to play in transition transformed UCLA this past season into one of the better teams in the nation.

However, he has some weaknesses — he isn’t strong as a pick-and-roll point guard, and his funky shooting stroke doesn’t work as well off the dribble — that have teams being hesitant.

Including the Lakers at No. 2. While most mock drafts still have the Lakers taking Ball, there are more and more rumblings that the Lakers are not sold. The latest of those comes from Jordan Schultz of the Huffington Post.

Per source, the #Lakers would pass on Lonzo Ball if #nbadraft was today. Team isn't convinced he's a star and remains concerned about LaVar.

— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) June 3, 2017

This time of year there are so many smokescreens by teams that it’s like being at a Cypress Hill concert. This could be part of that, the Lakers are reportedly testing the trade market for Jordan Clarkson which suggests they will take Ball.

I will say I’ve heard most teams don’t care about LaVar. They see him as a manageable distraction.

Most scouts have Ball second in this draft, but Josh Jackson out of Kansas is not as far behind as some think. De'Aaron Fox is climbing everybody’s board (and did outplay Ball head-to-head twice). While Ball is considered top two by most, not everyone is sold on Ball, one scout told me he sees Ball as a future solid NBA starting point guard, nothing more (not an All-Star player). The question for everyone in the draft is how much are they willing to put in the work to improve their weaknesses

The Lakers are not good enough to be thinking of drafting for need — what they need is talent. They need the best guy on the board. If they work out Jackson and rate him higher, then take him. If they love Fox, take him. They can’t take Ball just because it plays well with the fan base (the Southern California kid playing for his hometown team), if whoever they draft plays well the fans will come around. However, if they have Ball second, take him. (And why throw out a smokescreen, to throw Boston off? They’re taking Markelle Fultz.)

This will be the Lakers third consecutive No. 2 pick (D'Angelo Russell and Brandon Ingram) and they need a big hit here, they can’t afford a strikeout.