Taking Control
Four teams. Two sports. Two series. After trailing in their series 2 to 1, both the Golden State Warriors in basketball and the Chicago Blackhawks in hockey have now (after making adjustments) gone up in each of their respective series 3 to 2, with each team a win away from their championship.
One could say that both the Warriors and the Blackhawks have “taken control” of their series. That may or may not prove to be an accurate statement, but, after several games vs. their now familiar opponents both teams have learned how to beat that opponent.
Hoops
The Warriors beat the Cavaliers 104 to 91 in Game Five at home to go up in the series 3 to 2. They were able to beat the Cavaliers because there were simply not enough weapons on the Cleveland team to handle the healthier Warriors. While watching the game and marveling at how well LeBron James was playing and carrying the Cavs (40 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists), you also could see that everyone on Cleveland just kept handing James the ball and putting the whole game on his shoulders.
While the talent level of Cleveland is noticeably lacking with several of their stars out (you have to admit, this would be a much different series if Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love were playing), a team can’t keep making ONE person do all of the ball handling and work to score points. The Cavaliers would have been much better off having other players handle the ball more of the possessions and allowing LeBron James to play more of his normal game. In other words, it’s not healthy for a team to make their offense so predictable that the opponents know that the ball will always be found around the same guy, even if he is James.
Sometimes, a team NEEDS the other sidekick type players to also hit shots and take the pressure off of their star player. Look back at the championship teams of yesteryear and EVERY single champion had some strong form of the “other teammate contributions” to help out their star. The one man teams always seem to get beat by the “better TEAMS.”
LeBron James is a more effective player when he is playing a Magic Johnson type of game of distributing the ball better to his teammates and only scoring when the flow of the game dictates he “take charge of the game.” The Cleveland Cavs are in deep trouble if they don’t make their other players more important in the team concept.
And give the Warriors credit. (It should be noted that the architect of the talent and team structure of the Golden State Warriors is the same Jerry West that helped put together the great L. A. Laker championship teams.) The Warriors play their version of “small ball” with most of the team being shorter than 6′ 7″ and they do it in a way that allows them to compete with any of the bigger taller teams in the NBA.
And man, oh man, can the Warriors shoot the ball. The sight of seeing their guards fire away and hit awesome looking outside shots from three point distance is truly a thing of beauty. It’s not lost on the public, as the ratings have been great and this has been a very entertaining NBA Finals series.
It will be sad to see this series end because it has been so much fun to watch. I hope people realize that in the historical context of this, LeBron James was being forced to play this series with a couple of cards short of a full deck. No one should have a legacy knocked when they had to deal with key players being out. Michael Jordan never had injuries this severe during ANY of his six championships. Magic Johnson LOST the championship most of those years when he had key injuries hit his Laker teams (including himself). Cleveland still CAN win, but the bottom line often turns out to be, he who is healthiest usually wins the championship.
Puck
The Blackhawks have won two straight 2 to 1 games over Tampa Bay to go up in their series 3 to 2. Game Five was pretty much determined early in the game when a puck got flipped into the Lightning zone and the Tampa Bay goalie came out to play the puck and was knocked senseless by a Tampa Bay defenseman and the resultant collision left Chicago winger Patrick Sharp with the puck all by himself in front of the Tampa Bay net. He scored what had to have been the easiest non-empty net goal in Stanley Cup Finals history.
And in a game that was going to end up being a low scoring game (2 to 1 final), there was NOT any room for a mistake that was that glaring and that would basically hand a championship team like Chicago what ended up being a “free goal.” Tampa Bay is not good enough to hand the Blackhawks ANY free goals.
Now Game Six goes to Chicago and gives the Blackhawks a chance to win The Stanley Cup at home. They are the type of team that is so good that it will take extraordinary effort just to beat them. Tampa Bay has that ability. But they need to play a near flawless game to beat them.
What this might be settling into is a series where the Lightning may have just realized that The Blackhawks have their championship pedigree and Tampa Bay has a really good team that has never won anything. In the battle for the toughest trophy to win in all of sports, ANY excuse a team has to not give TOTAL sacrifice and effort can be a decisive factor.
Is this just a case of one team “just being glad to be there?” Tampa Bay has to win on difficult Chicago ice and they have to be SO GOOD that they become unbeatable for two straight games against a team that might be hockey’s “Team of the Decade.” A tall task indeed. But Tampa has a tall goalie. I’ll believe the Blackhawks getting beat two games in a row when I see it.
