This is the most sportswritery thing I’ll ever write, but all season long the Golden State Warriors won as a team. Sure, Stephen Curry was the MVP of the league, but he was far from a one man band. Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, and Andrew Bogut all won league-wide awards. After two stagnant season, Harrison Barnes improved leaps and bounds. Andre Iguodala agreed to come off the bench. David Lee didn’t complain once about getting his minutes snatched. Shaun Livingston played every position from point guard to power forward. Marreese Speights carried the offense for surprisingly long periods of time. I still don’t know what Leandro Barbosa is doing most of the time, but it worked. The coaching staff was part of this team, too. Rookie head coach relied upon Alvin Gentry to guide his offense and Ron Adams to guide his defense, and was effusive in his praise of both. He fostered a culture of participation, and at the most crucial point in the season, trusted a guy that isn’t even really on the coaching staff. Depth is usually much less important in the playoffs than the regular season. With at least one rest day after each game and the dramatically raised stakes, good players increase their minutes and rotations shorten. But the Warriors’s depth paid dividends, especially in the Finals. They were more energetic than the Cavs late in games, though the Cavaliers’s numerous injuries obviously played a role in that too. But it also meant that when Plan A didn’t work, the Warriors had Plans B, C, and D to scroll through, something I wrote about extensively after Game 4. Game 6 followed a pattern that has become familiar in the Finals, as the Warriors struggled on offense early and only scored six points in the first six minutes. For a few players the struggle lasted all game long. Klay Thompson was shutdown on offense, struggled in the rare moments he was not shutdown, sat long stretches because of foul trouble and eventually fouled out. Andrew Bogut didn’t play a single minute. Stephen Curry only went off for one mini explosion, for a three minute stretch in the fourth quarter. But it didn’t matter, and the Warriors won 105 to 97 to take the NBA title. Andre Iguodala, the only Warrior who showed up for the entire series—and the only person besides LeBron James who has a legitimate claim to be the Finals MVP—punished the Cavaliers for trying to guard him with Timofey Mozgov, tying for the team high with 25 points. He also put in another stellar performance guarding LeBron James, allowing the Warriors to mostly single cover him. Draymond Green wreaked havoc down low, picked up a triple double, and consistently guarded someone bigger than him, making the small ball lineup work. Festus Ezeli played a stellar 11 minutes, dunking all over the Cavs and scoring unexpected points when the game was getting close. Shaun Livingston had his typically understated game, acting to fill-in whatever offensive or defensive hole the team had. For their part, goddamn did the Cavaliers compete. LeBron shouldered the burden of the world yet again. Mozgov was back in and put up a gaudy statline. He also had a stretch where he seemed to reject about ten shots in a row. Tristan Thompson got his rebounds and was a surprisingly effective scorer. Even the much-maligned backcourt, which overall had an awful game, went BANANAS in the final few minutes of the game, and J.R. Smith almost shot the Cavaliers back in the game. But it was too little, and much too late. That the series was even this close after Kyrie Irving went down is a testament to the genius of LeBron James, the defensive scheming of David Blatt, and how hard the Cavaliers worked. But the Warriors were by far the best team in the league this season, and when it was all said and done, they rampaged to a 16-5 playoff record. The Warriors haven’t won an NBA title in 40 years, and for two decades were the most inept team this side of the Los Angeles Clippers. Don’t let any Warriors fan say otherwise: until the end they were convinced the Warriors would somehow figure out how to screw it up. But this team is special, and they didn’t. E-mail or gchat the author: [email protected] | PGP key + fingerprint | Photo via AP
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Enzo Maresca says that Chelsea are not ready to compete for major trophies against Manchester City and Arsenal this season.
The Blues have made a strong start to life under Maresca, losing just two of their 10 matches so far.
They are currently on a five-match winning run in all competitions, most recently seeing off Gent 4-2 in their Conference League opener on Thursday.
So far, Chelsea have scored 27 goals under the Italian, with 15 of those coming in the league, outperforming their 12.2 expected goals (xG), and only failed to score in their opening Premier League match against City.
However, Maresca has insisted people should not get carried away by Chelsea s recent form, playing down their chances of lifting any silverware this campaign.
I re…
Best Odds: 7/10
Bookmaker:
Getting their EURO 24 adventure underway on Saturday night, defending champions Italy will meet Albania at Signal Iduna Park.
Italy
Starting with Italy, while they might have only just about dragged themselves to this summer’s European Championships, the Azzurri should find the mood in their camp at a red-hot high. Signing off their pre-EURO 24 preparations with a 1-0 victory against Bosnia Herzegovina, Luciano Spalletti’s men do appear to have found top gear at a crucial time. With some potentially billing the defending European champions as potential dark horses over the next month, the former Napoli boss has seen his squad suffer just a single defeat from any of their previous 11 consecutive appearances across all competitions …
Louis van Gaal believes the Netherlands must improve considerably if they are to win the World Cup, acknowledging Ecuador were much better than the Oranje in Friday s 1-1 draw.
The Netherlands and Ecuador sit locked together on four points in Group A after Enner Valencia cancelled out Cody Gakpo s opener at the Khalifa International Stadium, with the stalemate condemning hosts Qatar to an early exit.
Van Gaal s side were fortunate to hold off a much-improved Ecuador team after Valencia s equaliser, having scored with the only shot they mustered before the interval.
The Netherlands will only need a draw against bottom side Qatar to claim their place in the last 16 on Tuesday, but Van Gaal believes they must do better with sterner tests to come.
If you wan…
Michy Batshuayi scored the only goal as Belgium scraped past a spirited Canada 1-0 in their 2022 World Cup opener at the Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium.
Leading the line in Romelu Lukaku’s absence, Batshuayi s 44th-minute strike was enough to settle a nervy Group F clash in the Red Devils favour.
Roberto Martinez s side were grateful to Thibaut Courtois, who saved an early Alphonso Davies penalty, as they generally struggled against the nation ending their 36-year absence from the finals.
Nevertheless, Belgium stretched their group-stage winning streak to eight matches, with no side enjoying a longer run in the competition s history (level with Brazil).
Belgium endured a shaky start against the Canucks, who were awarded a penalty when VAR ruled Yannick Carrasco …
Neymar has been ruled out of Brazil s final World Cup group match against Cameroon, while Alex Sandro has joined the superstar forward and Danilo on the injury list.
Paris Saint-Germain star Neymar hobbled off in the 80th minute of Brazil s 2-0 win over Serbia last week with a lateral ligament injury to his right ankle.
The 30-year-old sat out Monday s victory over Switzerland, in which Casemiro scored a late winner, but no official timeframe was given for his recovery.
However, team doctor Rodrigo Lasmar confirmed on Tuesday that Neymar will play no part against Cameroon, with Brazil requiring a point to guarantee top spot in Group G.
Team-mate Danilo, who has a similar ankle problem to Neymar, will also not recover in time for Friday s match at Lusail S…
Best odds: 8/13
Bookmaker:
The time has come for the season to end completely as far as European clubs are concerned, and as always, it ends in the biggest contest of them all, the final of the Champions League. It s bee a great season in UEFA s elite competition, full of twists, turns and upsets against the odds, and all club affinities aside, it s been quite enjoyable to watch. So in the end, on Saturday May 28th, at the Stade de France in Paris, Liverpool will be facing Real Madrid in a game that has been played a couple of times before.
In 1981, Liverpool triumphed over Real, in Paris no less, courtesy of a solitary strike by Alan Kennedy in the 82nd minute. In 2018, in Kyiv, Real Madrid won 3-1 after Sergio Ramos controversially escaped two possible red car…
Al-Ettifaq boss Steven Gerrard says it would be a dream for Lionel Messi to follow Cristiano Ronaldo to the Saudi Pro League for one last head-to-head battle.
Messi and Ronaldo both turned their backs on European football in 2022-23, the Portugal great swapping Manchester United for Al-Nassr and the Argentine moving to MLS outfit Inter Miami.
Those moves look to have ended one of the most iconic rivalries in football history, with both players unlikely to represent their national teams at the 2026 World Cup.
Al-Hilal attempted to lure Messi to Saudi Arabia before he opted to move stateside, but Gerrard has not given up hope of seeing him play in the country, even suggesting his club as a landing spot.
It would be a dream for me to have Messi at Al-Ettifa…
Manchester City are looking to add a couple more signings after already securing the signatures of Erling Haaland and Julian Alvarez, chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak has confirmed.
Having wrapped up their fourth Premier League title in six years with a dramatic final-day win over Aston Villa earlier this month, City are set to benefit from the acquisition of Norwegian star Haaland, who scored 86 goals in 89 appearances during a two-year spell at Borussia Dortmund.
Pep Guardiola s men also announced the signing of young River Plate forward Alvarez back in January, as City look to restructure their forward line one year on from the departure of club legend Sergio Aguero.
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Few things will have made football fans feel stranger than seeing Lionel Messi wearing any other club shirt than that of Barcelona.
That is what happened in 2021 though, when the legendary Argentine made the move to Paris Saint-Germain due to the financial mess at the Camp Nou.
What could be stranger than that? Perhaps a Ballon d Or shortlist of 30 names being released and not seeing Messi s among them?
On Friday, that once ludicrous suggestion became reality as the nominees for the 2022 award were announced in batches of five, only the familiar mention of the seven-time winner never came.
Of course, it was not especially a surprise. Messi struggled to make an impact at PSG after his free transfer to the Parc des Princes, scoring just six goals in 26…
Football Association chief executive Mark Bullingham would not rule out the possibility that Lionesses boss Sarina Wiegman could one day lead the England men’s team.
The 53-year-old’s stock as a serial winner has risen steadily since securing the European championship trophy with her native Netherlands in 2017, then doing the same with England last summer.
She has now guided England to a first-ever World Cup final, in the process becoming the only manager to do so with two different nations in the women’s showpiece after steering her home country to the same stage four years ago.
Sarina. Wiegman.
— Lionesses (@Lionesses)
Asked if Wiegman could be seen as a potential successor to Gareth Southgate, Bullingham said: “I think it’s a bit …