I suspect this is the last year so I'm going to really enjoy every minute of it. I'm on house money now I expected to lose this series with KD, winning it without him the last game is gravy.
I watched the 4th quarter this morning(taped the replay on ESPN late last night). Steph was pretty special. There's one play where he hits a 3, gets high fived by Gordon no call, falls down trying to get the call. During the fall he tweaks the left hand so he gets up looking at it, shaking it, in clear pain. They're up 5 but if I didn't know the outcome I'd have thought for sure that was it. And he just killed it after that.
Harden is a great player, almost unguardable, I hate all the histrionics but the thing with him I dislike the most is his defense. he didnt' commit a foul until 8 minutes left, not because he's Mr Clean but beause he plays no defense, he just goes for steals. IMO the biggest play of the game is Warriors up 3, Draymond drives middle. Iggy is in the corner and he's Harden's man. Harden is in total no mans land, Bryce Alford did it at UCLA for 4 years drove me nuts. If you're going to help on the drive, help, if not stay, don't be in the middle doing nothing. Draymond kicks to Iggy, Harden has his hands down so easy pass. Harden now has to close on Iggy who's made 5 3's, but he's going to be somewhat late due to where he is the defense rotates, Iggy hits Klay who nails a 3 that effectively ices the game.
Klay is not Harden's man, Draymond is not Harden's man, but a big part of why they get that open 3 is Harden not guarding anybody, he made the last 2 passes easy because he simply wasn't playing defense. In a 3 point game, elimination, just hard to explain.
have to admit I never liked Austin Rivers but hell I'd take him on the Warriors now, really impressed me made shots, drove, and defended. With Harden, Paul and Gordon he won't start but really showed me something this series.
