The Golden State Warriors barely broke a sweat in Sunday’s 101-86 Western Conference Semifinals Game 1 cakewalk over the Memphis Grizzlies, a game that seemed over within the first five minutes. Then an hour after the game actually was over, CSN Bay Area’s Monte Poole broke news that Steph Curry will be named the 2014-15 NBA MVP. Curry is the Warriors’ first MVP since Wilt Chamberlain in 1960, back when the team still played in Philadelphia
BREAKING: Sources: #Warriors' Stephen Curry to be named #NBA MVP http://t.co/EB0zUxgDy5 (via @MontePooleCSN) pic.twitter.com/QAkV5AoNdc
— Comcast SportsNet (@CSNAuthentic) May 3, 2015
This game never felt competitive, and I cannot write a compelling narrative of this lopsided affair. But I can serve up an endlessly watchable batch of animated GIFs and Vines from Game 1 that are delightful to stare at on endless loops.
Let’s begin with the impossibly smooth Curry delivering an effortless behind-the-back pass (3:30, 1st quarter) to Draymond Green who is comically undefended for a textbook wide-open three. Whenever the Grizzlies got close (close being “within 9”), Curry would just hit or assist upon consecutive three-point plays to re-break Memphis’ collective will.
We now have a legitimate villain in this series. Memphis’ Tony Allen crashed a time-out children’s performance by something called the Warriors Junior Jam Squad. Allen would be given hell by the Roaracle Arena crowd for this transgression the remainder of the game.
I am not sure that this was even a legitimate breach of NBA decorum. But fuck it, whatever, we totally hate this guy’s guts now and he was booed lustily all day. People in Oakland are ready to call Child Protective Services on Tony Allen.
Here we see a magnificent East Bay GILF demonstrating the hot sauce Warriors fans delivered to Allen the rest of the game whenever he touched the ball.
A No. 1 seed cannot just take for granted an easy victory over a No. 5 seed in the conference semifinals (See the Hawks, Atlanta). There was great tactical thought involved as Steve Kerr’s forced Memphis into the uptempo transition game at which the Warriors excel and the Grizzlies are ill-suited. You take an exceptional tactical coach like Kerr, throw in a bench that contributes (30 points in this contest) plus the league’s MVP, and you have a solid formula to win the NBA championship.
Plus you have the best home crowd in the NBA. Up 17 points mid-fourth quarter, most franchises’ fans will head for the exits. Warriors fans will not leave the arena during the game. They stay and revel in every last minute of every home game in this storybook season.
Stephen Curry winning the MVP award is a treat you long-suffering Warriors fans so richly deserve. Be absolutely sure to set aside time and a bottle of some good shit to enjoy watching Curry’s trophy ceremony Tuesday night before Game 2 in Oakland (7:30 p.m., TNT).
Image: Deadspin