According to most of the people who cover and report on the NBA the championship was decided last night. Now it was just a Western Conference semi-finals Game 6, but they feel that these where the best two teams and the winner of this series would go on to win the NBA title. So who won this series and the title last night?
Well it was the Golden State Warriors who beat the Houston Rockets 118-113 last night. Now not only did Golden State win Game 6 on Houston’s home court the Toyota Center but they did it without Kevin Durant.
Durant is consider to be the best or one of the best players in the NBA, bt he was scheduled to miss the rest of the series against the Rockets when he strained a calf in Game 5. As it turned out the Warriors didn’t need him.
Now if you’ve read any of the blog I’ve written here when I talk about the NBA that I don’t enjoy the style of play; so there was no way I was going to sit through an entire game.
I turned the game on just as Klay Thompson hit a 3-pointer to give Golden State a 110-104 lead with 36.1 seconds left in the game.
To be honest I think it took about 20 minutes to play the final 36.1 seconds of this game and I was quite bored, but I managed to stick with it. The Rockets where just throwing up 3-pointers and then fouling; so they where trying to trade 3 points for 2 points and with 3.6 seconds left they had cut the Warriors lead to 3 points at 116-113.
Once Steph Curry got his hands on the basketball and the Rockets had to foul him with just 2.3 seconds left you knew this game was over. Curry didn’t disappoint as he nailed those two free throws to put the game away and end Houston’s season again.
This is the second season in a row that the Warriors have knocked the Rockets out of the playoffs. This was also the 4th time in 5 seasons that the Warriors have eliminated the Rockets from the playoffs.
At this point the Rockets probably have to decided if the combination of James Harden and Chris Paul will ever be able to gte past the Warriors in a playoff series. Especially since last night looked like Houston’s best chance with Durant sidelined.
Curry ended up being the Warriors leading score with 33 points even though he went scoreless in the fist half of the game. Curry went 9 of 20 from the field including 4 of 11 from behid the 3-point line, but he made all 14 of the free throws he shot to get him to that 33 number.
Klay Thompson added 27 points while Andre Iguadala was the other Golden State starter to score in double digits with 17 points. Kevin Looney and Shaun Livingston helped pick up the score void in Durant’s absence. Looney went for 14 points while Livingston added 11 points. Draymond Green grabbed 10 rebounds and handed out 7 assists to lead the Warriors in those categories.
In a losing effort James Harden led the Rockets with a game high 35 points. Harden added 8 rebounds, 5 assists and 4 steals, but it just wasn’t enough to get the Rockets a Game 6 win.
Chris Paul and Clint Capela each had double-doubles as Paul went for 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds while Capela had 10 points and 10 rebounds. Paul also handed out a team high 6 assists. P.J. Tucker was the other Rockets starter to reach double figures in scoring with 15 points.
The Rockets bench didn’t have much affect on the outcome of this game. Houston got 17 points in 50 total minutes from the four players who came in off the bench.
Golden State will get some time off to rest and hopefully Durant will be healthy for the Western Conference finals which start on Tuesday. Who will Golden State be playing in those Western Conference finals? Well they’re going to have to wait until Sunday to find that out.
We actually have not one, but two Game 7’s on Sunday. The Portland Trail Blazers are at the Denver Nuggets on Sunday afternoon to start the NBA action. Then the Toronto Raptors will host the Philadelphia 76ers in a Game 7 with the winner going to the Eastern Conference finals to face the Milwaukee Bucks.
Milwaukee advanced to the Eastern Conference finals this past Wednesday when they eliminated the Boston Celtics in five Games. Milwaukee won Game 5 116-91 on Wednesday.
So who do you have n these two game 7’s? Are you going with Toronto or Philadelphia in the Eastern Conference? What about the Western Conference; do you like the Trail Blazers or the Nuggets to advance?
Anderson Silva is fighting tonight on UFC’s 237 card. Silva will fight Jared Cannonier tonight.
Silva is 44 years old and has three fights left on the current contract he has with the UFC. Obviously he’ll have two fights left after tonight. Apparently it doesn’t matter how many fights Silva has left on any contract because according to his manager Jorge Guimaraes; Silva and the UFC are in talks about a contract extension.
Silva is 34-9-1 with one no-contest in his UFC career. He’s coming into tonight’s fight off of a loss. Silva dropped an unanimous decision to Israel Adesanya on UFC 234 February 10th in Melbourne Australia.
This is the quickest turnaround for Silva in his UFC career. Before the fight with Adesanya he had almost a two year lay off.
Silva held the UFC middleweight title from 2006 to 2013 which covered 10 fights; a UFC record at the time. Silva still holds the UFC record for most consecutive victories with 16. Silva is considered one of the greatest UFC fighters of all-time and a sure Hall of Fame selection when he final does decide to retire.
Silva is looking to turn around the struggles he’s had. He has only one fight since 2012; a span of 7 fights. The win came against Derek Brunson on February 11th 2017.
Silva has also had two suspensions in that time frame after testing positive for a prohibited substance. Now the USADA; which is the UFC’s anti-doping partner did over turn Silva’s suspensions saying they where caused by a contaminated dietary supplement.
Do you have Silva getting a win tonight?
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