NOT to brag, but I know they are going to win. The Golden State Warriors, I mean. They beat the Boston Celtics with plenty to spare yesterday, 104-94, to move one game shy of winning their fourth National Basketball Association (NBA) title in seven Finals in their last nine seasons.
Applause, applause.
The win became too obvious when Boston coach Ime Udoka pulled out his first stringers with still nearly two minutes left, the Warriors enjoying a 16-point 104-88 lead.
A pedigreed coach himself, Golden State mentor Steve Kerr responded by also recalling his starting crew.
That’s it for now, fellas. Your day is done. Rest your weary mind, knead your achy bones.
My Game Five prediction of a Warrior win was as natural as the flow of a river. I predicated that on Golden State’s masterful 107-97 Game 4 victory in Boston behind the 43-point masterpiece by Steph Curry, tying the best-of-seven Finals at 2-2.
Curry had “only” 16 points in the Warriors’ 3-2 clincher on home court yesterday. But four of those came to push his team away from harm’s way—twice.
A Curry floater from outside the lane gave Golden State a 12-point 91-79 lead with under five minutes left.
A Curry drive with his left hand laying it up gave Golden State a 13-point 97-84 lead before Andrew Wiggins dunked at the two-minute mark.
Oh, yes, Wiggins, the bearded Warrior guard who made Jayson Tatum labor for his 27 points in 44 minutes.
Wasn’t Wiggins also the last one to get vaxxed to beat the deadline for his Warrior stint in the nick of time?
With Curry silent as a lamb with his 16 points yesterday—superstars are also entitled to a day-off, you know—Wiggins took the unselfish chore of stepping up by banging home a team-high 26 points on top of 13 rebounds.
It was the second straight game that Wiggins scored a double-double after firing 17 points and snaring 16 boards in the Game Four victory for Golden State.
The Warriors face the daunting challenge of wrapping it all up via a 4-2 clincher at Boston territory on Friday.
When they won Game Four at the TD Garden, the Warriors got seven threes from Curry.
Yesterday on his own backyard, Curry was 0-for-9 from three-point country, marking the first time since 2018 that he failed to sink a single triple.
He did take the day off. Called in sick.
And yet, the Warriors won—running away.
Is there still someone out there doubting another Golden State championship victory?
THAT’S IT South African Charl Schwartzel won the money-rich, Saudi Arabia-backed LIV Golf inaugural tournament last weekend in London. The novel rebel event, lasting only 54 holes, featured players abandoning the PGA of America, including Dustin Johnson, Phil Mickelson and Sergio Garcia, obviously in pursuit of the record $4 million staked for each of the eight legs calendared. Ah, the color of money. It attracts—no, traps—even the best and the brightest.