April 29, 2025 • 47 mins
Israel looks back at the lightning strike that was the "We Believe" Warriors playoff run, gets the inside story from Bruce "Q" Fraser on how both Steph and Klay unlocked the next level of their games with one small tweak in the 2015 WCF, and he hears from Andrew Bogut directly on what is was like to get benched in the NBA Finals in favor of Andre Iguodala, as the famous "Death Lineup" ultimately led Golden State to the championship. Plus Steve Kerr explains why Iggy winning the Finals MVP might be the most gratifying moment of his entire coaching career, and David Lee sums up the collective feeling during the epic parade, when the entire Bay Area celebrated their first NBA title in 40 years.
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Speaker 1 (00:03):
Dubb Dynasty is a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Just to show you the scene at Oracle Arena in Oakland,
the home standing Golden State Warriors take the floor better
than twenty thousand going wild, and there Webelieved shirts as
Golden State tries to do what's never been done in
NBA history. And number eight bes and number one and
the best seven.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
For the first time in this series, Wary really shirts
him doubt in the final three minutes.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Scorelets stretch when they're.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
Outscore by fifty's huts.
Speaker 6 (00:35):
How don't they got to come out using energy of
this crowd.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Really attack and regain that's lost that right out if
you discovered to this morning. Fraction comes straight away for three,
Barns runs the floor. Lease it for Traction, who fires?
Speaker 7 (00:58):
There's Bars State eighteen on acture by the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Those were some of the most memorable moments from the
We Believe Warriors the two thousand and six oh seventeen
that displayed the full potential of Fay Area basketball in
one historic first round playoff series. I'm Israel Gucierrez and
this is dub Dynastic led by Baron Davis. Jason Richardson
(01:36):
and a play required midseason from Indiana Stephen Jackson. The
eight seeded Warriors upset the top seeded Dallas Mavericks with
that year's MVP, Dirk Nooviski in six games.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I don't know if I've ever seen a better crowd either, Barby,
in my entire career of playing and watching.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
Basketball, even at the college level.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
You know, maybe this is something you'd see.
Speaker 9 (01:57):
It, you'd kill Cameron Indoor Stadium at.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Duke or something.
Speaker 10 (02:00):
But I've fre seen.
Speaker 9 (02:01):
An entire crowd stand a whole second half. Never seen that.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It does have that the collegiate atmosphere. The record crowd
for the Warriors betther than twenty thousand, a building that
provides much emotion and energy, and that's been right from
the opening tip.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
The impact that team had on Warriors basketball is far
disproportionate to its actual accomplishments.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And we are final second the goal to start Warriors.
Speaker 9 (02:37):
Hold off the greatest upset in the history of the
NBA playoffs.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
That half of feed that's up Dallas covers two six
as for sin Fetti comes from above.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That Warriors team won forty two regular season games and
one playoff series. The following off season, the Warriors once
again broke up a beloved corps by trading Jason Richardson
on Draft Night for Brandon Wright. Then didn't make the playoffs,
so that was it. There was no second playoff run,
yet that was one of the most embraced and still
(03:15):
one of the most discussed teams in Warriors history. Stephen
Jackson and Matt Barnes we Believe teammates, have had a
successful podcast, All the Smoke Together since twenty twenty. Kalina
Hazibuque was a rookie on that team and is now
the Warriors color analyst on their local TV broadcast. Mike Dunleavy,
(03:35):
who was sent to Indiana as part of that Jackson
trade but still played thirty nine games for We Believe,
is currently the Warriors general manager. And of the voices
heard in those highlights, one was legendary play by play
man Marv Albert and the other was Steve Kirk. He
was the one in awe of that Warrior's crowd. The
(03:55):
experience wouldn't just confirm his appreciation of Golden State's brand basketball,
but the memory of that crowd would even end influenced
his decision to eventually become their head coach seven years later.
Belief could only get those Warriors as far as the
second round, where they lost to Carlos Boozer, Darren Williams
and the much bigger Utah Jazz. The twenty fifteen Warriors
(04:19):
looked to be in a similar situation in their second
round playoff matchup. The Memphis Grizzlies were doing exactly as
Charles Barkley predicted a bigger team would do to beat
the Warriors pound Golden State in the paint and on
the boards. Through three games, Marcus Sohle and Zach Randolph
(04:39):
were claiming the paint and seemingly getting stronger by the game.
Mike Conley was running the point efficiently, and Tony Allen
was causing absolute havoc on the defensive end.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Tony Allen what was steel and Alan ahead of the pack?
One of the best defenders in the NBA. He thinks
he is the best.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Allen had averaged two steals a game in the regular season,
but he'd already had eleven through the first three games
of this series. He'd helped the Grizzlies defense force twenty
Warriors turnovers. In Memphis's Game two win, and then another
seventeen in Game three.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
So there's Alan, the Catta Steel Allen all the way
in and the flush Tony Allen.
Speaker 9 (05:21):
He's letting us know First team All defense again.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Curry was particularly affected in those two Warriors losses, shooting
thirty eight percent from the field and just nineteen from
three in those games.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Memphis went back to back wins against the number one
seed in the West at Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
The Grizzlies have a two games to one lead and a.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Team that was the best team in the NBA all years.
Speaker 9 (05:47):
He's gotten punched in the gun.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Allen was a menace and he needed to be addressed.
Steve Kerr's plan for this was to not address him
at all, at least when he was on the perimeter Offensively.
Andrew Boget was critical in this series the Warriors because
he was seven feet tall and could bang with either
Gasole or Random also known as Zebo. But Kerr's plan
(06:12):
was to match up Bogut with Alan, beginning in Game four.
Bogot's orders were to still protect the paint at all costs,
and if he sees Alan anywhere near the perimeter, there
was no need to follow him there not even if
he has the ball and all the time in the
world to shoot. Here's bogan.
Speaker 10 (06:30):
Steve came to me and said, listen, we're thinking about
starting you on Tony Allen because my strength was back
line defense, communicate a quarterback, like dictating stuff, pointing, yelling, switching,
calling screens, protecting the hoop, just clogging out the paint.
But that strength is best suited when you're guarding. You
either can't shoot the ball from three. So whenever we
played BIGS, that was where I dominated games because I
(06:52):
was just really good at that. So Gasol was shooting
the three ball decently, Zebo's a decent jump shooter, so
it was pretty hard to just completely disrespect them. So
I was like, we're going to start you on Tony Allen,
going to put Harrison on Gasol or Zebo and then
Draymond on the other one, and they're going to front
the post at all times, and you're just going to
clog the paint up at all times and just ro
(07:12):
roam off Tony Allen as much as you can. So
everyone's kind of like, okay, it kind of makes sense
on face value, but you never know how these things
are going to work till the game starts, and I
remember Game four, we start with it and I think
Tony Allen might have made his first shot. I think
he came down the floor. They ran their first play.
He caught the ball at the three. I was middle
(07:33):
the paint. The whole crowd is like, what do you doing?
Shoot it? He didn't shoot that one. They're around their play.
Their offense was all mucked up because the spacing was
vest up. And then I think the next possession he
came down in rhythm and shot of three. I think
he made it. I'm pretty sure he did.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I can help with that. Alan did make his first shot,
but it wasn't a three point. It was a long
two that made the score seven to six Warriors. But
Bogot's point still stands.
Speaker 10 (07:58):
I was besting for us because he shot a few
more of them, bricked those, and he literally was unplayable to.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That Boget was exactly right this time. Allen missed three
threes in the next three minutes, was subbed out of
the game, and finished Game four two of nine from
the field an zero of three from three point range.
Speaker 10 (08:15):
Their offense just didn't work because they had no room
to move for the big guys, and they were traditionally
one of the few teams remaining that played two slower,
physical bigs. When you factored that in with a third
guy that can't shoot the three ball, they just clogged
the paint up for him. Calmly couldn't get downhill. They
just they had no oomph getting downhill in spacing, so
they had to take him out of the lineup.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Alan played just sixteen minutes in a game four Warriors win,
and then just five and a half minutes the rest
of the series. He was also dealing with a hamstring
injury at that point, but it was really the Warriors
defensive plan that kept Allan out.
Speaker 10 (08:51):
So taking him out was great for us offensively because
now you've taken away their best defender just by the
Steve Kirchess game of messing with their coaches, messing with lineups.
They've now subbed himut because they can't play because it
was their offense not realizing that he's their best defender.
And now we've got claim Steph being guided by Colnley
and a few other guys. It was a genius move.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
The Grizzlies weren't a one man defensive operation. However, Gasolt
was actually a former Defensive Player of the Year, and
the group as a whole had the second best defensive
rating in the league that season, second only to the
Golden State Warriors. That meant Steph Clay and the Warriors
still needed to make an offensive adjustment. It wouldn't require
an entire rewrite of the playbook. It would, however, require patients, trust,
(09:42):
and most importantly, movement. Bruce Fraser as an assistant coach
with the Warriors. He and Steve Kerr were teammates at
the University of Arizona, and Kerr brought Fraser onto his
initial staff as a player development coach. Among his initial
responsibilities and one that remains to this day, was to
work with Curry as a shooting coach. If you're wondering
(10:04):
who's really coaching who in that scenario, we'll discuss with
Fraser later. For now, Fraser describes this series against the
Grizzlies as the moment Curry and Thompson unlocked what would
be a fixture in their respective games going forward. It
involved a simple word that would be used regularly in
calling their games, relocation. Here's Fraser, who the team calls Q.
Speaker 11 (10:29):
This is where Stuff had to grow and play. But
Memphis was a very very good defensive team and they
made it really hard for Steph and Clay and all
of our guys in our initial action. So in the
initial action, whatever we were going to do, they were
very good at. But Stuff had to learn in that
moment to get his shots later in the offense and
(10:52):
in different places where he was going to have to relocate.
And that's where the relocation of his game started, where
now you're seeing him come off these pin ins and
he's getting off the and he's moving and then he's
moving again, and it wasn't the initial action that he
was used to with these balls from where he was
just letting balls fly, or even in transition where he
was lining it up from indeed, because they were very
(11:14):
good at that, and this wasn't happening with Memphis. They
were taking those initial actions away. And that's where Stuff
had been learned to expand his offense. And it was
hard for him because he's a microwave I want it now,
a type player that can be electric once he gets going,
and that was hard for him to be patient. But
we showed the clips to that and talked about you
(11:36):
know and stuff of all as a player. In that moment,
our team evolved to where the ball started to even
move more later in the clock, where we were getting
shots in different places. I think not not being able
to play Tony Allen really hurt him defensively, as we're saying,
but I think the fact that we changed what they
(11:58):
were doing offensively deflated them.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Went on to win games four and five in dominant fashion.
The Grizzlies never broke one hundred points in that series,
which is crazy to think about, giving how much of
a scare they put into Golden State. But in games
four and five, Memphis never even cracked eighty five points.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Shot Clott down to four, Boga passes up a wide
up a little improct of his current release.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
I guess four.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Red'll run the point, picks it out.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
Thompson three point times COLDA.
Speaker 12 (12:39):
I mean Jay Jager has to get a time out
and he calls him.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Everything is working for Golden State defensively has been great.
Speaker 9 (12:47):
Limits a Grizzlies to one shot and they're.
Speaker 12 (12:49):
Knocking buckets out on this EA.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Let it start down the rabble, poor Memphis. Oh yes,
it is Thompson three.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
Porters kind of down.
Speaker 9 (13:04):
I would not. I just toying with the prislies.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
A town of basketball we saw a year long.
Speaker 9 (13:13):
From Golden State.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Then in Game six, Curry sent the Grizz fishing for
good with a thirty two point, ten assist, six rebound,
eight three pointer game that included a sixty two foot
buzzer beating bomb that felt like a giant dagger, even
if it only put the Warriors of eight, with twelve
minutes to play Green.
Speaker 12 (13:36):
Weeping trying to get the shot up.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
No call that way.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
Curry flicks it the other way?
Speaker 10 (13:43):
What turn.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
A moleculous shot?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
By telling the love little floor fifth.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Grade, everybody stops, look at every's body.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
So every stopped except for currys We gradually two ducks
out of the way.
Speaker 13 (14:06):
Squash.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The Warriors passed their first major postseason test, and for
the moment silenced those who insisted size, a defensive uptick
and playoff pressure would bring down the three point happy team.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I have said, it's the exact same thing. In sixteen
years here was ant like jump shooting team. I don't
think you can win the championship being good team shoot jumpers.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Golden State shot almost twice as many threes than Memphis
in that series, one hundred and seventy five to ninety two,
and the Warriors converted thirty nine percent of those attempts
compared to an ugly twenty seven percent for Memphis. Not
only was this a breakthrough because Kerr's ability to make
in series adjustments was tested in his first playoffs and
(14:56):
because of the relocation revelation in the Grizzly series, but
also because this was the first time this Warriors qui
had been out of the second round. It was the
first time the Golden State franchise had been in the
conference finals since nineteen seventy six. As if the Warriors
needed any more reason for celebration, they did it all
(15:18):
in a year where the Western Conference was so deep.
The defending champion San Antonio Spurs were the sixth seed
and had fifty five wins. The Spurs couldn't make it
past the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round. It
was that same Clippers team that beat the Warriors in
the first round the previous season, getting Mark Jackson fired.
But those fifty six win Clippers couldn't get past the
(15:40):
second round because they blew a three to one lead
against the Houston Rockets. It was one of head coach
Doc Rivers's three such blown three to one leads in
the playoffs, and it set up the first of four
playoff matchups between the Warriors and Harden's Rockets. Now, this
matchup with the Rockets wasn't the most dramatic of the four.
(16:02):
It featured a Rockets team with Harden, Dwight Howard, and
Trevor Ariza playing under coach Kevin McHale. But Aresa did
pick up on one pattern in this twenty fifteen Conference
Finals against the Warriors. He noticed that no matter how
intimidating the Warriors runs could be, the Rockets always seemed
to have a counter.
Speaker 14 (16:22):
The one thing that we knew is as good as
an offensive team and defensive team that they were, the
way that they play, you always are going to have
a chance to be into the game. So they can
go up by ten, twelve, fifteen points, we still found
ways to get back into the game, and we knew
we can do that playing against them. We just had
to make sure that we could withstand those runs that
(16:44):
they were going. If they hit three threes, we don't
get too high or don't get too low. Just you
know we had veterans and players that was seasoned enough
to understand as a game of runs.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Cases in point games one and two in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Parden, what fast does inside?
Speaker 7 (17:04):
Joe shut up hair Coach's courage.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Curry p three Hard inside a currage.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
With two minutes left, the Rockets were down by eleven.
In Game one, an oracle was rocking and then.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
The reason the steal it somehow holds on Terry back
to a Resa.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
Per three puts it in two point.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Game With fourteen seconds remaining, the Rockets were suddenly within
a bucket. Curry nailed the game sealing free throws for
the win, but Game two would be an even more
stressful finish for the Warriors. Despite leading by seventeen in
the first half.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
Hard Drives throws it up, Howard throws it down one point.
Speaker 9 (17:51):
Game seven seconds ago, Hardens down the airside, dribbles in,
throws out the Howard back the hard one second.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
You can't get the shut up the horse down.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
The game wayd win.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Believable.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
We win Let's Court.
Speaker 12 (18:12):
Any time to go to at a series is big.
Speaker 15 (18:14):
We got to play better, though, so that's what we
gotta store for.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Harden couldn't get off a shot against Golden State's defense,
and the Warriors now had a too nothing lead in
the series. They'd go on to win it in five
and reach their first NBA Finals since nineteen seventy five.
After the break, the best team in the league faces
the biggest force in the league, and the matchup that
defined the NBA for the next four years begins.
Speaker 9 (19:01):
Praise you thought you wouldn't. You're not here in your lifetime,
but Golden State Warriors aren't going to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 14 (19:09):
The Warriors team, I've been here for forty some years,
so we got four more wins. Finish off the job.
Speaker 15 (19:16):
We should enjoy this, get recharged, refocused for their finals,
ready to go.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
What exactly Steph Curry and the Warriors really needed to
prepare for was somewhat unknown. That's because NBA Finals pressure
is one you first have to experience to fully understand.
And on the other side would be a player who'd
already been to five finals, including the previous four straight,
winning two of those.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Win a loser draw.
Speaker 15 (19:48):
We will give our best shot, and I will, as
the leader, have our guys ready for war.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That would be Lebron James. He just completed a run
of four straight finals with the Miami Heat, and this
was his first season back with Cleveland and a big
three that included Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. He had
already learned how to lead a team to a championship,
(20:14):
and now his mission was to win one for Cleveland,
a city less than forty miles from his birthplace of Akron, Ohio.
Despite hoops experts across the nation mostly picking the Warriors
to win, it was James's presence that gave the series
a much more competitive field. Yes, Steph Clay and Draymond
would present a different type of challenge to Lebron the
(20:38):
Cavaliers and their first year head coach David Black, but
James and the Cavs had just swept the Atlanta Hawks
in the Eastern Conference Finals, and he appeared capable of
taking out the Warriors too.
Speaker 15 (20:52):
He looked across the court, and there's a guy that's
been there five straight times.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
There's two of them.
Speaker 14 (20:59):
The new experience didn't phase him at all. He went
through every task, went through everything by any amaze necessary.
You pick your brother up.
Speaker 8 (21:07):
If you're down.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Rachel Nichols had been around every one of James's championship
teams prior to this postseason, and she believed there was
an unstoppable nature about Lebron at the time, even more
so perhaps than the favored Warriors.
Speaker 16 (21:24):
It didn't feel in those finals, at least to me,
that they were favored, because Lebron being back in Cleveland
was such a story and he's the one who had
the experience, and yes, Steph was the MVP, and yes
they had made a great run through the playoffs so far,
but there was an inevitability feeling with Lebron at that
point based off what he had done in Miami, the
MVPs he had been collecting prior to that year, and
(21:47):
a bit of the feeling of, oh, maybe the Warriors
are a little bit favored, but that's just because Kevin
Love has heard.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
That was another thing. The Cavaliers newly formed Big three
was not intact throughout these playoffs, and maybe the NBA
history has a much different look to it, if not
for an unnecessarily aggressive Kelly Olnock. Love was fitting in
just fine in his first playoffs ever, helping the Cavs
to a three to zero series lead against the Boston
(22:17):
Celtics in the first round and leading by eight points
in the early moments of Game four. That's when Love
and Olynic chased down a loose ball, and despite the
ball not really being within Olynics reach, he yanked on
Love's left arm, drawing a foul. It also happened to
injure Love's shoulder. He'd grab at it and run straight
to the Cleveland locker room.
Speaker 9 (22:38):
Ol and Love fighting for it, And this is gonna be.
Speaker 10 (22:41):
Totally Love hurt.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Love hurt himself.
Speaker 12 (22:43):
Yes, he shoulder popped out. Yeah, he ran right right
to the locker room. I think he shoulder popped out.
Speaker 10 (22:48):
So a big moment here as.
Speaker 9 (22:49):
Kevin Love's shoulder popped.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Out as he was battling with Olynic and he raced
right to the locker room.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That was a wrap for Love in the twenty fifteen postseason,
his first ever playoff experience, lasting just four games, but
his team reached the finals regardless, and in that first
finals game, the Calves and Warriors found themselves in overtime
behind forty two in regulation from Lebron.
Speaker 9 (23:22):
Screens at my Bass Golfe. Time of the key three
for the Blind God, and he ties the game in
ninety six. He's got forty two.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Midway through that overtime session. The Finals would suffer another
series shifting injury when Kyrie Irving fractured his left knee
while trying to drive past play Thompson.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Kyrie Irving heard of himself all this play. It was
obviously Landry Awkwardly he was grabbing his knee and lipping
as he went up the floor.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Again it's the.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
Lefty that's been causing him problems through the course of
the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
That meant no Irvin or Love for the remainder of
the Finals, leaving Lebron to lead the Calves on his
own and leaving Cleveland and Kevin Love feeling quite unlucky.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Sitting there watching and feeling that was certainly tough, and
then watching Kyrie hurt his knee and overtime of Game one,
I guess it would have been was also something where
we always look back and think to ourselves, you know,
what would that have looked like against that Warriors team?
Have we been fully healthy? But again, you have to
be a little bit lucky, and that comes with, you know,
(24:34):
fighting that battle of attrition, being healthy at the right time,
clicking at the right time. Guys all being on the
same page cohesion, and the Warriors certainly had that. So yeah,
I do look back and think what if, But certainly
over the course of time, and it transcends not just
in basketball, but in all of sports and every walk
of life. You know, it's it's natural to think that
(24:54):
and to go back and look at that. But that
started that rivalry from there on out.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
The Warriors would go on to win Game one, holding
the suddenly stunned Calves to to Lebron James points in
the entire overtime.
Speaker 6 (25:07):
James the rebound golden stickfull tip Game one.
Speaker 9 (25:12):
As they finally score it overtime.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Certainly, this was all the Warriors would need to coast
to their first title in forty years. The King was
still around, but his main men kept falling and there
was no way he could carry this version of the
Calves past the Warriors.
Speaker 10 (25:31):
Jugger.
Speaker 9 (25:31):
Fifteen seconds left, the Warriors are down by two.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Curry off the screen.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
Let's time a can of line to the rim lay.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
For the first time in NBA history, the first two
games of the NBA Finals aren't going to overtime?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Wait, could he? Well, he'd at least needs someone to
step into Kyrie Irving's boy, someone who could impact the
game for forty or more minutes. Someone who could make
a timely basket or earned clutch free throws. Someone who
could make life difficult for Steph Curry and the Warriors
as a whole. That someone was naturally Matthew Delavdova.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
Well, this game for Cleveland, it's been all about their defense.
Delavdova one of that defense, starting a place at Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Delhi, who'd played on the Australian national team alongside Warriors
big man Andrew Boget, averaged twenty minutes a game in
the regular season, and as the postseason continued, he showed
his value more and more, starting a pair of games
for Irving in the Conference finals, including a forty five minute,
seventeen point performance in a Game three overtime win. But
(26:41):
this would be an even more intense challenge and when
he knew would last the rest of the finals for him.
With Irving out and in Game two, he delivered the
type of performance that would make Delavadova one of the
sports most talked about players for about five days. Delhi
scored Game two's decisive points with free throws after getting
(27:03):
foul rebounding at James Jones miss.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
James kicks it out.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
James Jones missus Televandova on the file and he's found
on the shot attempt clutch free pros from Matthew Dellavedova.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He then played more stellar defense on Curry, who missed
a potential game winner and finished the game just five
of twenty three from the field for nineteen points.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Yigdala fights Curry.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Curry on the drive step back, puts it up airball,
James the rebound and they foul him immediately. With four
point four remaining, it's certainly not over yet, although Golden
State is at a timeouts. James will go to the
line for two.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But guess who coached Delhi again? Sure, Lebron James' thirty
nine point triple double was something, but Deli was cooking
defensively for forty three crucial minutes.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
They've been so aggressive today and it's because of Della Vandova.
Speaker 8 (28:00):
There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And in game three back in Eveland, the formula worked again.
Lebron took almost half his team shots and finished with
forty points, twelve rebounds, and eight assists, while Dela Vedova
logged another thirty nine minutes, scored twenty points, and helped
force Curry into six turnovers with his relentless pressure.
Speaker 9 (28:22):
Back to Delvadova, tad to shoot behind, curried out, gabbling
off ballot.
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Shooting perfuny bret to the jel Vadova was falling down
to his left garry lots of it stolen by James,
had foul by Tom took another extraordinary performance from Lebron James.
Speaker 9 (28:41):
The Cleveland Gavaliers have taken the two games to one.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Lead near the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
And David Lee was thinking the same as the rest
of the viewing audience. Could Lebron really do this as well?
A big one?
Speaker 12 (28:56):
I remember all was looking at each other in Game
three at halftime being like, is this guy who's gonna
beat us all on his own? He's got guys that
have averaged like six or eight points a game. He's
had Delavandova and these guys playing like they're all stars,
only because he is carrying so much in the load
that anytime he's not shooting, you're like, oh, thank god,
Lebron's not the one, you know, taking us to the
(29:17):
basket one on three and finishing and one right now,
So he's he played so well that he almost did
it on his own. But I mean, just one of
those guys that is is times. You know, I was
maybe a top twenty player in the league with those
All star gears. Guys like that are playing a whole
different game. Guys like him and stuff are playing a
whole different game than the rest of the guys in
the league, and it's pretty special to watch.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Delavdova's efforts were pretty awesome to watch too, even if
he was smudging the beautiful game Curry and the Warriors played.
Bo get knew his national team partner was capable of
this type of championship level assistance. He just wasn't sure
how sustainable it was. Here's Bogan.
Speaker 10 (29:55):
Yeah, I mean, Deli was Deli. That's what he does.
He's all in defensively, and look, do I think he
completely shot down stiff No. I think he made a
lot high for him. And the finals physicality level goes
up even more than the playoffs, so I think there
was a lot more allowed. That plays right into Delhi's game.
You know, the problem was for the Cavs that Delhi
hadn't played those minutes all season, all of a sudden,
(30:17):
he's playing thirty five or forty at a high level.
I played with obviously the national team, and he's notorious
for cramping because he just he plays himself to exhaustion.
He won't slow down, like you'll just keep going and
then subs oppening locks up. And I think that's exactly
what happened. So after I think I think it was
Game three in Cleveland, he had to go to the hospital.
(30:38):
Some people don't know Jason round Steph for three games
and he ended up completely his body completely locked up
at Cass Facility in the whole tub, could a move,
had to get put on a stretcher, had to go
to the hospital and be on ivs.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
After the break, the Warriors make a deadly change that
shifts the NBA Finals and how we view basketball.
Speaker 10 (30:59):
Altoget it's compliment to Delhi, but it's also tells you
how it is to chase around Steph Carie for three
games and he just completely locked up. So he did
a fantastic job. But then you know, once he knew
(31:21):
what was going on behind the scenes, he just could
have sustained it for six games. And I think he
was out of puff. The last couple of games.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Delly did indeed seem out of puff despite the refueling
at the hospital. The rest of the series, he shot
just five of twenty six from the field, and his
defense on Curry didn't match his efforts from the first
three games, but there was much more at play than
a reserve guard being dehydrated and fatigued. Much like the
(31:49):
Grizzly series, when the Warriors found themselves down two games
to one, it was a combined effort from the coaching
staff and the players that turned the tie. In Game three,
with the Warriors down seventeen and headed to another two deficit,
Kerr gave the Warriors a different look and gave David
Lee some marching orders.
Speaker 12 (32:09):
Look, David, we're going to try to go small with
you at the five here and run some pick and
rolls and spread these guys out because they're not necessarily
beating us inside. But the matchups is aren't right. We
can't put our finger on it as a staff, but
go out there and just play free. And we almost
came back and won that game, and I had a
big fourth quarter there, but it was only because you
could see that when we went smaller and we had
(32:33):
basically one big and four Smalls or a pick and
roll with everybody spread. With our shooting, Cleveland seemed very
off balance. You had Lebron talking to Tristan, tell you
why are you covering here? And where was the rotation?
And so our coaching staff, you could see after the game,
was like, hey, we lost this one. We need to
be better in these categories, but I think we just
(32:54):
found something here.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That seventeen point deficit was down to one with two
forty five left in Game three before James and the
Haves eventually pulled it out. Long series, right, long series.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
What's important is that we cheep building and we grow
every play, every procession.
Speaker 10 (33:14):
Whether we win this game or not, we've got another
game in two days.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
Well, let's get our toys, let's get our excames, let's
get our blame.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
But after the game, with a suggestion coming from Kerr's
special assistant Nick Urrean, the Warriors made a switch to
their starting lineup based on that late success in Game three.
The Warriors often ended games with Andrea Guadala, Draymond Green,
and Harrison Barnes in the front court alongside the Splash Brothers.
It would be known as the Death lineup because of
(33:44):
its ability to put a nail in an opposing team's coffin.
That lineup had played together for one hundred and two
minutes during the regular season and sixty two minutes through
the first eighteen games of the playoffs. But now, with
Lebron James tearing up the Warriors, they'd look to start
games this way, and Andrea g Woodalo would need to
(34:05):
replace Boga in the starting lineup. Bogut had started all
but two regular season games he played in that season
and every playoff game to that point, so when Kerr
approached him prior to Game four, Boget had to face reality.
Speaker 10 (34:19):
It's never a great conversation as a player when you
hear that you care being benched. You know, started every
game for the whole season, for the whole playoff run.
Cleveland didn't have a post up guy, right, so my
skill set of guarding a post and being tegnal defensively
was kind of limited. Offensively, I didn't have a great series,
So yeah, I mean they the numbers. The numbers said
all season the lineup of death or Death lineup was
(34:41):
a small ball lineup, drained one at the five and
Andre the four, so we always had that in our
back pocket. Whenever things would go Australia, we could go
to that lineup, and yes, Thed came to me. Look,
I wasn't happy at the time. I'm gonna be honest.
You know, when you hear those conversations, you're like, okay,
like all right, so on escape go cool. But once
I got out of my feelings and stopped thinking about me,
you think, ship, I'm in a championship series, been integral
(35:04):
part of this team, regardless game four we need to win.
It's obviously not working with me at the five. Let's
buy into it, you know, And after a night, have
a sleep, calm down, I realized you put your coach
and hat on. You're like, the method to the madness
is this lineup works. The number say it works, and
if we win a championship doing it, fantastic. You know.
(35:26):
If you don't win a championship doing it, then you
can be like, you know, not fair, blah blah blah.
But on the flip side, if I stayed in the
starting lineup and we lost that series, would I be happy? No?
But if I'm out of that lineup and we won
the series, It's a no brain of conversation I have,
Especially when you're reminiscing looking back, when you're in the moment,
it's a little bit different. It's a little bit bit
harsher reality because you're you know, it's like, oh, so
(35:48):
it's my fault. We're down one two, not necessarily, but
it's a part of it, right, So you actually have
to understand that and take it with your grain of
salt and then move on.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
It also helped that Boget's replacement in the starting lineup,
Agwadala had our Aready made this exact sacrifice going to
the bench to begin the season. Adding to that, David
Lee never got his starting spot back when he returned
from injury in season, So who was Bogu to fight
this decision?
Speaker 10 (36:17):
That was the other thing when you really think about it,
You're like, how can I sit here and cry about
things when other guys have dealt with the same stuff
and brought into it, And I know all those guys
were individually frustrated in the moment. It's how quick we
can get over that? And then you know, after one
game of it happening, you get over it and you
chief your teammates and you stand up. And I got
into a couple of those games late for three or
(36:37):
four minutes, and I was trying to crush some rebounds,
be physical, screen to whatever I need to do. But yeah,
the minute's minis thing definitely dried up. But that's a
part of sports, and you want to find those matchups.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Bogot would play a few minutes in Game four, but
no more after that. The move in the lineup was
somewhat modeled after what the Spurs did to Lebron's heat
in the twenty fourteen finals. With six foot eight bors
Dao at center. At times for San Antonio, the Spurs
offense would sing, swinging the ball around the court so
quickly the defense couldn't keep up. Draymond Green was effectively
(37:10):
the Boris Dia in this equation, but the Splash Brothers
were even deadlier shooters than the Spurs backcourt, and the
switching defense this lineup allowed the Warriors to play was
to keep with a death theme, suffocating at times. It
was the turning point in these finals, and it was
clear to everyone watching, including Nichols.
Speaker 16 (37:33):
Then once the death lineup was in there, and it
really felt like strategically they were winning. They weren't winning
by default. They were winning because of their skill, because
of what Steph could do, because of what the rest
of the guys could do. Draymond obviously, in that new
role that he had at center, was making such a
huge difference and playing the position in a way that
was just felt so fresh and engaging. And Clay obviously
(37:55):
is an entergy onto a solar system unto himself. So
I think that not only did the actual series turn
when Steve made that coaching move, but a lot of
the feel if you're asking me about what it felt
like to be around the players in the locker room,
in the arenas, the way even the fans were reacting
really changed after that moment.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Kerr's choice to start Iguadala may have been the key decision,
but Iguodala still had to perform, and that meant not
only keeping the floor spaced by hitting three pointers when available,
but also defending the best player in this series, Lebron
James for most of his time out there.
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Adreadala Adota five defensive players.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Iguadala wasn't a particularly deadly three point shooter, hitting just
thirty three percent for his career, but in this series,
he was forty percent from distance.
Speaker 9 (38:49):
Rotation to Igodalla for triple is dow Brodre.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
More importantly, he was able to spend more time defending James,
who shot just thirty nine percent over the last three
games of the series, an all around performance. Iguadala felt
coming for himself before the finals.
Speaker 15 (39:08):
I remember before Game one and I was in the
gym every night, even after practices, kind of had this
blueprint laid out. I would make my mark on the finals.
So I was really gonna put my standpoint it. And
it's funny because my son said you're gonna get high
for the finals, and I laughed at him. I'm like,
you know, son, I'm just making sure I'm prepared to
being ready for in a moment.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
And after the Finals, his preparation was rewarded with the
Finals MVP. To this day, some argue that Curry was
still worthy of the award, particularly after the thirty seven
points in the pivotal Game five, but Iguadala was voted
MVP by media members and it was exactly what Kerr
had in mind when he made the lineup switch.
Speaker 13 (39:55):
For him to get Finals MVP. It was one of
my favorite moments that we've had since I've been here
is seeing him get the MVPs. It's everything you believe
in as a coach, but sacrifice and team leading to
individual awards. That's that was a perfect example.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
This year's Bill Russell MVP is a player who didn't
start in a single game in Code's finals.
Speaker 8 (40:22):
Faster, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
The Warriors would win their first championship since nineteen seventy
five in six games on Cleveland's floor. In the clincher,
Steph had twenty five as did Iguadal and Draymond Green
managed a triple double and added three steals.
Speaker 12 (40:43):
And it's over.
Speaker 6 (40:45):
The championship is back in the Bay for the first
time in forty years.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
It was so much more than ending a forty year draft.
This championship had a freshness to it in the super
team era. This smallish, organic group of scrappy yet skilled
players had just dominated an entire NBA season start to finish,
and almost no one saw it coming.
Speaker 6 (41:12):
And the dream season is now complete, the goal of
State Warriors of They're twenty fifteen Nbaight champions.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
There was one writer from the Bay Area who worked
for ESPN at the time, Ethan Sherwood Strauss, who predicted
this Warriors championship in the preseason. Maybe Strauss is from
the future because no one else predicted this that early.
By the time the championship actually happened, everyone else watching
had fully recognized what this Warriors team was.
Speaker 16 (41:42):
It felt special, it really did. It's funny. I have
covered a lot of titles in a lot of different
sports at this point in my career, and I always
sort of knock it down into two categories. There are
the teams that are expected to win, and I don't
even mean the teams that are favored. I mean the
teams that have all the ingredients all season. People have
been saying they're in the conversation, they still have to
(42:03):
accomplish it, but they marched to the playoffs, they marched
to the title, and they do it, and they have
usually an MVP or a big name player or several
big name players, and it's sort of what we thought, right,
And those are great, and those titles are great. Then
there's the ones I call the magic titles, where you know,
I lived in New York and covered the New York
Giants for Sports Center for a while when I was
at ESPN and those two titles were magic titles. I mean,
(42:26):
you have to think about the Super Bowl Championship that
the New York Giants won. That was the teeth of
the nail of David Tyree on the top of a helmet,
you know, against the Patriots team that had run the
table that season. That's the magic version. The two thousand
and six Miami Heat title to me was a little
bit of the magic version. I think pat Riley Scotch
taped and Ferry Dust did that title together, and they
(42:48):
did it, and for me, the Warriors were they had
kind of a magic title in that way. That was
just sort of everything was new, everything was fresh, everything
was a surprise.
Speaker 8 (43:00):
Hours in.
Speaker 9 (43:06):
It looks so much better person too.
Speaker 16 (43:18):
Steep Kerr, through the strength of his staff, pulled out
that incredible deathline of Steph Curry. Was just this incredible
force and every time your TV practically vibrated watching him
and Mike Breen and the Bang Bang and the whole thing.
And you know, Steve Kerr was so funny to us
in the media and the by proxy the fans during
that time where he would talk about like, oh, I
would say bad shot, bad shot, bad shot from the
(43:40):
slidelines and then instead would get in good shot. You know,
it just it felt like one of these sort of
special runs. And even though you cannot say someone who
won the MVP is leading a Cinderella team, I would
never say that, it did feel a little bit with
Lebron being such a goliath, with this team coming a
little bit out of nowhere was Steve Kerr, who frankly
(44:01):
was a super popular coach who had won five titles
at that point as a player. It just felt like
all the ingredients were there to have this just feel
a little bit magic, and the players felt that way too.
I think afterward you can see their joy. You can
see it in the parade, you can see it in
the way they came back in twenty sixteen, and they
knew what they had there at that point, but they
were still fresh and young enough not to be jaded
(44:23):
by having it.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
For David Lee, who arrived in Golden State when not
much was going well, had given up his starting role
before the championship season, and played sparingly in the last
two rounds of the playoffs, it still felt just as
satisfying to experience a title in an area so desperate
for basketball success.
Speaker 12 (44:43):
I think where it really set in was we were
having that parade and over a million people in Oakland
showing up and being on floats, and you're like thinking
to yourself the whole time, like I'm used to watching
like you know, the Patriots or somebody do this in
the NFL, and you're watching it on TV, and now
we're the ones that are here and celebrating, and guys
are making speeches, and it's just it was so numbers.
Speaker 8 (45:05):
We went in forty years?
Speaker 6 (45:07):
Are you ready to celebrate when you're twenty fifteen?
Speaker 13 (45:10):
And whoa jim.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
It wasn't just the current champion Warriors riding down the
streets in the Bay. Warriors greats from the previous forty
years were in cars on floats celebrating the championship and
resetting Warriors history.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
All of damnation.
Speaker 7 (45:37):
We did it. We did it, so.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Let's celebrate, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
There didn't seem to be any reason why this parade
couldn't continue past the twenty fifteen season. The Splash Brothers
were only entering their prime, Draymond Green still had a
leap to make as well, and Niquidala wasn't going anywhere.
The following season couldn't have much suffering involved, could it
actually for Steve occur and then eventually the entirety of
(46:06):
the Warriors. The twenty fifteen sixteen experience could only be
described that painful. I'm the next Dub Dynasty.
Speaker 16 (46:21):
Oh was terrible.
Speaker 13 (46:22):
It was terrible. I mean I was thrilled for the team,
but I felt left out. You know, I'm laying at
home on my bed watching the Stoman and team one
night after night, and I'm not there to enjoy being
part of it. Yeah.
Speaker 10 (46:34):
It was rough.
Speaker 14 (46:35):
It's a complete out of body experience.
Speaker 5 (46:38):
I don't plan it. It just was so shocking, and
it happened so quickly that I kind of lost my mind.
Speaker 10 (46:44):
So plays in that locker room that wanted to go
for seventy three and nine, there were players that were like,
let's just be healthy.
Speaker 11 (46:51):
He loves the show. He loves the moment. No moment's
too big for him. That's what he wants.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Dub Dynasty is a production of iHeart Meat and the NBA.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
Dubb Dynasty is a production of iHeartMedia and the NBA.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Just to show you the scene at Oracle Arena in Oakland,
the home standing Golden State Warriors take the floor better
than twenty thousand going wild, and there Webelieved shirts as
Golden State tries to do what's never been done in
NBA history. And number eight bes and number one and
the best seven.
Speaker 3 (00:26):
For the first time in this series, Wary really shirts
him doubt in the final three minutes.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Scorelets stretch when they're.
Speaker 5 (00:33):
Outscore by fifty's huts.
Speaker 6 (00:35):
How don't they got to come out using energy of
this crowd.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Really attack and regain that's lost that right out if
you discovered to this morning. Fraction comes straight away for three,
Barns runs the floor. Lease it for Traction, who fires?
Speaker 7 (00:58):
There's Bars State eighteen on acture by the Warriors.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Those were some of the most memorable moments from the
We Believe Warriors the two thousand and six oh seventeen
that displayed the full potential of Fay Area basketball in
one historic first round playoff series. I'm Israel Gucierrez and
this is dub Dynastic led by Baron Davis. Jason Richardson
(01:36):
and a play required midseason from Indiana Stephen Jackson. The
eight seeded Warriors upset the top seeded Dallas Mavericks with
that year's MVP, Dirk Nooviski in six games.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I don't know if I've ever seen a better crowd either, Barby,
in my entire career of playing and watching.
Speaker 8 (01:52):
Basketball, even at the college level.
Speaker 1 (01:55):
You know, maybe this is something you'd see.
Speaker 9 (01:57):
It, you'd kill Cameron Indoor Stadium at.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Duke or something.
Speaker 10 (02:00):
But I've fre seen.
Speaker 9 (02:01):
An entire crowd stand a whole second half. Never seen that.
Speaker 4 (02:06):
It does have that the collegiate atmosphere. The record crowd
for the Warriors betther than twenty thousand, a building that
provides much emotion and energy, and that's been right from
the opening tip.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
The impact that team had on Warriors basketball is far
disproportionate to its actual accomplishments.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
And we are final second the goal to start Warriors.
Speaker 9 (02:37):
Hold off the greatest upset in the history of the
NBA playoffs.
Speaker 4 (02:43):
That half of feed that's up Dallas covers two six
as for sin Fetti comes from above.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
That Warriors team won forty two regular season games and
one playoff series. The following off season, the Warriors once
again broke up a beloved corps by trading Jason Richardson
on Draft Night for Brandon Wright. Then didn't make the playoffs,
so that was it. There was no second playoff run,
yet that was one of the most embraced and still
(03:15):
one of the most discussed teams in Warriors history. Stephen
Jackson and Matt Barnes we Believe teammates, have had a
successful podcast, All the Smoke Together since twenty twenty. Kalina
Hazibuque was a rookie on that team and is now
the Warriors color analyst on their local TV broadcast. Mike Dunleavy,
(03:35):
who was sent to Indiana as part of that Jackson
trade but still played thirty nine games for We Believe,
is currently the Warriors general manager. And of the voices
heard in those highlights, one was legendary play by play
man Marv Albert and the other was Steve Kirk. He
was the one in awe of that Warrior's crowd. The
(03:55):
experience wouldn't just confirm his appreciation of Golden State's brand basketball,
but the memory of that crowd would even end influenced
his decision to eventually become their head coach seven years later.
Belief could only get those Warriors as far as the
second round, where they lost to Carlos Boozer, Darren Williams
and the much bigger Utah Jazz. The twenty fifteen Warriors
(04:19):
looked to be in a similar situation in their second
round playoff matchup. The Memphis Grizzlies were doing exactly as
Charles Barkley predicted a bigger team would do to beat
the Warriors pound Golden State in the paint and on
the boards. Through three games, Marcus Sohle and Zach Randolph
(04:39):
were claiming the paint and seemingly getting stronger by the game.
Mike Conley was running the point efficiently, and Tony Allen
was causing absolute havoc on the defensive end.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Tony Allen what was steel and Alan ahead of the pack?
One of the best defenders in the NBA. He thinks
he is the best.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Allen had averaged two steals a game in the regular season,
but he'd already had eleven through the first three games
of this series. He'd helped the Grizzlies defense force twenty
Warriors turnovers. In Memphis's Game two win, and then another
seventeen in Game three.
Speaker 6 (05:12):
So there's Alan, the Catta Steel Allen all the way
in and the flush Tony Allen.
Speaker 9 (05:21):
He's letting us know First team All defense again.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Curry was particularly affected in those two Warriors losses, shooting
thirty eight percent from the field and just nineteen from
three in those games.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
Memphis went back to back wins against the number one
seed in the West at Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
The Grizzlies have a two games to one lead and a.
Speaker 6 (05:44):
Team that was the best team in the NBA all years.
Speaker 9 (05:47):
He's gotten punched in the gun.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
Allen was a menace and he needed to be addressed.
Steve Kerr's plan for this was to not address him
at all, at least when he was on the perimeter Offensively.
Andrew Boget was critical in this series the Warriors because
he was seven feet tall and could bang with either
Gasole or Random also known as Zebo. But Kerr's plan
(06:12):
was to match up Bogut with Alan, beginning in Game four.
Bogot's orders were to still protect the paint at all costs,
and if he sees Alan anywhere near the perimeter, there
was no need to follow him there not even if
he has the ball and all the time in the
world to shoot. Here's bogan.
Speaker 10 (06:30):
Steve came to me and said, listen, we're thinking about
starting you on Tony Allen because my strength was back
line defense, communicate a quarterback, like dictating stuff, pointing, yelling, switching,
calling screens, protecting the hoop, just clogging out the paint.
But that strength is best suited when you're guarding. You
either can't shoot the ball from three. So whenever we
played BIGS, that was where I dominated games because I
(06:52):
was just really good at that. So Gasol was shooting
the three ball decently, Zebo's a decent jump shooter, so
it was pretty hard to just completely disrespect them. So
I was like, we're going to start you on Tony Allen,
going to put Harrison on Gasol or Zebo and then
Draymond on the other one, and they're going to front
the post at all times, and you're just going to
clog the paint up at all times and just ro
(07:12):
roam off Tony Allen as much as you can. So
everyone's kind of like, okay, it kind of makes sense
on face value, but you never know how these things
are going to work till the game starts, and I
remember Game four, we start with it and I think
Tony Allen might have made his first shot. I think
he came down the floor. They ran their first play.
He caught the ball at the three. I was middle
(07:33):
the paint. The whole crowd is like, what do you doing?
Shoot it? He didn't shoot that one. They're around their play.
Their offense was all mucked up because the spacing was
vest up. And then I think the next possession he
came down in rhythm and shot of three. I think
he made it. I'm pretty sure he did.
Speaker 1 (07:47):
I can help with that. Alan did make his first shot,
but it wasn't a three point. It was a long
two that made the score seven to six Warriors. But
Bogot's point still stands.
Speaker 10 (07:58):
I was besting for us because he shot a few
more of them, bricked those, and he literally was unplayable to.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
That Boget was exactly right this time. Allen missed three
threes in the next three minutes, was subbed out of
the game, and finished Game four two of nine from
the field an zero of three from three point range.
Speaker 10 (08:15):
Their offense just didn't work because they had no room
to move for the big guys, and they were traditionally
one of the few teams remaining that played two slower,
physical bigs. When you factored that in with a third
guy that can't shoot the three ball, they just clogged
the paint up for him. Calmly couldn't get downhill. They
just they had no oomph getting downhill in spacing, so
they had to take him out of the lineup.
Speaker 1 (08:37):
Alan played just sixteen minutes in a game four Warriors win,
and then just five and a half minutes the rest
of the series. He was also dealing with a hamstring
injury at that point, but it was really the Warriors
defensive plan that kept Allan out.
Speaker 10 (08:51):
So taking him out was great for us offensively because
now you've taken away their best defender just by the
Steve Kirchess game of messing with their coaches, messing with lineups.
They've now subbed himut because they can't play because it
was their offense not realizing that he's their best defender.
And now we've got claim Steph being guided by Colnley
and a few other guys. It was a genius move.
Speaker 1 (09:16):
The Grizzlies weren't a one man defensive operation. However, Gasolt
was actually a former Defensive Player of the Year, and
the group as a whole had the second best defensive
rating in the league that season, second only to the
Golden State Warriors. That meant Steph Clay and the Warriors
still needed to make an offensive adjustment. It wouldn't require
an entire rewrite of the playbook. It would, however, require patients, trust,
(09:42):
and most importantly, movement. Bruce Fraser as an assistant coach
with the Warriors. He and Steve Kerr were teammates at
the University of Arizona, and Kerr brought Fraser onto his
initial staff as a player development coach. Among his initial
responsibilities and one that remains to this day, was to
work with Curry as a shooting coach. If you're wondering
(10:04):
who's really coaching who in that scenario, we'll discuss with
Fraser later. For now, Fraser describes this series against the
Grizzlies as the moment Curry and Thompson unlocked what would
be a fixture in their respective games going forward. It
involved a simple word that would be used regularly in
calling their games, relocation. Here's Fraser, who the team calls Q.
Speaker 11 (10:29):
This is where Stuff had to grow and play. But
Memphis was a very very good defensive team and they
made it really hard for Steph and Clay and all
of our guys in our initial action. So in the
initial action, whatever we were going to do, they were
very good at. But Stuff had to learn in that
moment to get his shots later in the offense and
(10:52):
in different places where he was going to have to relocate.
And that's where the relocation of his game started, where
now you're seeing him come off these pin ins and
he's getting off the and he's moving and then he's
moving again, and it wasn't the initial action that he
was used to with these balls from where he was
just letting balls fly, or even in transition where he
was lining it up from indeed, because they were very
(11:14):
good at that, and this wasn't happening with Memphis. They
were taking those initial actions away. And that's where Stuff
had been learned to expand his offense. And it was
hard for him because he's a microwave I want it now,
a type player that can be electric once he gets going,
and that was hard for him to be patient. But
we showed the clips to that and talked about you
(11:36):
know and stuff of all as a player. In that moment,
our team evolved to where the ball started to even
move more later in the clock, where we were getting
shots in different places. I think not not being able
to play Tony Allen really hurt him defensively, as we're saying,
but I think the fact that we changed what they
(11:58):
were doing offensively deflated them.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
Went on to win games four and five in dominant fashion.
The Grizzlies never broke one hundred points in that series,
which is crazy to think about, giving how much of
a scare they put into Golden State. But in games
four and five, Memphis never even cracked eighty five points.
Speaker 4 (12:20):
Shot Clott down to four, Boga passes up a wide
up a little improct of his current release.
Speaker 9 (12:31):
I guess four.
Speaker 5 (12:34):
Red'll run the point, picks it out.
Speaker 6 (12:36):
Thompson three point times COLDA.
Speaker 12 (12:39):
I mean Jay Jager has to get a time out
and he calls him.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Everything is working for Golden State defensively has been great.
Speaker 9 (12:47):
Limits a Grizzlies to one shot and they're.
Speaker 12 (12:49):
Knocking buckets out on this EA.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
Let it start down the rabble, poor Memphis. Oh yes,
it is Thompson three.
Speaker 7 (12:59):
Porters kind of down.
Speaker 9 (13:04):
I would not. I just toying with the prislies.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
A town of basketball we saw a year long.
Speaker 9 (13:13):
From Golden State.
Speaker 1 (13:15):
Then in Game six, Curry sent the Grizz fishing for
good with a thirty two point, ten assist, six rebound,
eight three pointer game that included a sixty two foot
buzzer beating bomb that felt like a giant dagger, even
if it only put the Warriors of eight, with twelve
minutes to play Green.
Speaker 12 (13:36):
Weeping trying to get the shot up.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
No call that way.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
Curry flicks it the other way?
Speaker 10 (13:43):
What turn.
Speaker 6 (13:52):
A moleculous shot?
Speaker 4 (13:54):
By telling the love little floor fifth.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Grade, everybody stops, look at every's body.
Speaker 9 (14:00):
So every stopped except for currys We gradually two ducks
out of the way.
Speaker 13 (14:06):
Squash.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
The Warriors passed their first major postseason test, and for
the moment silenced those who insisted size, a defensive uptick
and playoff pressure would bring down the three point happy team.
Speaker 3 (14:21):
I have said, it's the exact same thing. In sixteen
years here was ant like jump shooting team. I don't
think you can win the championship being good team shoot jumpers.
Speaker 1 (14:35):
Golden State shot almost twice as many threes than Memphis
in that series, one hundred and seventy five to ninety two,
and the Warriors converted thirty nine percent of those attempts
compared to an ugly twenty seven percent for Memphis. Not
only was this a breakthrough because Kerr's ability to make
in series adjustments was tested in his first playoffs and
(14:56):
because of the relocation revelation in the Grizzly series, but
also because this was the first time this Warriors qui
had been out of the second round. It was the
first time the Golden State franchise had been in the
conference finals since nineteen seventy six. As if the Warriors
needed any more reason for celebration, they did it all
(15:18):
in a year where the Western Conference was so deep.
The defending champion San Antonio Spurs were the sixth seed
and had fifty five wins. The Spurs couldn't make it
past the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round. It
was that same Clippers team that beat the Warriors in
the first round the previous season, getting Mark Jackson fired.
But those fifty six win Clippers couldn't get past the
(15:40):
second round because they blew a three to one lead
against the Houston Rockets. It was one of head coach
Doc Rivers's three such blown three to one leads in
the playoffs, and it set up the first of four
playoff matchups between the Warriors and Harden's Rockets. Now, this
matchup with the Rockets wasn't the most dramatic of the four.
(16:02):
It featured a Rockets team with Harden, Dwight Howard, and
Trevor Ariza playing under coach Kevin McHale. But Aresa did
pick up on one pattern in this twenty fifteen Conference
Finals against the Warriors. He noticed that no matter how
intimidating the Warriors runs could be, the Rockets always seemed
to have a counter.
Speaker 14 (16:22):
The one thing that we knew is as good as
an offensive team and defensive team that they were, the
way that they play, you always are going to have
a chance to be into the game. So they can
go up by ten, twelve, fifteen points, we still found
ways to get back into the game, and we knew
we can do that playing against them. We just had
to make sure that we could withstand those runs that
(16:44):
they were going. If they hit three threes, we don't
get too high or don't get too low. Just you
know we had veterans and players that was seasoned enough
to understand as a game of runs.
Speaker 1 (16:55):
Cases in point games one and two in twenty fifteen.
Speaker 5 (17:01):
Parden, what fast does inside?
Speaker 7 (17:04):
Joe shut up hair Coach's courage.
Speaker 6 (17:08):
Curry p three Hard inside a currage.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
With two minutes left, the Rockets were down by eleven.
In Game one, an oracle was rocking and then.
Speaker 6 (17:23):
The reason the steal it somehow holds on Terry back
to a Resa.
Speaker 9 (17:28):
Per three puts it in two point.
Speaker 1 (17:31):
Game With fourteen seconds remaining, the Rockets were suddenly within
a bucket. Curry nailed the game sealing free throws for
the win, but Game two would be an even more
stressful finish for the Warriors. Despite leading by seventeen in
the first half.
Speaker 6 (17:47):
Hard Drives throws it up, Howard throws it down one point.
Speaker 9 (17:51):
Game seven seconds ago, Hardens down the airside, dribbles in,
throws out the Howard back the hard one second.
Speaker 6 (17:59):
You can't get the shut up the horse down.
Speaker 1 (18:02):
The game wayd win.
Speaker 3 (18:08):
Believable.
Speaker 7 (18:11):
We win Let's Court.
Speaker 12 (18:12):
Any time to go to at a series is big.
Speaker 15 (18:14):
We got to play better, though, so that's what we
gotta store for.
Speaker 1 (18:22):
Harden couldn't get off a shot against Golden State's defense,
and the Warriors now had a too nothing lead in
the series. They'd go on to win it in five
and reach their first NBA Finals since nineteen seventy five.
After the break, the best team in the league faces
the biggest force in the league, and the matchup that
defined the NBA for the next four years begins.
Speaker 9 (19:01):
Praise you thought you wouldn't. You're not here in your lifetime,
but Golden State Warriors aren't going to the NBA Finals.
Speaker 14 (19:09):
The Warriors team, I've been here for forty some years,
so we got four more wins. Finish off the job.
Speaker 15 (19:16):
We should enjoy this, get recharged, refocused for their finals,
ready to go.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
What exactly Steph Curry and the Warriors really needed to
prepare for was somewhat unknown. That's because NBA Finals pressure
is one you first have to experience to fully understand.
And on the other side would be a player who'd
already been to five finals, including the previous four straight,
winning two of those.
Speaker 5 (19:46):
Win a loser draw.
Speaker 15 (19:48):
We will give our best shot, and I will, as
the leader, have our guys ready for war.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
That would be Lebron James. He just completed a run
of four straight finals with the Miami Heat, and this
was his first season back with Cleveland and a big
three that included Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. He had
already learned how to lead a team to a championship,
(20:14):
and now his mission was to win one for Cleveland,
a city less than forty miles from his birthplace of Akron, Ohio.
Despite hoops experts across the nation mostly picking the Warriors
to win, it was James's presence that gave the series
a much more competitive field. Yes, Steph Clay and Draymond
would present a different type of challenge to Lebron the
(20:38):
Cavaliers and their first year head coach David Black, but
James and the Cavs had just swept the Atlanta Hawks
in the Eastern Conference Finals, and he appeared capable of
taking out the Warriors too.
Speaker 15 (20:52):
He looked across the court, and there's a guy that's
been there five straight times.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
There's two of them.
Speaker 14 (20:59):
The new experience didn't phase him at all. He went
through every task, went through everything by any amaze necessary.
You pick your brother up.
Speaker 8 (21:07):
If you're down.
Speaker 1 (21:10):
Rachel Nichols had been around every one of James's championship
teams prior to this postseason, and she believed there was
an unstoppable nature about Lebron at the time, even more
so perhaps than the favored Warriors.
Speaker 16 (21:24):
It didn't feel in those finals, at least to me,
that they were favored, because Lebron being back in Cleveland
was such a story and he's the one who had
the experience, and yes, Steph was the MVP, and yes
they had made a great run through the playoffs so far,
but there was an inevitability feeling with Lebron at that
point based off what he had done in Miami, the
MVPs he had been collecting prior to that year, and
(21:47):
a bit of the feeling of, oh, maybe the Warriors
are a little bit favored, but that's just because Kevin
Love has heard.
Speaker 5 (21:55):
Right.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
That was another thing. The Cavaliers newly formed Big three
was not intact throughout these playoffs, and maybe the NBA
history has a much different look to it, if not
for an unnecessarily aggressive Kelly Olnock. Love was fitting in
just fine in his first playoffs ever, helping the Cavs
to a three to zero series lead against the Boston
(22:17):
Celtics in the first round and leading by eight points
in the early moments of Game four. That's when Love
and Olynic chased down a loose ball, and despite the
ball not really being within Olynics reach, he yanked on
Love's left arm, drawing a foul. It also happened to
injure Love's shoulder. He'd grab at it and run straight
to the Cleveland locker room.
Speaker 9 (22:38):
Ol and Love fighting for it, And this is gonna be.
Speaker 10 (22:41):
Totally Love hurt.
Speaker 2 (22:42):
Love hurt himself.
Speaker 12 (22:43):
Yes, he shoulder popped out. Yeah, he ran right right
to the locker room. I think he shoulder popped out.
Speaker 10 (22:48):
So a big moment here as.
Speaker 9 (22:49):
Kevin Love's shoulder popped.
Speaker 6 (22:51):
Out as he was battling with Olynic and he raced
right to the locker room.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
That was a wrap for Love in the twenty fifteen postseason,
his first ever playoff experience, lasting just four games, but
his team reached the finals regardless, and in that first
finals game, the Calves and Warriors found themselves in overtime
behind forty two in regulation from Lebron.
Speaker 9 (23:22):
Screens at my Bass Golfe. Time of the key three
for the Blind God, and he ties the game in
ninety six. He's got forty two.
Speaker 1 (23:31):
Midway through that overtime session. The Finals would suffer another
series shifting injury when Kyrie Irving fractured his left knee
while trying to drive past play Thompson.
Speaker 5 (23:43):
Kyrie Irving heard of himself all this play. It was
obviously Landry Awkwardly he was grabbing his knee and lipping
as he went up the floor.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Again it's the.
Speaker 6 (23:55):
Lefty that's been causing him problems through the course of
the playoffs.
Speaker 1 (24:00):
That meant no Irvin or Love for the remainder of
the Finals, leaving Lebron to lead the Calves on his
own and leaving Cleveland and Kevin Love feeling quite unlucky.
Speaker 8 (24:11):
Sitting there watching and feeling that was certainly tough, and
then watching Kyrie hurt his knee and overtime of Game one,
I guess it would have been was also something where
we always look back and think to ourselves, you know,
what would that have looked like against that Warriors team?
Have we been fully healthy? But again, you have to
be a little bit lucky, and that comes with, you know,
(24:34):
fighting that battle of attrition, being healthy at the right time,
clicking at the right time. Guys all being on the
same page cohesion, and the Warriors certainly had that. So yeah,
I do look back and think what if, But certainly
over the course of time, and it transcends not just
in basketball, but in all of sports and every walk
of life. You know, it's it's natural to think that
(24:54):
and to go back and look at that. But that
started that rivalry from there on out.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
The Warriors would go on to win Game one, holding
the suddenly stunned Calves to to Lebron James points in
the entire overtime.
Speaker 6 (25:07):
James the rebound golden stickfull tip Game one.
Speaker 9 (25:12):
As they finally score it overtime.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
Certainly, this was all the Warriors would need to coast
to their first title in forty years. The King was
still around, but his main men kept falling and there
was no way he could carry this version of the
Calves past the Warriors.
Speaker 10 (25:31):
Jugger.
Speaker 9 (25:31):
Fifteen seconds left, the Warriors are down by two.
Speaker 6 (25:34):
Curry off the screen.
Speaker 9 (25:35):
Let's time a can of line to the rim lay.
Speaker 6 (25:41):
For the first time in NBA history, the first two
games of the NBA Finals aren't going to overtime?
Speaker 1 (25:48):
Wait, could he? Well, he'd at least needs someone to
step into Kyrie Irving's boy, someone who could impact the
game for forty or more minutes. Someone who could make
a timely basket or earned clutch free throws. Someone who
could make life difficult for Steph Curry and the Warriors
as a whole. That someone was naturally Matthew Delavdova.
Speaker 5 (26:12):
Well, this game for Cleveland, it's been all about their defense.
Delavdova one of that defense, starting a place at Kyrie Irving.
Speaker 1 (26:20):
Delhi, who'd played on the Australian national team alongside Warriors
big man Andrew Boget, averaged twenty minutes a game in
the regular season, and as the postseason continued, he showed
his value more and more, starting a pair of games
for Irving in the Conference finals, including a forty five minute,
seventeen point performance in a Game three overtime win. But
(26:41):
this would be an even more intense challenge and when
he knew would last the rest of the finals for him.
With Irving out and in Game two, he delivered the
type of performance that would make Delavadova one of the
sports most talked about players for about five days. Delhi
scored Game two's decisive points with free throws after getting
(27:03):
foul rebounding at James Jones miss.
Speaker 5 (27:05):
James kicks it out.
Speaker 6 (27:06):
James Jones missus Televandova on the file and he's found
on the shot attempt clutch free pros from Matthew Dellavedova.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
He then played more stellar defense on Curry, who missed
a potential game winner and finished the game just five
of twenty three from the field for nineteen points.
Speaker 5 (27:27):
Yigdala fights Curry.
Speaker 6 (27:30):
Curry on the drive step back, puts it up airball,
James the rebound and they foul him immediately. With four
point four remaining, it's certainly not over yet, although Golden
State is at a timeouts. James will go to the
line for two.
Speaker 1 (27:44):
But guess who coached Delhi again? Sure, Lebron James' thirty
nine point triple double was something, but Deli was cooking
defensively for forty three crucial minutes.
Speaker 4 (27:56):
They've been so aggressive today and it's because of Della Vandova.
Speaker 8 (28:00):
There's no doubt about it.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
And in game three back in Eveland, the formula worked again.
Lebron took almost half his team shots and finished with
forty points, twelve rebounds, and eight assists, while Dela Vedova
logged another thirty nine minutes, scored twenty points, and helped
force Curry into six turnovers with his relentless pressure.
Speaker 9 (28:22):
Back to Delvadova, tad to shoot behind, curried out, gabbling
off ballot.
Speaker 6 (28:26):
Shooting perfuny bret to the jel Vadova was falling down
to his left garry lots of it stolen by James,
had foul by Tom took another extraordinary performance from Lebron James.
Speaker 9 (28:41):
The Cleveland Gavaliers have taken the two games to one.
Speaker 5 (28:44):
Lead near the NBA Finals.
Speaker 1 (28:48):
And David Lee was thinking the same as the rest
of the viewing audience. Could Lebron really do this as well?
A big one?
Speaker 12 (28:56):
I remember all was looking at each other in Game
three at halftime being like, is this guy who's gonna
beat us all on his own? He's got guys that
have averaged like six or eight points a game. He's
had Delavandova and these guys playing like they're all stars,
only because he is carrying so much in the load
that anytime he's not shooting, you're like, oh, thank god,
Lebron's not the one, you know, taking us to the
(29:17):
basket one on three and finishing and one right now,
So he's he played so well that he almost did
it on his own. But I mean, just one of
those guys that is is times. You know, I was
maybe a top twenty player in the league with those
All star gears. Guys like that are playing a whole
different game. Guys like him and stuff are playing a
whole different game than the rest of the guys in
the league, and it's pretty special to watch.
Speaker 1 (29:38):
Delavdova's efforts were pretty awesome to watch too, even if
he was smudging the beautiful game Curry and the Warriors played.
Bo get knew his national team partner was capable of
this type of championship level assistance. He just wasn't sure
how sustainable it was. Here's Bogan.
Speaker 10 (29:55):
Yeah, I mean, Deli was Deli. That's what he does.
He's all in defensively, and look, do I think he
completely shot down stiff No. I think he made a
lot high for him. And the finals physicality level goes
up even more than the playoffs, so I think there
was a lot more allowed. That plays right into Delhi's game.
You know, the problem was for the Cavs that Delhi
hadn't played those minutes all season, all of a sudden,
(30:17):
he's playing thirty five or forty at a high level.
I played with obviously the national team, and he's notorious
for cramping because he just he plays himself to exhaustion.
He won't slow down, like you'll just keep going and
then subs oppening locks up. And I think that's exactly
what happened. So after I think I think it was
Game three in Cleveland, he had to go to the hospital.
(30:38):
Some people don't know Jason round Steph for three games
and he ended up completely his body completely locked up
at Cass Facility in the whole tub, could a move,
had to get put on a stretcher, had to go
to the hospital and be on ivs.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
After the break, the Warriors make a deadly change that
shifts the NBA Finals and how we view basketball.
Speaker 10 (30:59):
Altoget it's compliment to Delhi, but it's also tells you
how it is to chase around Steph Carie for three
games and he just completely locked up. So he did
a fantastic job. But then you know, once he knew
(31:21):
what was going on behind the scenes, he just could
have sustained it for six games. And I think he
was out of puff. The last couple of games.
Speaker 1 (31:29):
Delly did indeed seem out of puff despite the refueling
at the hospital. The rest of the series, he shot
just five of twenty six from the field, and his
defense on Curry didn't match his efforts from the first
three games, but there was much more at play than
a reserve guard being dehydrated and fatigued. Much like the
(31:49):
Grizzly series, when the Warriors found themselves down two games
to one, it was a combined effort from the coaching
staff and the players that turned the tie. In Game three,
with the Warriors down seventeen and headed to another two deficit,
Kerr gave the Warriors a different look and gave David
Lee some marching orders.
Speaker 12 (32:09):
Look, David, we're going to try to go small with
you at the five here and run some pick and
rolls and spread these guys out because they're not necessarily
beating us inside. But the matchups is aren't right. We
can't put our finger on it as a staff, but
go out there and just play free. And we almost
came back and won that game, and I had a
big fourth quarter there, but it was only because you
could see that when we went smaller and we had
(32:33):
basically one big and four Smalls or a pick and
roll with everybody spread. With our shooting, Cleveland seemed very
off balance. You had Lebron talking to Tristan, tell you
why are you covering here? And where was the rotation?
And so our coaching staff, you could see after the game,
was like, hey, we lost this one. We need to
be better in these categories, but I think we just
(32:54):
found something here.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
That seventeen point deficit was down to one with two
forty five left in Game three before James and the
Haves eventually pulled it out. Long series, right, long series.
Speaker 6 (33:08):
What's important is that we cheep building and we grow
every play, every procession.
Speaker 10 (33:14):
Whether we win this game or not, we've got another
game in two days.
Speaker 6 (33:17):
Well, let's get our toys, let's get our excames, let's
get our blame.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
But after the game, with a suggestion coming from Kerr's
special assistant Nick Urrean, the Warriors made a switch to
their starting lineup based on that late success in Game three.
The Warriors often ended games with Andrea Guadala, Draymond Green,
and Harrison Barnes in the front court alongside the Splash Brothers.
It would be known as the Death lineup because of
(33:44):
its ability to put a nail in an opposing team's coffin.
That lineup had played together for one hundred and two
minutes during the regular season and sixty two minutes through
the first eighteen games of the playoffs. But now, with
Lebron James tearing up the Warriors, they'd look to start
games this way, and Andrea g Woodalo would need to
(34:05):
replace Boga in the starting lineup. Bogut had started all
but two regular season games he played in that season
and every playoff game to that point, so when Kerr
approached him prior to Game four, Boget had to face reality.
Speaker 10 (34:19):
It's never a great conversation as a player when you
hear that you care being benched. You know, started every
game for the whole season, for the whole playoff run.
Cleveland didn't have a post up guy, right, so my
skill set of guarding a post and being tegnal defensively
was kind of limited. Offensively, I didn't have a great series,
So yeah, I mean they the numbers. The numbers said
all season the lineup of death or Death lineup was
(34:41):
a small ball lineup, drained one at the five and
Andre the four, so we always had that in our
back pocket. Whenever things would go Australia, we could go
to that lineup, and yes, Thed came to me. Look,
I wasn't happy at the time. I'm gonna be honest.
You know, when you hear those conversations, you're like, okay,
like all right, so on escape go cool. But once
I got out of my feelings and stopped thinking about me,
you think, ship, I'm in a championship series, been integral
(35:04):
part of this team, regardless game four we need to win.
It's obviously not working with me at the five. Let's
buy into it, you know, And after a night, have
a sleep, calm down, I realized you put your coach
and hat on. You're like, the method to the madness
is this lineup works. The number say it works, and
if we win a championship doing it, fantastic. You know.
(35:26):
If you don't win a championship doing it, then you
can be like, you know, not fair, blah blah blah.
But on the flip side, if I stayed in the
starting lineup and we lost that series, would I be happy? No?
But if I'm out of that lineup and we won
the series, It's a no brain of conversation I have,
Especially when you're reminiscing looking back, when you're in the moment,
it's a little bit different. It's a little bit bit
harsher reality because you're you know, it's like, oh, so
(35:48):
it's my fault. We're down one two, not necessarily, but
it's a part of it, right, So you actually have
to understand that and take it with your grain of
salt and then move on.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
It also helped that Boget's replacement in the starting lineup,
Agwadala had our Aready made this exact sacrifice going to
the bench to begin the season. Adding to that, David
Lee never got his starting spot back when he returned
from injury in season, So who was Bogu to fight
this decision?
Speaker 10 (36:17):
That was the other thing when you really think about it,
You're like, how can I sit here and cry about
things when other guys have dealt with the same stuff
and brought into it, And I know all those guys
were individually frustrated in the moment. It's how quick we
can get over that? And then you know, after one
game of it happening, you get over it and you
chief your teammates and you stand up. And I got
into a couple of those games late for three or
(36:37):
four minutes, and I was trying to crush some rebounds,
be physical, screen to whatever I need to do. But yeah,
the minute's minis thing definitely dried up. But that's a
part of sports, and you want to find those matchups.
Speaker 1 (36:46):
Bogot would play a few minutes in Game four, but
no more after that. The move in the lineup was
somewhat modeled after what the Spurs did to Lebron's heat
in the twenty fourteen finals. With six foot eight bors
Dao at center. At times for San Antonio, the Spurs
offense would sing, swinging the ball around the court so
quickly the defense couldn't keep up. Draymond Green was effectively
(37:10):
the Boris Dia in this equation, but the Splash Brothers
were even deadlier shooters than the Spurs backcourt, and the
switching defense this lineup allowed the Warriors to play was
to keep with a death theme, suffocating at times. It
was the turning point in these finals, and it was
clear to everyone watching, including Nichols.
Speaker 16 (37:33):
Then once the death lineup was in there, and it
really felt like strategically they were winning. They weren't winning
by default. They were winning because of their skill, because
of what Steph could do, because of what the rest
of the guys could do. Draymond obviously, in that new
role that he had at center, was making such a
huge difference and playing the position in a way that
was just felt so fresh and engaging. And Clay obviously
(37:55):
is an entergy onto a solar system unto himself. So
I think that not only did the actual series turn
when Steve made that coaching move, but a lot of
the feel if you're asking me about what it felt
like to be around the players in the locker room,
in the arenas, the way even the fans were reacting
really changed after that moment.
Speaker 1 (38:16):
Kerr's choice to start Iguadala may have been the key decision,
but Iguodala still had to perform, and that meant not
only keeping the floor spaced by hitting three pointers when available,
but also defending the best player in this series, Lebron
James for most of his time out there.
Speaker 5 (38:33):
Adreadala Adota five defensive players.
Speaker 1 (38:39):
Iguadala wasn't a particularly deadly three point shooter, hitting just
thirty three percent for his career, but in this series,
he was forty percent from distance.
Speaker 9 (38:49):
Rotation to Igodalla for triple is dow Brodre.
Speaker 1 (38:54):
More importantly, he was able to spend more time defending James,
who shot just thirty nine percent over the last three
games of the series, an all around performance. Iguadala felt
coming for himself before the finals.
Speaker 15 (39:08):
I remember before Game one and I was in the
gym every night, even after practices, kind of had this
blueprint laid out. I would make my mark on the finals.
So I was really gonna put my standpoint it. And
it's funny because my son said you're gonna get high
for the finals, and I laughed at him. I'm like,
you know, son, I'm just making sure I'm prepared to
being ready for in a moment.
Speaker 1 (39:32):
And after the Finals, his preparation was rewarded with the
Finals MVP. To this day, some argue that Curry was
still worthy of the award, particularly after the thirty seven
points in the pivotal Game five, but Iguadala was voted
MVP by media members and it was exactly what Kerr
had in mind when he made the lineup switch.
Speaker 13 (39:55):
For him to get Finals MVP. It was one of
my favorite moments that we've had since I've been here
is seeing him get the MVPs. It's everything you believe
in as a coach, but sacrifice and team leading to
individual awards. That's that was a perfect example.
Speaker 2 (40:13):
This year's Bill Russell MVP is a player who didn't
start in a single game in Code's finals.
Speaker 8 (40:22):
Faster, Oh my god.
Speaker 1 (40:27):
The Warriors would win their first championship since nineteen seventy
five in six games on Cleveland's floor. In the clincher,
Steph had twenty five as did Iguadal and Draymond Green
managed a triple double and added three steals.
Speaker 12 (40:43):
And it's over.
Speaker 6 (40:45):
The championship is back in the Bay for the first
time in forty years.
Speaker 1 (40:51):
It was so much more than ending a forty year draft.
This championship had a freshness to it in the super
team era. This smallish, organic group of scrappy yet skilled
players had just dominated an entire NBA season start to finish,
and almost no one saw it coming.
Speaker 6 (41:12):
And the dream season is now complete, the goal of
State Warriors of They're twenty fifteen Nbaight champions.
Speaker 1 (41:20):
There was one writer from the Bay Area who worked
for ESPN at the time, Ethan Sherwood Strauss, who predicted
this Warriors championship in the preseason. Maybe Strauss is from
the future because no one else predicted this that early.
By the time the championship actually happened, everyone else watching
had fully recognized what this Warriors team was.
Speaker 16 (41:42):
It felt special, it really did. It's funny. I have
covered a lot of titles in a lot of different
sports at this point in my career, and I always
sort of knock it down into two categories. There are
the teams that are expected to win, and I don't
even mean the teams that are favored. I mean the
teams that have all the ingredients all season. People have
been saying they're in the conversation, they still have to
(42:03):
accomplish it, but they marched to the playoffs, they marched
to the title, and they do it, and they have
usually an MVP or a big name player or several
big name players, and it's sort of what we thought, right,
And those are great, and those titles are great. Then
there's the ones I call the magic titles, where you know,
I lived in New York and covered the New York
Giants for Sports Center for a while when I was
at ESPN and those two titles were magic titles. I mean,
(42:26):
you have to think about the Super Bowl Championship that
the New York Giants won. That was the teeth of
the nail of David Tyree on the top of a helmet,
you know, against the Patriots team that had run the
table that season. That's the magic version. The two thousand
and six Miami Heat title to me was a little
bit of the magic version. I think pat Riley Scotch
taped and Ferry Dust did that title together, and they
(42:48):
did it, and for me, the Warriors were they had
kind of a magic title in that way. That was
just sort of everything was new, everything was fresh, everything
was a surprise.
Speaker 8 (43:00):
Hours in.
Speaker 9 (43:06):
It looks so much better person too.
Speaker 16 (43:18):
Steep Kerr, through the strength of his staff, pulled out
that incredible deathline of Steph Curry. Was just this incredible
force and every time your TV practically vibrated watching him
and Mike Breen and the Bang Bang and the whole thing.
And you know, Steve Kerr was so funny to us
in the media and the by proxy the fans during
that time where he would talk about like, oh, I
would say bad shot, bad shot, bad shot from the
(43:40):
slidelines and then instead would get in good shot. You know,
it just it felt like one of these sort of
special runs. And even though you cannot say someone who
won the MVP is leading a Cinderella team, I would
never say that, it did feel a little bit with
Lebron being such a goliath, with this team coming a
little bit out of nowhere was Steve Kerr, who frankly
(44:01):
was a super popular coach who had won five titles
at that point as a player. It just felt like
all the ingredients were there to have this just feel
a little bit magic, and the players felt that way too.
I think afterward you can see their joy. You can
see it in the parade, you can see it in
the way they came back in twenty sixteen, and they
knew what they had there at that point, but they
were still fresh and young enough not to be jaded
(44:23):
by having it.
Speaker 1 (44:24):
For David Lee, who arrived in Golden State when not
much was going well, had given up his starting role
before the championship season, and played sparingly in the last
two rounds of the playoffs, it still felt just as
satisfying to experience a title in an area so desperate
for basketball success.
Speaker 12 (44:43):
I think where it really set in was we were
having that parade and over a million people in Oakland
showing up and being on floats, and you're like thinking
to yourself the whole time, like I'm used to watching
like you know, the Patriots or somebody do this in
the NFL, and you're watching it on TV, and now
we're the ones that are here and celebrating, and guys
are making speeches, and it's just it was so numbers.
Speaker 8 (45:05):
We went in forty years?
Speaker 6 (45:07):
Are you ready to celebrate when you're twenty fifteen?
Speaker 13 (45:10):
And whoa jim.
Speaker 1 (45:21):
It wasn't just the current champion Warriors riding down the
streets in the Bay. Warriors greats from the previous forty
years were in cars on floats celebrating the championship and
resetting Warriors history.
Speaker 5 (45:34):
All of damnation.
Speaker 7 (45:37):
We did it. We did it, so.
Speaker 5 (45:40):
Let's celebrate, thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (45:43):
There didn't seem to be any reason why this parade
couldn't continue past the twenty fifteen season. The Splash Brothers
were only entering their prime, Draymond Green still had a
leap to make as well, and Niquidala wasn't going anywhere.
The following season couldn't have much suffering involved, could it
actually for Steve occur and then eventually the entirety of
(46:06):
the Warriors. The twenty fifteen sixteen experience could only be
described that painful. I'm the next Dub Dynasty.
Speaker 16 (46:21):
Oh was terrible.
Speaker 13 (46:22):
It was terrible. I mean I was thrilled for the team,
but I felt left out. You know, I'm laying at
home on my bed watching the Stoman and team one
night after night, and I'm not there to enjoy being
part of it. Yeah.
Speaker 10 (46:34):
It was rough.
Speaker 14 (46:35):
It's a complete out of body experience.
Speaker 5 (46:38):
I don't plan it. It just was so shocking, and
it happened so quickly that I kind of lost my mind.
Speaker 10 (46:44):
So plays in that locker room that wanted to go
for seventy three and nine, there were players that were like,
let's just be healthy.
Speaker 11 (46:51):
He loves the show. He loves the moment. No moment's
too big for him. That's what he wants.
Speaker 1 (47:01):
Dub Dynasty is a production of iHeart Meat and the NBA.
For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you get your podcasts.
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