I thought it was a joke that Steph got MVP before they ever faced each other. Lebron os the best all around player, most dominant, as well as more valuable to his team. He showed how much better he was in the finals.
or steph did outplay him all year and was noticeably injured during the finals. either one.
Curry had the better year and deserved the MVP, but James is by far the best player in the World. It isn't that close.
And for the record, Curry played worse last year in the Finals when he wasn't "injured" against Cleveland when the Warriors were the champions.
The stats say otherwise:
Stephen Curry STL FG% 3PT% MP Pts. TRB AST STL
2015 Finals 11 .443 .385 42.5 26.0 5.2 6.3 1.8
2016 Finals 6 .403 .400 35.1 22.6 4.9 3.7 0.9
And if James blocked any of Curry's shots in the 2015 Finals, it wasn't an easy knock down like he got in this years Finals more than once.
oh wow he had much better overall stats in 2015 finals, was Moronis just making up stuff? I generally just trust posters when they post up stats, but I guess that guy can't be trusted.
He shot worse from three and the line. He rebounded worse (6.7% vs. 8.0%). He blocked shots worse. He was a better passer, stole the ball better, and was slightly less turnover prone. He did play more minutes. Guess it just depends what you want from your go to scorer and best player.
Are you reading what you are writing right now? He was worse at blocked shots and rebounding? That is your concern from your 6 foot guard? He scored worse, played 7 minutes less per game (a clear sign of conditioning and being injured) played worse defense, had more turnovers and passed worse (all the stuff you actually care about from a guard. What an exhausting stupid argument.
Or it is a clear sign that in 2015 there were multiple OT and close games. I'm sure that the blowouts in 2016 have nothing to do with the lesser minutes. I mean that 24 minutes 43 seconds Curry played in game 2 in 2016 had nothing to do with the overall minutes in the series. Couldn't have been a factor at all. Curry had 3 30 point games in the Finals, two of them were this year. Curry had only one Finals game in which he shot over 60% from the floor. That was this year. The worst Finals game in Curry's career was Game 2 in 2015. The best Finals game in Curry's career by most metrics was Game 4 in 2016. Curry scored more points per minute in 2016 than he did in 2015 (.64 vs. .61 or a point every 1.56 vs. 1.65 minutes). He played less minutes, in a large part because the margin of victory in the first 3 games of the series was 17, 33, and 30. The next 3 games weren't under 10 either. Only game 7 was a down to the wire game. That means you play less minutes.
Look I get it, this board hates Lebron James and wants to downgrade his accomplishments, especially as he passes Larry Bird nationally. I get it, but let's stop taking things away from the Cavs. The Cavs focused on and punished Curry and Thompson and did so for 2 consecutive Finals. The results from Curry and Thompson in those Finals are fairly consistent across the board. Thompson was consistently bad and Curry was consistently inconsistent with some great games and some terrible games both years. Curry was out there playing 40 minutes a night in the games that mattered and he was doing that against both OKC and Cleveland. You didn't hear anyone claiming Curry was injured when he torched OKC for 98 points in the final 3 games of that series (at right under 40 minutes a game).
This is really simple and it is clear you are being emotional because you like Lebron. I said the Warrriors were lucky the previous finals (repeatedly) because Irving and Love were injured. Is that cause I want to to take something away from Curry? No it is just because it is a fact and what happened. This year, the opposite happened. The warriors had some bad luck with their one true big getting injured, Curry being banged up and Green getting suspended. In a close series those were all small things that were enough to impact a result. That is not trying to demean Lebron just like pointing out that last year's injuries/luck benefitted the warriors is not demeaning Steph or anyone else. Its facts
It is clear now that you are so sensitive about anyone saying something potentially negative about the Cavs or Lebron that we can't even point out basic facts without you disputing them and putting up twisted weird numbers to try and make points. (Your listing Curry's lower block totals as part of your evidence of him having a worse series was among the most pathetic things I have seen on this board). I get it, you like Lebron and the Cavs. Maybe try and be less defensive.
Also for the record, I don't really put much thought into comparison between Bird and Lebron James. I was young enough that I only caught the second half of Bird's career. As a kid I remember really enjoying watching him play and reading his biography Drive. His career was really cut short by injuries which was disappointing, but also will make trying to compare him to 20 years of Lebron playing in the NBA in a different era a pretty fruitless era. I've occasionally seen a few "what player was better" thread on here in the dogs days of summer, but I am pretty sure the average Celtics fan isn't trying to demean Lebron because they like Bird. I mean, that really doesn't even make sense and is kind of insane proposition.
I would hope you can take a step back from your Lebron fandom or Cleveland roots for a moment and realize that every team needs some luck and small breaks on their way to a championship. These things get pointed out every single year. Heck we are still talking about how things would have been different in the big 3 era if KG hadn't gotten hurt. That is how sports and discussions work. If you view these acknowledgements of injuries and suspensions that happened as somehow diminishing your teams accomplishments you are going to be constantly miserable (which from this thread and others, it appears that you are).
