Warriors sink Cavaliers in game four

When crunch time came,the Cleveland Cavaliers were found wanting as the Golden State Warriors dominated much of the second half,as the Warriors outscored Cleveland by 16 points and won a 108-97 decision in Cleveland.
Kyrie Irving finished with 34 points and LeBron James added 25 more,but in the fourth quarter,both would come up wanting.
Cleveland now trails three games to one and must sweep the final three games to win the series...

Swashbucklings

1) Just painful to write these notes and I'm trying to not be too negative.
However,this was just a game that saw the Cavaliers get outhustled.
Every loose ball and hustle play went to the Warriors,they paid the price to win and on the hustle side of the game,it was Golden State taking command..

2) Kyrie Irving made half his shots and scored his 34,but I thought he was still caught in a scoring duel with Stephen Curry and was playing out of control.
However,for whatever those criticisms were,at least Irving,as misguided as it often was,was aggressive on the floor-that's more than I can say for...

3) LeBron James stat line looks good (25,13 and 9),but stats can say whatever you want them to say.
I thought LeBron was far too passive,wasn't nearly as effective as usual when driving the lane and didn't show a lot of passion until his little spat with Draymond Green.

4) Tristan Thompson played well,but once again,the lousy free throwing shooting (0 for 5) makes him such a liability in close games.
Thompson did play tough down low and he brings so much inside energy to the team,but it's tough to keep a guy in the lineup that is that bad in shooting free throws..

5) The heralded return of Kevin Love brought 11 points in 25 minutes.
In other words,not a large impact...

6) Interesting stat from Sam Amico-in the second half,LeBron James and Kyrie Irving 33 shots from the floor.
The rest of the Cavaliers?Five...

7) I think that this ends the season,I still have slim hope,but in reality,the team with the most wins ever are not likely to lose three in a row and two of those at home.
I'll have a post in the off season on potential changes,but for tonight-this one hurts.
Bad.

The Cleveland Devils??

I don't have a ton of information on this because I only have one source, but it is interesting to see how it could have changed hockey history and even could have resulted in the hockey team that I love-playing in the state I love.

Gene Kiczek wrote two books (I own both) on Cleveland hockey-the first on the AHL Barons and the second on the NHL Barons, WHA Crusaders, and other teams to play in Cleveland.
The WHA was the second league in the 1970s and was losing money hand over fist despite signing top-notch talent.

The Cleveland Crusaders played in a beautiful new building, the Richfield Coliseum, made the playoffs for all four years of their existence and had terrific uniforms and logo, but were still a WHA team.
The Kansas City Scouts were just two years old, but drowning in red ink with an awful expansion team and had owners looking to bail out.
Quietly the owners of the Scouts and Crusaders owner Nick Mileti began to work out a deal that would see the Scouts and Crusaders merge their rosters, play in Cleveland as the Crusaders and play in the NHL!
The deal was near completion when the now-defunct Cleveland Press found out about the rumor, the Crusaders players revolted (Some of them at least would lose their jobs to incoming Scouts) and the Crusaders fans protested.
The deal fell through, the Crusaders moved to Minnesota for a merger with the Fighting Saints and were soon dead.
The Scouts still left Kansas City at the end of the 1975-76 season and moved to Denver for a few seasons before becoming the New Jersey Devils!

So, would I be a fan of the Cleveland Crusaders had it bounced that way?
You know it, but there might not be three Stanley Cup banners hanging in Cleveland.
Lou Lamoriello doesn't strike me as a guy that would want to leave the east coast and likely would not have been the man to build the franchise in Cleveland that he did in New Jersey, so I have my doubts there.
But had Cleveland kept pro hockey, the New Jersey Devils would have never existed.
Looking at a third team in the NYC market, it might have been tough for anyone but John Macmullen to pull a move off to New Jersey with his local background
History spinning on a newspaper report!
Interesting to think about, isn't it?
Hope you enjoyed it...