James Harden and the Houston Rockets knew that they had a chance to beat the reigning champion Golden State Warriors in the NBA semi-finals this year, and they played like it, right up until the fourth quarter of game 6 on their own home court when super star Seth Curry took over in a whirlwind of flash and speed and accuracy the likes of which we have seldom seen before.
Curry curiously went scoreless for the entire first half leaving fans wondering if he was injured or ill. He wasn’t, not at all. After halftime Curry went on to score 10 points in the third quarter and then, with the conference championship on the line and a chance to eliminate, for the fourth time in 5 years, his arch rival Houston Rockets, Curry went into one of the most impressive runs ever witnessed on a basketball court by most of us mortals and scored 25 points in the fourth quarter to shut down Houston’s chances for yet another year.
So, the Golden State Warriors move on to meet the Portland Trailblazers in the NBA’s version of the Final Four for a seven game series to determine who will meet the winners of the matchup between the Milwaukee Bucks and the Toronto Raptors for the 2019 NBA Championship.
It took the Milwaukee Bucks just 5 games to eliminate the mighty Boston Celtics after being blown out on their own home court by the Celtics by a score of 112-90 in the first game of the series. Milwaukee is considered among the favorites in the tourney, even getting the nod from TV commentator, and former NBA great, Charles Barkley to win it all.
But first the Bucks will have to finish off the scary Toronto Raptors who took the Philadelphia 76ers to the full 7 games before defeating them on their home court. The Bucks will be a bit more rested; the Raptors will have the edge still honed fine. Look for this series to go down to the wire.
Out west, two of the best backcourt tandems in professional basketball, Stephen Curry & Klay Thompson for Golden State, and Damian Lillard & CJ McCollum of Portland, will take to the court at the Oracle as this best of seven series gets underway on Tuesday.
The Warriors will be without star forward Kevin Durant for at least the first games of the series with a calf injury. Look for Seth Curry to fill that void in style as he did against the Rockets of Houston. Las Vegas oddsmakers seem to believe that the Warriors will prevail in both the semi-finals, where they are at -570 to Portland’s +435, and for the overall 2019 NBA Championship, where Golden State sits at -250 with Milwaukee at Even money. The Toronto Raptors are at +500 and the dogs of the series are the Portland Trailblazers at +800.
