5 facts about the 2016 NBA Finals

This year’s NBA Finals rematch of the Golden State Warriors and the Cleveland Cavaliers has been an exciting one with changes of fortune swaying throughout the series. The finals have also been historic, with some interesting patterns emerging. Here are 5 facts that you may not yet know about this series.

1. Stephen Curry’s first-ever ejection

In 557 career games, Stephen Curry was known as a reasonably mild-mannered player. Something snapped during his 558th game – Game 6 – as he was ejected from the game after throwing his mouthpiece and accidentally hitting a fan at courtside. Curry was enraged after picking up his sixth foul with about 4 minutes left in the fourth quarter. The technical foul and subsequent ejection only made matters worse for the first-ever unanimous MVP.

Game 6 is also the first game he fouled out of in three years. Definitely not a good game from him.

2. No game has been decided in single-digits yet.

None of the games have been close. The closest game they’ve had so far is Game 4, where the Warriors defeated the Cavaliers by 11, 108-97.

This series has accumulated 114 points off winning margins, which means that each game has been a blowout decided by an almost-20-point average. Still both teams have scored exactly 410 points in the previous 6 games.

3. LeBron James and Kyrie Irving are the first duo to score 40+ points in a single Finals game

If the Cavaliers complete the miraculous Game 7 upset on Monday morning (Manila time), people will look back at Game 5 as the pivotal point of the series. Here, James and Irving combined for 82 points off 33 field goals at the brink of elimination. No other duo has scored that many points in the finals, which is amazing considering the Hall of Fame-level duos that have come and gone in the NBA Finals such as O’Neal-Bryant, Malone-Stockton and Jordan-Pippen.

4. The Warriors would be the winningest team in NBA history if they win Game 7

Having already clinched the best regular season record in league history at 73-9, the Warriors need just one more win to eclipse another record of the legendary ’95-’96 Chicago Bulls, a squad that Warriors head coach Steve Kerr was also an important part of. A Game 7 victory would bring their overall season win total to 89 (73 from the regular season, 16 from the playoffs) and would best the 88 wins earned by the Jordan-led squad exactly 20 years ago.

Losing Game 7 after steamrolling through the regular season would certainly be the darkest stain on the Warriors’ history book.

5. The Cavaliers would be the only team in NBA history to come back to win from a 3-1 Finals deficit 

Thirty-two teams tried and 32 teams failed. If the Cavaliers win Game 7, they would be the 33rd team to fall into a 3-1 series hole and only the first to climb out victorious. Winning Game 6 was a minor miracle in itself for them as they were only the third team in NBA history to tie a Finals series at 3 games apiece after being down 3-1.

A Game 7 win would also end the longest championship drought of any city with at least 3 major sports franchises (basketball, football and baseball). The last major championship won by a Cleveland team was in 1964 (52 years ago), when the Cleveland Browns won the NFL Championship.

(INFOGRAPHIC: 2016 NBA Finals lowdown)

No pressure at all for the “Most Tortured Sports City in America.” – Rappler.com