The 2016 NBA Finals has gone down as possibly the best NBA Finals in league history. The Golden State Warriors set the record for most wins that season with 73, beating the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls record 72 wins.
The Warriors were supposed to become the greatest team of all time. It looked like that was about to happen when they took a commanding 3-1 series lead over the Cleveland Cavaliers, led by LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
What happened next shocked the basketball world when the Cavs stormed back to force a Game 7. In that Game 7, the Cavs pulled out a 93-89 victory to become the first team to come back from a 3-1 deficit to win the NBA title.
The ending of the game was spectacular, as it went down to the wire. In this article, we’ll dive deeper into what happened, courtesy of former Cav Iman Shumpert.
Iman Shumpert Details Kyrie Irving’s Game Winner
Iman Shumpert played 10 years in the NBA, with his last season being the 2020-21 season, where he played just two games for the Brooklyn Nets. Shumpert is most remembered for his time on the Cleveland Cavaliers, where he played alongside LeBron James and Kyrie Irving.
Shumpert was on the 2015-16 Cavs squad that upset the 73-9 Golden State Warriors. Most people remember the end of the game, where LeBron made a clutch block on Andre Iguodala. But the play that won the game and the championship was Irving’s game-winning three over Stephen Curry.
Shumpert has spoken about what went down in the huddle before Irving hit the game-winning shot. It shows the confidence Irving has in himself and how he understands taking advantage of what he considers a mismatch.
Tiktoker lepodcast_ once told the story of Shumpert explaining Irving in the huddle.
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“Shump was actually on the bench, but he talks about… They get into the huddle, on their final timeout, and before Ty Lue can draw anything, Kyrie’s like, ‘Uh-uh, get the ball to me and get Steph on me and I’ll handle everything else.’
“So, they go down the court, and Steph immediately runs to J.R. When he tries to run with J.R., Shump and J.R. are both yelling, ‘Hey Kyrie, he doesn’t want the smoke! Put him in the deep water!’
“So they run, one look, trying to get the switch, and they don’t get it. Steph sort of ducks it, and Shump’s yelling, ‘He doesn’t want the deep water! Ky, take him to the deep water!’
“And then they get another switch, and that’s when Steph has to switch onto Kyrie, and to Steph’s credit, [he] did a hell of a job guarding him. [Kyrie] Did a better shot, unfortunately.”
This is a great story, and it shows how smart Irving is as a player. It also shows that
despite being the greatest shooter of all time, Curry does have a weakness, and it’s on the defensive side of the ball.
With the Warriors trying to figure out their flaws from the previous season and Irving debating where he’ll be playing next season, we have to ask one question: will we see another Kyrie Irving vs. Steph Curry matchup in the NBA playoffs?
This is a question we don’t have an answer for, but we, as fans, would all love to see it.
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