Newsday (N.Y.): Warriors overwhelm Cavaliers, take 2-0 lead in NBA Finals

By Art Spander
Special to Newsday

OAKLAND, Calif. — This is a basketball team at its best, mentally, physically, emotionally. A basketball team that may or may not be the finest in history but certainly is remarkable after winning a record 73 games in the regular season and the first two games of the NBA Finals so impressively.

Once the Golden State Warriors got it rolling Sunday night at Oracle Arena, where the chants of “Warriors . . . Warriors” poured down as the baskets poured in, they became an even heavier favorite to win a second straight championship.

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Copyright © 2016 Newsday. All rights reserved.

S.F. Examiner: Draymond assumes role of star in latest installment of Warriors’ tour de force

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Strength in numbers, indeed. If it isn’t Steph, it’s Klay. If it isn’t Klay, it’s Andre. If it isn’t Andre, well, Sunday night, when the Warriors looked like the greatest basketball team in the history of the universe — hey, what’s a little exaggeration among admirers? — it was Draymond.

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©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Iguodala emerges as star of series opener

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

So why should we be surprised by anything — and that’s anything — Andre Iguodala does, or maybe considering the (ooh!) low grab, intentional or unintentional by the Cavs’ Matthew Dellavedova, by anything that’s done to Iggy?

This is dog-bites-man stuff, the fact Iguodala can enter a game and as calmly and reflectively as he pointed out, play like every small detail matters. Which of course in playoff basketball, it does. Iguodala is not the only reason the Warriors won the opener of the NBA finals from the Cleveland Cavaliers, 104-89, but surely is a prime reason.

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©2016 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Warriors vs. LeBron: Rematch in ’16?

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

This one was for Purvis Short and Sonny Parker, and even for Todd Fuller, who unintentionally became the scapegoat of previous failings.

This one was for Baron Davis, who eight years ago showed us what was possible.

This one was for the Golden State Warriors and their relentless followers — past, present and future, and yes, with Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes still babes, the future would seem every bit as exciting as these most recent 11 days in June.

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©2015 The San Francisco Examiner

S.F. Examiner: Iguodala joined by Barbosa in veterans’ support group

By Art Spander
San Francisco Examiner

Sure, Stephen Curry splashed it up. But this Warriors victory, the one that made an NBA championship seem not just possible but probable, belonged as much to two players whose combined points couldn’t match what Curry had on his own.

Andre Iguodala, starting once again in Steve Kerr’s smallball scheme, had 14 points, and Leandro Barbosa had 13 off the bench. By his own self, Curry picked up 37. Yet Iguodala, again with the unachievable task of defending LeBron James, and Barbosa, a.k.a. “The Brazilian Blur,” reminded there is so much to basketball beyond putting the ball in the basket.

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©2015 The San Francisco Examiner