Demps: "I still believe in our core players"

"Pro Court Report" Staff Report

NEW ORLEANS -- Dell Demps, vice president and general manager of the New Orleans Pelicans held a pre-draft press conference on Monday discussing the state of the Pelicans.

"I still believe in our core players," Demps said at thr beginning of the conference.

Demps also mentioned how the team is not going to give up.

"We are determined to bounce back," Demps said. "We have a lot of guys working hard right now."

Demps mentioned how not having small forward Quincy Pondexter last season was unhelpful.

“Last year not having Quincy, really set us back," he said.

Demps noted that some Pelicans free agents will have opportunities around thd NBA. Re-signing them must be a "win-win" for both the Pelicans and the player.

Demps opens press conference by expressing condolences to the family of Bryce Dejean-Jones, a Pelicans player who was fatally shot after breaking down the door to a Dallas apartment on May 28.

Richard Jefferson says he's retiring as a champion

Richard Jefferson is reportedly retiring from the game
of basketball.

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Richard Jefferson is an NBA champion, and that's how he says his career will end.

The Cleveland forward told Fox Sports Ohio after Game 7 of the NBA Finals that he is retiring. Jefferson turns 36 on Tuesday, and just completed his 15th NBA season.

Jefferson was the No. 13 pick in the 2001 NBA draft. He spent his first seven seasons with New Jersey, and also played for San Antonio, Milwaukee, Utah, Golden State and Dallas before coming to Cleveland.

After the Cavaliers beat Golden State on Sunday night for the title, Jefferson offered emotional praise for finals MVP LeBron James, saying he owes his "entire basketball career to him."

"To be able to get on a team and walk in with a guy that says he's going to be able to carry you and bring me here, I owe everything, every shot, every play, everything I've ever done to that man," Jefferson said. 

Cavaliers win NBA Finals, win city's first championship since 1964.

"Pro Court Report" Staff Report

The Cleveland Cavaliers are the 2016 NBA
Finals champions.

OAKLAND, CA – "I'm home."

That is what LeBron James said after his Cleveland Cavaliers captured the 2016 NBA championship on Sunday night by defeating the Golden State Warriors 93-89, and when he was asked about how this championship was different than his two with the Miami Heat.

This is the city of Cleveland's first professional sports championship since 1964, when the Cleveland Browns NFL team won the Super Bowl.

James played 46:49 in the game and had 27 points. Kyrie Irving had 26 for the Cavaliers.

For the Warriors, Stephen Curry had 17 points, Klay Thompson had 14, and Draymond Green had 23.

The Cavaliers went undefeated in the first two rounds of the playoffs this season, and did not lose a game until the Eastern Conference Final against the Toronto Raptors.

These two teams met in the NBA Finals last year, with the opposite result, with the Warriors winning the championship.

With 10.6 seconds left in the game, LeBron went for a shot but was taken down, and laid on the court for quite some time before getting off the ground and making one of the two following free throws.

Warriors' Curry, Kerr each fined $25,000

NBA Release.

NEW YORK - Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry and head coach Steve Kerr have each been fined $25,000 for separate incidents, it was announced today by Kiki VanDeWeghe, Executive Vice President, Basketball Operations.

Curry has been fined $25,000 for throwing his mouthpiece into the spectator stands. The incident, which resulted in a technical foul and subsequent ejection for

Curry, occurred with 4:22 remaining in the fourth quarter of the Warriors' 115-101 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers during Game 6 of The Finals on June 16 at Quicken Loans Arena.

Kerr has been fined $25,000 for public criticism of the officiating during his press conference following the same game.

Curry gets ejected late, Warriors lose Game 6 of NBA Finals

CLEVELAND (AP) — Ayesha Curry was angry about getting into Game 6 of the NBA Finals later than she planned. Stephen Curry was steaming when he left the game earlier than he wanted.

A tough night for the Curry family.

A tougher night for the Golden State Warriors.

Stephen Curry, the league's two-time reigning MVP, was in foul trouble most of the way and thought most of the calls were in error — especially the one when he fouled out and got ejected for good measure for a combination of throwing his mouthpiece and berating referee Jason Phillips. It was an inglorious end to a troubling Thursday night, one where the Warriors lost to the Cleveland Cavaliers 115-101 in Game 6 to knot the title series at 3-3.

"I've never been ejected before. It was a weird feeling," Curry said. "It was just frustration and kind of hilarious the way that the last two fouls and me blowing up kind of unfolded, some of the things that were said out there."

He was laughing a bit then, but this is no joke: The legacy of this season for the Warriors hinges entirely on the Game 7 that awaits on Sunday night.

The Warriors haven't lost three straight all season. No team in NBA Finals history has ever blown a 3-1 lead . And Golden State better hope both of those things still ring true after the 1,316th and final game of the season, or else their record-setting 73-win regular season will be overshadowed by the memory of not being able to take home the biggest prize.

"Let me be clear: We did not lose because of the officiating," Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. "They totally outplayed us and Cleveland deserved to win. But three of the six fouls (called on Curry) were incredibly inappropriate calls for anybody, much less the MVP of the league."

Draymond Green was a nonfactor, Harrison Barnes couldn't make a shot and Andre Iguodala's back was so balky that he often winced when he moved and needed treatment multiple times during the game.

They were battered, they were beaten, and they were livid afterward.

Kerr will surely get fined for criticizing officials; his comments on Curry and how Phillips fell for what the Warriors thought was a LeBron James flop will cost the coach of the year $25,000 — money well spent if the Warriors win Game 7.

Curry will also likely face a fine for throwing the mouthpiece that struck a fan sitting courtside — if league precedent in such matters holds. Curry immediately apologized to the fan and it appeared that he and Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue were sharing a laugh about the incident in the immediate moments that followed.

"I've thrown my mouthpiece before," Curry said. "I usually aim at the scorer's table. I was off-aim. ... But the last two fouls I had, I didn't think I fouled either Kyrie (Irving) or LeBron. That's my perception of the plays and I had a reaction to it."

Golden State never led, faced their largest end-of-first-quarter deficit of the entire season and now will have an unimaginable amount of pressure when Sunday night's winner-take-all game rolls gets played at Oracle Arena.

"No, we're fine," Green said. "It's a new game. Game 7 at home. If you ask any player and coach in the league, if they have Game 7 at home for the NBA championship they'll take it."

Curry led the Warriors with 30 points, and Klay Thompson finished with 25 yet neither ever seemed to get totally on track. The other three Golden State starters — Green (8), Iguodala (5) and Barnes (0 for 8 from the field, 0 points) — combined for 13 points.

Golden State trailed 31-9 late in the first quarter before getting within eight points later in the half, then trailed by 24 in the third quarter and eventually cut that deficit down to 86-79 early in the fourth, albeit in vain.

"Just didn't go our way," Curry said.

James was unstoppable, dominating play at both ends and finishing with 41 points for the second consecutive game. Tristan Thompson made all six of his shots and finished with 15 points and 16 rebounds for Cleveland — which outrebounded the Warriors 45-35.

Ayesha Curry got to her seat just before tipoff, tweeting out that the bus carrying her and other Warriors' family members wasn't getting into the arena very quickly.

So the start of the night set her off, and the way it ended was worse.

"I've lost all respect sorry this is absolutely rigged for money... Or ratings in not sure which," Ayesha Curry tweeted just before the final buzzer, a post she deleted after a few minutes and around 80,000 retweets. "I won't be silent . Just saw it live sry."

She'll see another game live on Sunday night. It'll decide the season.

James, Irving each score 41, Cavs stay alive in NBA Finals

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Booed every time he touched the ball, LeBron James cut through Golden State's defense and made layups look easy. Dunks and 3-pointers, so smooth, too.

And Kyrie Irving also completely had his way with the Warriors.

King James and Irving thoroughly overpowered the defending champions from every spot on the floor, and the Cavaliers are still alive to chase that elusive championship.

The unflappable, determined-as-ever James had 41 points, 16 rebounds and seven assists, Irving also scored 41 points and Cleveland capitalized on the absence of suspended star Draymond Green, staving off NBA Finals elimination with a 112-97 victory in Game 5 on Monday night.

"We had a mindset that we wanted to come here and just extend our period and have another opportunity to fight for another day," James said. "That was our main concern, and we were able to do that."

James and Irving became the first teammates to score 40 points in an NBA Finals game as the Cavaliers pulled within 3-2 and sent their best-of-seven series back to Ohio.

Afterward, sitting side by side on the podium, they offered back-and-forth shoutouts, with James noting of Irving, "It's probably one of the greatest performances I've ever seen live."

Take that, haters. James has much more to say about these playoffs before he's done — and not with his mouth, even as the criticism came from all directions following his Game 4 tussle with Green and reaction to what he considered the Golden State forward's inappropriate words. James was booed again as the Cavs left the court for their locker room, but thousands of fans had already made for the exits minutes earlier.

"Now, mind you, to repeat a performance like this would definitely be tough, but whatever it takes to win," Irving said.

Cleveland handed Golden State just its fourth defeat all season at sold-out Oracle Arena, denying MVP Stephen Curry and the Warriors a chance to celebrate another championship with their golden-clad "Strength In Numbers" supporters. Now, Curry and Co. must try to win on the road, just the way the Warriors did last year and also in their only other championship season out West in 1975.

The Warriors will get Green back Thursday as they try again for that repeat title.

"I kind of like our position," coach Steve Kerr said. "... I like our position a lot better than theirs."

Banned from the arena, Green watched from a baseball suite in the Oakland Coliseum next door, joined by Golden State general manager Bob Myers.

The All-Star forward was suspended Sunday for his fourth flagrant point of the postseason. He was assessed a retroactive Flagrant-1 for his swipe at James in the fourth quarter of Friday's Game 4.

Tied 61-all at halftime Monday, the Warriors missed 14 of their first 20 shots out of intermission and shot 7 for 24 in the third as James and the Cavs grabbed command by doing all of the little things on both ends of the floor — the very intangibles Golden State desperately missed without Green's high-energy presence on both ends. James jumped in the passing lanes to create defensive havoc, flipped passes around and got open.

Klay Thompson scored 37 points with six 3-pointers and Curry added 25 points with five 3s, seven rebounds, four assists and two blocked shots. But as the game wore on, the Splash Brothers shot airballs and clanked 3-point tries off the front rim. The Warriors often failed to get a hand in the face of Cleveland's shooters.

"We weren't very good defensively," Kerr said. "We obviously knew we were without Draymond, so there's no point in harping on that. We had to play better, and we didn't."

James and Irving combined to shoot 33 for 54, while the Warriors went cold and finished 36.4 percent from the field. James also had three steals and three blocked shots.

Andre Iguodala had 15 points, 11 rebounds and six assists starting in place of Green, but Oakland must hold off in planning another victory parade for now.

"We like our chances going forward and continuing to just try to be us, the best we can, and get one more win," Curry said.

Warriors center Andrew Bogut went down early in the third grabbing his left knee and writhing in pain, and will have an MRI exam on his sprained knee Tuesday.

Irving's three-point play with 7:30 remaining put Cleveland ahead 102-92, and the Cavs kept pushing. They answered on offense and made all the key stops on defense.

"It obviously stings real bad," Thompson said. "We'll come back stronger."

MOMENT OF SILENCE

Former Orlando Magic star Grant Hill spoke on behalf of the NBA in offering support, thoughts and prayers to victims in the Orlando mass shooting before a moment of silence.

TIP-INS

Cavaliers: Kevin Love returned to the starting lineup for the first time since sustaining a concussion in Game 2 here on June 5. ... James extended his NBA-record streak to 26 straight playoff series with at least one road win. ... James played his 197th postseason game, tying him with Manu Ginobili for No. 9 on the NBA's career list. He also passed Elgin Baylor (1,724) for No. 9 on the rebounds list.

Warriors: Golden State committed 17 turnovers. ... The Warriors had won their last four against the Cavs on their home court, outscoring Cleveland by a combined 48 points in Games 1 and 2 of these finals. ... Golden State had its streak of six straight Game 5 victories in the postseason dating to last year's Western Conference semifinals snapped.

Warriors star Draymond Green suspended for Game 5

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Golden State star Draymond Green was suspended for Game 5 of the NBA Finals after the league assessed a Flagrant 1 foul from his scuffle with Cleveland's LeBron James.

The NBA announced the retroactive decision Sunday, issuing James a technical on the play late in Golden State's 108-97 victory Friday. A statement announcing the discipline said that Green "made unnecessary contact with a retaliatory swipe of his hand to the groin" of James.

"There's no way you can say this is an acceptable act," Kiki VanDeWeghe, the NBA's executive vice president of basketball operations, told The Associated Press in a phone interview.

Green has been on the cusp of trouble for much of the postseason. This is his fourth flagrant foul point, which resulted in the automatic suspension. He also has five technicals and was fined $25,000 for kicking Oklahoma City's Steven Adams in the groin during the Western Conference finals.

The Warriors lead the series 3-1 with a chance to clinch their second straight championship at home in Oracle Arena, but now they'll have to do it without one of their most important players.

"You have to do what you think is right for the play," VanDeWeghe said, "and unfortunately Draymond put himself in this position."

Warriors coach Steve Kerr spoke to Green earlier in the postseason about keeping his emotions in check, and now Golden State will have a big hole to fill without him.

Green is averaging 15.3 points this postseason — third-most on the team behind Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — and a team-leading 9.6 rebounds along with nearly six assists.

Green called Friday's incident "stuff that's said on the court." Yet James considered it all inappropriate and said he and his teammates reviewed the sequence on video.

"Draymond just said something that I don't agree with," James said. "I'm all cool with the competition. I'm all fine with that, but some of the words that came out of his mouth were a little bit overboard, and being a guy with pride, a guy with three kids and a family, things of that nature, some things just go overboard."

As his teammates went through shooting drills near the end of Sunday's workout, Green could be seen off to the side speaking to Warriors general manager Bob Myers before returning to practice.