CLEVELAND (AP) — The Latest from Game 6 of the NBA Finals (all times local):
8:05 p.m.
The Warriors and Cavaliers are paying the price to try and win the NBA title.
NBA teams that didn’t make the playoffs have been on vacation for exactly two months.
Tuesday’s Game 6 will be the Cavaliers 20th game since their regular-season finale on April 15. The 102nd game of the season will tie the franchise record set in 2006-07, when they were swept by San Antonio in their only other NBA Finals appearance.
Coach David Blatt says after all that basketball, “you can talk and you can also talk too much” when it comes to what he tells his players, saying he has to specific and let them play their game.
The Warriors are playing their 103rd game and entered the night with an astounding 82-20 record. Coach Steve Kerr says the long grind is a “great test of your patience and your will and your perseverance, because it really is a roller coaster ride as you go.”
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7:43 p.m.
Only one trophy matters to LeBron James.
After posting historic statistics through the first five games of the NBA Finals, there is a growing sense that James could be named the series MVP even if the Cavaliers don’t beat Golden State for the championship. Jerry West is the only player to win MVP honors in the finals with a losing team, doing it with the Los Angeles Lakers in 1969.
James wouldn’t feel good about the personal accomplishment, saying “I’m here to win a team prize, and that’s to win a championship, not to win an individual prize.”
He entered Game 6 averaging 36.6 points, 12.4 rebounds and 8.8 assists in the series — the best numbers ever posted in the game’s biggest event.
A four-time MVP during the regular season, James was named the finals MVP in 2012 and 2013 with Miami.
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AP Sports Writer Tom Withers contributed to this report
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