Four games into the NBA Finals, I'm not backing off my largely un-hedged claim that former Sixers Andre Iguodala and Marreese Speights will soon be NBA champions. Still, I'd be lying if I said I thought it would be this close; I certainly didn't think the Cleveland Cavaliers had any shot of going up 2-1, especially once Kyrie Irving's broken kneecap left LeBron James as the team's lone All-Star-caliber player. Every game I've expected to be a decisive Golden State Warriors victory, and after every game that wasn't, I was convinced that the next one would be — the Warriors just should be that much better than these injury-depleted Cavs.
Finally, last night, they actually were, winning 103-82 and evening the series at 2-2 — and Andre Iguodala might've been the biggest reason why. When I declared 'Dre and Marreese eventual NBA champs, I figured it would more be by circumstance than by their actual doing: They're important parts of the team, but they're the Dubs' sixth and eighth men, and it seemed unlikely the series would be about them in any considerable way. True enough of Speights, who after a scoring flurry in the first half of Game One has essentially disappeared from the series, but less so of Iguodala, who may be the Warriors' second-most valuable player in this series.
Coming into last night, 'Dre had been having an excellent run against Cleveland, averaging 12-5-4 on 60% shooting, even 39% from deep. More importantly, he'd been by far the Dubs' best one-on-one defender against LeBron, tracing him on the perimeter, fighting over screens, even prying the ball loose from him on a handful of occasions. LeBron was still putting up otherworldly numbers, but he had to put up a ton of shots (and a whole lot of energy) to get there, with 'Dre doing the most to force him into exhaustion.
Game Four was easily AI9's best of the series, though, and probably his best as a Warrior. (Except maybe for that one stupid game against the Sixers last year where he scored 32 and made that ridiculous pass to David Lee.) Moved into the starting lineup for the first time all year — Steve Kerr had the W's go small for spacing and speed against the muck-it-up Cavs defense — Iguodala went for a season-high 22 on 8-15 FGs, while helping to hold LeBron to 20 on 7-22 shooting. On the call, Jeff Van Gundy proclaimed that 'Dre had won the matchup against the all-time great, and the fact that it was even an argument was pretty staggering.
Again, this is the role we always wanted for 'Dre on the 76ers. He's their lockdown wing defender, secondary (or tertiary) playmaker, and he can hit an open three when it's kicked out to him — though even in this series, that last one can be a little nerve-racking for a fan — but he's not asked to carry the offense or make big shots for the team down the stretch. Iguodala never had a Steph Curry, or even a Klay Thompson really, to save him from that kind of responsibility in Philly, and that will always be one of the saddest failings of the 21st-century Sixers.
But now, Andre's two wins and a couple more good games away from going down as the second-most-important player on a championship team — and potentially a Finals MVP, according to some, which isn't totally implausible considering Kawhi Leonard won the award last year for a similar two-way performance against a LeBron-led team. Of course, Golden State actually has to win the thing first — not a shoe-in at this point, but given the Warriors having reclaimed home-court advantage (where they lost only a handful of games all season) and given how exhausted LeBron is starting to look, it'd probably be unwise to bet against. Good on you, 'Dre — always knew you had it in you, just sorry we couldn't make it happen for you here.