Stephen Curry and Harrison Barnes ended Golden State’s title drought in 2015. (GETTY IMAGES)

There are 30 teams in the NBA, but realistically speaking there are only a handful of teams capable of hoisting the Larry O’Brien trophy.

If you’re a fan of the Sixers, Kings, Lakers, Nuggets, Nets and Hornets, it’s probably safe to book that reservation to Las Vegas or the Caribbean in June.

Sure there are plenty of contenders for the championship, such as the Houston Rockets, Memphis Grizzlies, Atlanta Hawks and Chicago Bulls. But these teams have major questions that’ll ultimately lead to their downfall during the knockout stages.

The Rockets are a wonderful offensive team, but can they make enough stops on the defensive end when it counts? The Grizzlies are a fantastic defensive team, but can they score enough points? The Hawks have a well-balanced team, but do they have that superstar to close out games? The Bulls have all the pieces to win in the playoffs, but can Rose stay injury free?

OneManFastbreak.net examines the five teams, in no particular order, with the best shot at winning the 2015-16 NBA championship.

Cleveland Cavaliers — LeBron James came within two games of ending Cleveland’s decades-long title drought. LeBron posted historic numbers during the NBA Finals, but even his superhuman effort wasn’t enough to beat the Golden State Warriors. LeBron is more than capable of lifting a team to the Finals, especially in the weak Eastern Conference, but he needs help to finish the job. The Cavaliers have the roster to compete for a title. The only roadblock at this point is health. Kevin Love missed nearly the entire playoffs because of shoulder injury, and the Finals might have had a different result had Kyrie Irving not gotten hurt on a freak knee-on-knee collision with Klay Thompson. Love appears to be healthy, while Irving is on schedule to return in January (or sooner). The Cavs have one goal in mind and that’s win a title, and Las Vegas oddsmakers love the Cavs this season. Anything less than The Chip would be a major disappointment.

Golden State Warriors — The Warriors had one of the greatest seasons in NBA history. They finished the 2014-15 regular season with the best record. Stephen Curry was named the league MVP. And the Dubs capped off their storybook season by capturing the franchise’s first NBA title since 1975. Steve Kerr made this coaching gig look real easy by expertly navigating his team through the playoffs without a hitch in his rookie season. His second season, however, if off to a rough beginning. Kerr has taken a leave of absence after undergoing back surgery during the summer.

Steve Kerr won a title in his first season as coach. (GETTY IMAGES)

Luke Walton takes over as the interim coach, and he’ll be tasked with the keeping the ship on course until Kerr returns. Walton shouldn’t have too much to worry about because the Warriors still have the best roster in basketball. Curry and Thompson are now walking around with championship swagger, and Draymond Green is $82 million rich after inking a five-year deal. Until someone knocks them out, the Warriors are wearing the championship belts and the road to the title goes through the Bay Area.

San Antonio Spurs — Gregg Popovich and R.C. Buford pulled off the biggest stunner during the offseason when they acquired the top prize in the free-agent market. LaMarcus Aldridge’s arrival in San Antonio opens up two avenues. The Spurs hop back on the fast lane to the NBA Finals and it also sets them up nicely in the future when Tim Duncan decides to hang up the sneakers for good. Duncan turns 40 next April, but he doesn’t look like a guy who is ready to dip into his retirement savings. The Big Fundamental signed a two-year extension for a modest $10.4 million. That’s quite a major discount for a first-ballot Hall of Famer and arguably one of the 10 greatest players in the history of basketball. It just shows Duncan’s commitment to winning. He may not be the player he was 10 years ago, but he’s still a very effective player on both ends and remains the heart and soul of the Spurs.

Oklahoma City Thunder — If there is anyone who has something to prove this season it’s Kevin Durant. After playing in a career-low 27 games in 2014-15, the man with the Twitter handle @kdtrey5 is on a mission to show the world he’s back to reclaim his most valuable player status. Durant’s return only bolsters an already formidable Thunder lineup. KD and Russell Westbrook form the best 1-2 scoring punch in the league, two unstoppable scoring champs who can take over a game at any moment. The challenge for first-year coach Billy Donovan is to find a way to unload some of the burden off KD and Westbrook, something former coach Scott Brooks wasn’t able to do. Donovan, an accomplished college coach, made two smart moves after his hiring. He brought in Maurice Cheeks and Monty Williams as assistant coaches, and he’ll lean on those two as he adjusts to the rigors of an 82-game NBA schedule. The Thunder’s title hopes largely depend on how quickly Donovan can convince Durant and Westbrook to buy into his program.

Los Angeles Clippers — The Clips went from title contender to borderline playoff team then back to being title contenders in one bizarre week in early July. The DeAndre Jordan drama that unfolded during the free-agency period was something straight out of an episode of “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.” Once the L.A. smog cleared up, Jordan remained a Clipper and the Dallas Mavericks must have felt like a jilted GF. With Jordan back in the fold, the Clippers have what it takes to compete for a championship. They also added big-game performer Paul Pierce to help fix some of the problems that has plagued the team the last two postseasons, such as blowing leads in the fourth quarter. The window of opportunity for Chris Paul is closing fast. It’s now or never for the All-Star point guard, who has never reached the conference finals in his career. CP3 and the Clips hope to put up a real banner at Staples Center instead of those ridiculous giant selfies.

Karl-Anthony Towns could be the No. 1 pick in the draft. (REUTERS)

The Golden State Warriors may have made small ball trendy, but the NBA is still a big man’s league. Go big or go home. That’s the TNT slogan in the NBA playoffs.

The Minnesota Timberwolves and Los Angeles Lakers could be the big winners in the 2015 NBA draft as both teams should walk away with a franchise center on June 25.

The Lakers are coming off the franchise’s worst season, winning just 21 games and finishing with the fourth-worst record. Kobe Bryant missed 47 games because of a shoulder injury and Julius Randle’s rookie season lasted just 13 minutes when he tore his ACL in the season opener.

From that point on, the Lakers’ season was in shambles. The glamour franchise of the Association lost a lot of its luster, and a lot of the media attention shifted to the other L.A. team.

But the basketball gods finally sprinkled some Magic Johnson dust on the Lakers when the ping-pong balls landed them in the No. 2 overall spot.

The Lakers need a post-Kobe plan and find their next superstar to anchor the franchise the next 10-15 years. The Lakers have a long history when it comes to dominant big men, from George Mikan to Wilt Chamberlain to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar to Shaquille O’Neal. All four centers are featured in the rafters at Staples Center.

The NBA would not publicly admit it but the league is better off when one of its glamour teams, such as the Lakers, Celtics or Knicks, are relevant. The Lakers’ rebuilding process begins this summer, and they’ll gladly take whomever the Timberwolves don’t pick.

OneManFastBreak.net examines the top eight prospects in the NBA draft:

KARL-ANTHONY TOWNS
6-11, center, Kentucky
Scouting report: Towns is the best of an excellent crop of Kentucky prospects in the draft. The 19-year-old versatile big man, who made the Dominican-Republican national team as a 16-year-old, can play center or power forward and has very quick feet for a 235-pound athlete. His agility is what makes him a superb defender, a skill set that should make his transition to the pro game much smoother. NBA teams are looking for bigs who can switch pick-and-rolls and defend point guards. Towns also showed flashes of a dominant low-post game during the NCAA tournament. He has a nice jump hook going to his right and feels comfortable with his back to the basket or facing up. He has nice form on his jumper, which he could develop into a real weapon if he works at it.
NBA comparison: Anthony Davis

JAHLIL OKAFOR
6-11, center, Duke
Scouting report: Okafor is a throwback, classic big man who prefers to do most of his work in the paint. He feels right at home with his back to the basket and his massive hands enable him to catch anything within his reach. At 270 pounds, Okafor is a handful to handle near the rim. He can score within either hand and has the power to back you down. He also has all the post moves: drop step, jump hook, spin move. If he has a weakness it’s his conditioning. He got exposed a little during the Final Four when fatigue set in that led to unnecessary fouls. Any NBA team that selects Jahlil will need to put him on a conditioning program from the get-go and monitor his weight. Once he works himself into better shape, he’ll be a beast.
NBA comparison: DeMarcus Cousins

EMMANUEL MUDIAY
6-5, guard, Guangdong (China)
Scouting report: SMU coach Larry Brown calls Mudiay “the next John Wall”. That’s high praise for someone who remains a draft mystery. Mudiay could have played under Brown for a year but instead opted to play in China. The Wall comparison is not farfetched. Mudiay is a big, strong point guard with dynamic speed and excels in the pick-and-roll game. He can explode to the basket with either hand, and has the size and strength (6-5, 200) to finish at the rim. Brown ranks Mudiay ahead of fellow prospect D’Angelo Russell because of the way Mudiay can run a team and play defense. One major concern teams have about Mudiay is his shot. Brown says his shot is not broken but definitely needs some work. He struggles shooting from midrange and is a bad free-throw shooter. Another aspect of his game that needs to be refined is ball security because he has a tendency to be loose with the ball.
NBA comparison: John Wall

WILLIE CAULEY-STEIN
7-0, center, Kentucky
Scouting report: At 21 years old, Cauley-Stein is one of the oldest players in the draft so he’s more mature physically than almost all of his peers. He has all the physical attributes you want in an NBA center. He’s a 7-footer with a 7-2 wingspan and can cover a lot of ground. He’s not the most polished offensive player available but he’s a terrific defender. He can defend all five positions, which is big luxury because most NBA teams now ask their centers to be able to cover point guards off ball screens. Cauley-Stein has unbelievable quickness for a big man, which allows him to close out on shooters and shut down driving lanes. On offense, most of Cauley-Stein’s points came on layups and dunks, so don’t expect him to be Hakeem Olajuwon when you throw him the ball in the low block. He should be a terrific pick-and-roll player.
NBA comparison: Tyson Chandler

JUSTISE WINSLOW
6-6, guard-forward, Duke
Scouting report: Winslow’s greatest strength is his effort and energy on both ends of the court. San Antonio Spurs forward Kawhi Leonard comes to mind when compared to a current NBA player. He is a gifted athlete who can score in a variety of ways. Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski played him at power forward most of the season, and few college big forwards could check him because of his size and speed (6-6, 222). He’ll likely play shooting guard or small forward in the NBA, so he won’t have a distinct advantage. But he’s good enough to make that transition and should be a good two-way player. His jump shot remains inconsistent, but that can be rectified with proper technique and repetition.
NBA comparison: Kawhi Leonard

D’ANGELO RUSSELL
6-5, guard, Ohio State
Scouting report: Russell is not as quick or as explosive as Mudiay but he’s very crafty. His shooting makes up for his lack of speed, as he averaged 19 points per game and shot over 40 percent from 3-point range in college. He has good size (6-5), so he can look over a defense and make the correct pass. He can play point or shooting guard, which is a major plus considering most teams like to play two point guards at the same time. One concern is his lack of a right hand and athleticism. He wears out the left side of the court too much and feels uncomfortable going to his off hand. He also struggles against quicker point guards, which can spell trouble because he won’t see too many slow point guards.
NBA comparison: George Hill

STANLEY JOHNSON
6-6, guard-forward, Arizona
Scouting report: Johnson was highly touted coming out of Mater Dei High School (Calif.), but didn’t have a smooth transition to college. Arizona coach Sean Miller was unhappy with Johnson’s work ethic in practice. Johnson claims he didn’t play as hard in practice because he was so physically gifted in high school that he didn’t have to exert too much effort. That attitude carried over in the early part of his one year in Tucson, but once he figured it out he became a beast in the Pac-12. Johnson is a physical specimen (6-6, 240) who can overpower smaller guards and strong enough to guard power forwards. He’s also a decent spot-up shooter with a chance to be a very good shooter. He’s very explosive off the dribble and, because of his upper body strength, can bust through contact and finish at the rim. He does run hot and cold on defense, but when he’s focused he can be a lock-down defender.
NBA comparison: Jimmy Butler

TREY LYLES
6-10, forward, Kentucky
Scouting report: Lyles was overshadowed by teammates Karl-Anthony Towns and Willie Cauley-Stein, but he may have been Kentucky’s most versatile big man. He may not do one thing very well but he does everything well. Coach John Calipari played him at small forward most of the time but he may be more suited as a stretch 4 at the next level. Lyles has the size and strength (6-10, 235) to play either forward spot, and because of his massive 7-3 wingspan he can play some center. He was awful from the college 3-point line (13%), but he made over 50% of his 2-point shots. That tells us he’s got a nice touch from 15-18 feet, which is where most of his shots will come if he plays the pinch post. He’ll be a nightmare matchup because he’s too quick for most power forwards and too long against most small forwards. If Lyles played elsewhere in college he would have posted better statistics and gotten more recognition.
NBA comparison: Markief Morris

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Andre Iguodala gave Golden State a big boost in Game 4 of NBA Finals. (GETTY IMAGES)

When the Golden State Warriors were trailing 2-1 in the 2015 NBA Finals and all the momentum seemingly on the side of the Cleveland Cavaliers, first-year head coach Steve Kerr went to his go-to guy to stop the bleeding. And that’s exactly what do-it-all forward Andre Iguodala did.

Iguodala scored 22 points, made eight of his 15 field goals, knocked down four 3-pointers, and grabbed eight rebounds in 39 minutes in his first starting assignment of the season. He also helped the Warriors harass LeBron James into his worst shooting performance in The Finals: 20 points (he was averaging 41 through three games) and 7-for-22 from the field.

The Warriors went on to win Game 4 and never lost again in The Finals.

With Iguodala in the starting lineup, the small-ball unit accomplished two key things: it increased the tempo on offense and made the Warriors more active on defense. Cavaliers 7-foot center Timofey Mozgov was stuck guarding Iguodala and the 6-8 wingman took advantage of the space Mozgov gave him on offense by knocking down jumper after jumper.

Iguodala was arguably the Warriors’ best player in the series and deserved to be named Finals MVP. Not bad for someone who didn’t start in the regular season and is regarded as the Warriors’ fifth-best player behind Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Draymond Green and Harrison Barnes.

“Guarding LeBron James has to be the hardest job in basketball. After the first three games we decided to start Andre because he was by far doing the best job on LeBron, but he was also contributing in so many ways,” Kerr said. “[Cleveland’s] plan was to take Steph away and take Klay away and force Draymond and Andre to beat them, and Andre did.”

Kerr said you can argue that the Finals MVP should have gone to Curry or LeBron, but Andre winning the award was a fitting ending for Golden State squad that has prided itself in team ball and sacrifices.

“He sacrificed his starting role from the first game in the season. He had never come off the bench once in his entire career. And he sacrificed that job to make Harrison better and make our bench better, and that set the tone for our whole season. An All-Star and an Olympian said ‘OK, I’ll come off the bench.’ ”

Coming off the bench wasn’t an easy adjustment for Iguodala, who has spent the majority of his 11-year NBA career (eight in Philadelphia and one in Denver) as a starter.But when Kerr got the Warriors coaching gig he decided that what’s best for the team is for Iguodala take a back seat.

“He was the focal point [in Philadelphia]. It’s a different role for him here,” Kerr said of his fellow Arizona Wildcat. “In this series he looks like the 76ers version of Andre because he’s taking on a bigger role. He’s playing more minutes, he’s guarding LeBron, he’s also been good offensively. I just think Andre is one of those guys who rises to the occasion and embraces the challenge. He’s having a great series.”

Iguodala said not being a starter is “a lot harder than it looks,” and finding a flow coming off the bench has been the most difficult adjustment. “This is a lot different,” he said. “It took me a while to find it. I’m still trying to figure it out right now.”

Iguodala adds a different dimension to the Warriors. His versatility makes the Warriors unpredictable on offense, and his playmaking abilities from the forward spot allows Curry to play off the ball.

“That’s kinda been my game pretty much my whole life,” Iguodala said. “From a kid I was probably the tallest on the floor but never wanted to play center. I’ve always wanted to play point guard. My favorite players were Scottie Pippen, Penny Hardaway, Grant Hill. Those guys have similar games. That’s just something I saw and try to do from age 6-7 years old.”

Golden State has been rotating different bodies on LeBron to try to wear down the Cavs superstar. Iguodala, Barnes, Green and Thompson have been matched up with the four-time MVP on various stages of the game, but Iguodala has easily been the most successful at holding down King James.

Iguodala has some familiarity with LeBron’s game from his time with Team USA during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. He uses his length to bother LeBron’s sight line and he is strong enough to make it tough for ‘Bron to get to his post-up game. And when LeBron goes to his patented forays to the left side of the lane, Iguodala beats him to the spot and forces him to tough, contested step-back jumpers.

LeBron had a chance to win games 1 and 2 at Oracle Arena in the final seconds of regulation, but both times Iguodala stepped up and made crucial defensive stops. He forced LeBron into a difficult step-back jumper that bounced off the rim Game 1 and then he forced LeBron to miss a left-handed layup in Game 2.

“You gotta be mentally prepared more than anything,” Iguodala said of guarding James. “Not to overreact to certain things. I think that’s key. We have a scheme in place and in order for the scheme to work overall picture is 48 minutes. In the grand scheme of things you try to break him down, you try to force your will upon him, and it’s gonna take the whole game. Mentally you gotta be with it the whole night.”

“A guy like LeBron who can pass the ball, you have to see where his eyes are. He can see the whole floor. It’s just about being smart and more importantly communicate because if I can hear a guy double team I know where to funnel. We know how to rotate out of it, and it usually works for us.”

Iguodala capped his phenomenal playoff run with 25 points, five rebounds and five assists in Game 6 to close out the Cavaliers and end the 40-year NBA title drought in the Bay Area.

Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson are struggling against the Cavs in the NBA Finals. (GETTY IMAGES)

You can analyze or overanalyze basketball games with all types of fancy analytics and metrics, but teams that win championships follow two basic formulas: score easy baskets and don’t give up easy baskets.

Basically, to speak in the language so millennials can understand, you want to score in the paint and protect the paint (if your hardwood court has a painted area, of course).

Conventional basketball has always been built on scoring inside, meaning dump the ball inside your biggest or tallest player. Aside from getting an easy hoop, this serves two purposes: 1) collapse the defense and open shots for other players, and 2) rewards big men for all the hard work they do inside. Remember the old Shaquille O’Neal line: “Feed the big dog if you want the big dog to protect the yard.”

It’s a proven fact that big men will work harder if they get their touches on offense, and it will inspire them to protect the basket on the other end of the court.

Shaq subscribes to the inside-out theory because that’s the way NBA championships were won. George Mikan’s Minneapolis Lakers played that way. Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics played that way. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s L.A. Lakers played that way. Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets played that way.

In the post-Michael Jordan era, the NBA Finals have been dominated by two big men: Shaq and Tim Duncan.

O’Neal and Duncan have been a part of The Finals in 11 of the last 16 seasons, winning a combined nine titles.

There were a few exceptions to the rule. Jordan’s Chicago Bulls teams were mainly a jump-shooting team. But in the triangle offense, otherwise known as the triple post, Jordan was the post-up player. He didn’t post up in the traditional way, as in planting himself on the low block, but he posted up on the elbows or the pinch post. Dirk Nowitzki’s Dallas Mavericks 2011 championship team used the same concept. When the Mavs needed a bucket, they went to Dirk on the pinch post. And LeBron James didn’t start winning titles until he developed a post-up game when he was in Miami.

This bring us to the Golden State Warriors, the 2014-15 NBA champions.

The Warriors are a basketball anomaly. They are bucking the conventional thinking that you can’t win a NBA title primarily by shooting jump shots. Charles Barkley has repeated said on TNT’s “Inside the NBA” that jump shooting teams don’t win titles. Barkley should know this because his high-octane, 3-shooting teams in Phoenix lived and died by the jump shot in the playoffs.

Golden State’s offense is very similar to Barkley’s Suns. They’re built around the long-range shooting skills of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — also known as The Splash Brothers. They don’t even have a pinch-post player. Everything flows through Curry and Thompson out in the perimeter.

But these Warriors are a different breed. Sure, they win games by shooting lights out from behind the 3-point line and running teams out of the gym. But what made them a 67-win juggernaut during the regular season was defense.

“I know there’s been all this talk this year, especially about the 3-point shot. Can you win shooting it?” Warriors first-year head coach Steve Kerr said. “There’s a lot of different styles that can work. You have to base it on your own personnel.”

Kerr added: “What really wins is a combination of great offense and great defense. We have the No. 1 defense in the league. We had the highest scoring team in the league. We were No. 1 in assists. We were No. 1 in field-goal percentage defense. When you get that combination then you’re going to be pretty good. Whether you’re shooting threes or twos it’s about the balance. To win a title you have to be able to make stops. You’ve got to string together stops at crucial times and you gotta find ways to score. With our depth and our talent we were able to do that and it turned into a special season as a result.”

Golden State arguably has three of the 10 best defensive players in the league. Thompson is an elite perimeter defender, Andrew Bogut is a beast in front of the rim, and Draymond Green finished second to Kawhi Leonard as the defensive player of the year. Add Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala into the mix and you can see why teams struggle to score against them.

Kerr has taken what Mark Jackson built and improved it. The Warriors have largely used a predominantly perimeter attack on offense and a switching defense on their way to the 2015 NBA Finals, using the same concepts installed by Jackson. Kerr has modified a few things here and there, but the Warriors have stayed true to form. They share the ball on offense and they use their speed and quickness to recover on defense. It’s a similar approach that powered the San Antonio Spurs to their fifth NBA title in 2014 with one huge difference. The Warriors don’t have a Tim Duncan controlling the paint on both ends.

Bogut starts at center but he rarely plays more than 20 minutes a game, and Kerr likes to play a smaller lineup down the stretch with Iguodala, Barnes and Green in the frontcourt to go along with Curry and Thompson in the backcourt. This makes the Warriors unique. It’s a style of basketball that court influence a whole generation of coaches and players. It’s comparable to the European League in which the focus is on dribble handoffs and pick-and-pops, and frontcourt players spend most of their time above the free throw line.

Before we crown Golden State as the next NBA dynasty, it needs to sustain this historic run. The Warriors were able to avoid the San Antonio Spurs and L.A. Clippers in the Western Conference, and they ran into a short-handed Cleveland team in The Finals.

The Cavs are a no-nonsense, gritty team that plays defense as if their lives depended on it. If they had Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love, it would have been a totally different series.

Tristan Thompson and Timofey Mozgov punished the Warriors on the boards whenever Kerr went to his small lineup. And then there is LeBron. The four-time MVP averaged nearly 40 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists in The Finals, and he did all this while playing nearly 48 minutes a game.

The Warriors were able to end the Bay Area’s 40-year championship drought. Now, it’s about keeping that No. 1 ranking.

Cavaliers point guard Kyrie Irving injured his left knee in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. (GETTY IMAGES)

The mood in Cleveland has gone from bad to worse in 24 hours after news broke that All-Star point guard Kyrie Irving is done for the rest of the NBA Finals after an MRI exam revealed a fracture in his left kneecap. The injury normally requires a three- to four-month recovery time, so don’t expect to see Irving in a Cavs uniform until October.

The Cavaliers are coming off a gut-wrenching overtime defeat to the Golden State Warriors in Game 1 of The Finals, despite 44 points from LeBron James. It just proves that one man cannot win a game, yet alone win a championship — even if that MAN is the best basketball player on the planet.

You have to feel for LeBron. He’s never really had a completely healthy Robin to his Batman.

James took a Cleveland team to the NBA Finals in 2007 that had a roster filled with a bunch of journeymen. When LeBron took his talents to South Beach, he won two titles but could have had more if Dwyane Wade stayed upright. Wade was completely healthy in just one of the four championship runs in Miami, forcing LeBron to do most of the heavily lifting. Now, LeBron’s new star sidekick, Kyrie Irving, is done for the playoffs.

Cleveland sports fans must be reliving “The Drive” and “The Decision” all over again.

These last two days have to be the worst two-day stretch for the Cavaliers this season. It started with the overtime period in Game 1 at Oracle Arena in Oakland when the Cavs took one on the chin when Kyrie went down.

With under three minutes to play in OT and the Cavs down by four, Irving drove to his right and as he tried to shake off Klay Thompson his left knee buckled. Seconds after Kyrie went down, Harrison Barnes buried a 3-point shot from the corner to give the Warriors a seven-point cushion at the 2:02 mark.

Irving tried to walk the pain off but it became unbearable and he was forced to leave the game. Prior to getting hurt, Irving was having a sensational game, with 23 points on 10 of 22 shots in 43 minutes.

The Cavaliers went scoreless in OT until LeBron scored an uncontested layup just before the final buzzer went off. They went 1-for-10 and was outscored 10-2. But the toughest part of OT was the sight of watching their second-best player limp off the court. Kyrie left the arena in crutches.

“I’m in a little bit of pain,” Irving told reporters after the game. “I tried to decelerate, trying to go by Klay. I don’t know what I felt but obviously it didn’t feel right. This was a little bit different than what I had been experiencing [in the Chicago series]. It was a quick pinch. I could still feel what was going on in my knee. This time I was a little bit different than the other time.”

Irving has been bothered by knee and foot problems since the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs, and his body has deteriorated with each round.

“Obviously you can tell from the tone of my voice I’m a little worried. It’s a natural reaction,” Irving said. “The body works in mysterious ways.”

Right now, Irving’s body must be telling him, “enough!”

What made this latest injury extra painful was the fact that Cleveland was in great position to steal Game 1 in a place where only three teams have won all season. Irving said he felt “amazing” coming into The Finals, and even though he wasn’t 100 percent he was impacting the game on both ends. With one bad move, he went from being the old Kyrie to Uncle Drew.

“It’s a little disappointing and frustrating,” Irving said. “This is just a setback that I gotta take it with a grain of salt.”

The Golden State Warriors will throw different defenders at LeBron James, including Draymond Green. (GETTY IMAGES)

LeBron James won’t guarantee an NBA championship in Cleveland this year, but he did make one proclamation. “I guarantee that we will play our asses off,” he said about the Cavaliers’ showdown with the Golden State Warriors in the NBA Finals.

James and his Cavaliers have been playing their butts off this postseason, especially on the defensive end. The Cavs own the top-ranked defense in the playoffs, holding teams to 92.6 points and 28.1 percent from the 3-point line. But now comes the true test. the Cavs are facing the most explosive and efficient scoring machine in the NBA Finals. The Warriors led the NBA in points per game (110), 3-point field-goal percentage (39.8) and assists (27.4). They have the best shooting backcourt in the world in Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, who combined to make 525 threes; far and away the most by any duo in the league.

Curry and Thompson present a whole different animal for the Cavaliers. You may be able to slow down one but not both. The Cavaliers need to hold the line and keep the Splash Brothers from going trey crazy.

This series could boil down to how well the Cavs play on the defensive end. They need to disrupt the Warriors’ ball movement and make the game stagnant because they won’t be able to win in a shootout. This will require paying attention to detail: running shooters off the the 3-point line, making them drive to the basket, and putting a body on Steph and Klay at all times. Cleveland must turn this into a scrum and make Golden State uncomfortable.

The Warriors love to run floppy sets for Steph and Klay. They start on the block and run off screens from Andrew Bogut and Draymond Green. The Cavaliers must stay attached to Steph and Klay, and force them to drive instead of stopping and popping for threes. They will make their share of threes, but try to limit their attempts by making them put the ball on the deck.

When Curry has the ball at the top and calls for a ball screen from Bogut or Green, Cleveland has the option of blitzing Curry or switching the screen. The better option would be to switch on the screen even though it will likely expose Cleveland’s big men. Switching the ball screen forces Curry to keep the ball in his hands and stops the ball from moving. If Curry gets cooking, the Cavs can always switch LeBron on him to try to cool him down.

Here are other key matchups to watch in the NBA Finals:

LeBron vs. Barnes, Iguodala, and Draymond

The Warriors are a basketball anomaly. They are bucking the conventional thinking that you can’t win a title shooting jump shots. But these Warriors are a different breed. Sure, they win games by shooting lights out from behind the 3-point line and running teams out of the gym. But what made them a 67-win juggernaut during the regular season was defense.

GSW arguably has three of the 10 best defensive players in the league. Klay Thompson is an elite perimeter defender, Andrew Bogut is a beast in front of the rim, and Draymond Green finished second to Kawhi Leonard as the defensive player of the year. Add Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala into the mix and you can see why teams struggle to score against Golden State.

In The Finals, the Warriors will face their greatest test. They’ll be going up against the most powerful force in basketball. The last time Golden State and Cleveland met, LeBron dropped 42 points in a 110-99 Cavaliers rout on Feb. 26.

LeBron poses matchup problems on the perimeter and in the paint. He’s capable of ruining any defensive game plan Warriors coach Steve Kerr will draw up. The book on Bron is to deny him driving lanes and force him into shooting jumpers. That’s what the San Antonio Spurs did the last two seasons, so expect Kerr, who played under coach Gregg Popovich, to copy that plan. Kerr will likely start Barnes on LeBron first then rotate different bodies on him. Iguodala is physically strong enough and athletic enough to stay with LeBron, so he could spend the most time on him. Green should also see No. 23, but he may have his hands full with Tristan Thompson. We’ll get to the Draymond-Tristan matchup later.

Steph vs. Kyrie

It is unfortunate Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving is running only at 75 percent because this would have a delicious point guard matchup.

Curry and Irving are not only the two most complete point guards in the NBA but they also possess some of the best handles in the biz. Kyrie better stretch his sore knees because Curry will surely test them.

Despite being hobbled in the Eastern Conference finals against the Atlanta Hawks, Irving still managed to make an impact in Game 4. In The Finals, he’ll go up against the MVP. No disrespect to Hawks point guard Jeff Teague but he’s not even close to being in Curry’s league. Few players are in Curry’s league.

Steph and Kyrie know each other well. They were both on the U.S. men’s national squad coached by Mike Krzyzewski that took home the gold medal at the 2014 FIBA World Cup. Irving served as Team USA’s point guard, while Curry was the shooting guard. Even though they started in the backcourt, you know they went at each other in practice.

Irving doesn’t need to match Curry point for point, but if he can give the Cavs anything close to his regular-season numbers (21.7 points and 5.2 assists) then Cleveland has a great shot a winning the title.

Bogut and Draymond vs. Mozgov and Tristan

The Warriors have mainly stayed with a conventional center-power forward frontline for most of the playoffs, but if Kerr decides to go small he probably use a lineup of Curry and Klay Thompson in the backcourt and Iguodala, Barnes and Green in the frontcourt. If Golden State goes with that lineup, Cleveland coach David Blatt will likely counter with Irving and Iman Shumpert in the backcourt and LeBron, J.R. Smith and Tristan Thompson in the frontcourt.

We already broke down the Curry-Irving matchup and the LeBron vs. the Warriors matchup. The Cavs will most likely stick Shumpert on Klay, and Iguodala or Barnes will take on Smith. That leaves us with the battle in the paint between two power forwards playing center, Draymond and Tristan.

The NBA championship may rest of the shoulders of two lunchpail guys who could command major dollars during the offseason when they become free agents.

Draymond is arguably the reason why the Warriors own the best record in the NBA, and the Cavs could argue that they wouldn’t be in The Finals without Tristan, who replaced the injured Kevin Love in the starting lineup. Golden State and Cleveland switch most pick-and-rolls because they both feel they have the players who can guard multiple positions. Another reason why both teams don’t like to switch on screens is because they are confident in the abilities of Draymond and Tristan to guard perimeter players. What could decide this matchup is the battle under the basket. Tristan has been a beast on the offensive boards, and he’ll have a height advantage over Draymond.

Kerr could throw a wrench into the mix by sticking with Bogut and Draymond in the frontcourt. That could force the Cavs to go with Timofey Mozgov and Tristan Thompson in the frontcourt. However, if you’ve been paying attention to the Cavs throughout the playoffs they’ve been consistently going with LeBron at power forward and Tristan at center, and those two have been punishing teams on the boards.

Whichever team wins the rebounding battle could be the one hoisting the gold trophy at the end.

Doc Rivers, Chris Paul and Blake Griffin couldn’t get past the conference semifinals. (GETTY IMAGES)

It’s difficult to quantify the debacle that just occurred in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals when the team that fell apart has very little history to begin with.

The Clippers were one win away (or one quarter away) from reaching their first conference finals only to watch it all go up in a cloud of smoke about as thick as the L.A. smog. The Clippers blew a 3-1 series lead and were eliminated from the postseason in spectacular fashion with a Game 7 loss in Houston. It marked only the ninth time in NBA playoff history a team tossed away a 3-1 series lead.

”It’s disappointing,” Clippers forward Blake Griffin said. ”We were close, but close doesn’t really count. Almost doesn’t count. We were up 3-1 and didn’t put them away. We can’t look at anybody but ourselves.”

Griffin did all he could to avoid the collapse. He averaged nearly a triple-double during the series, and he posted 27 points and 11 rebounds in 44 minutes in Game 7. His fellow superstar, Chris Paul, also left it all on the court. CP3 had 26 points and 10 assists despite playing with a bad hamstring.

Paul summed up his frustration by quoting Will Ferrell’s character, Ricky Bobby, from “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.”

“Ricky Bobby, like [he] said, if you’re not first you’re last,” Paul told reporters. “Being close ain’t good enough.”

It’s another offseason in which Paul will have to figure what went wrong. Last season, he took much of the blame for the Clips’ playoff loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.

Paul failed to reach the conference finals yet again. Throughout the playoffs, ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy kept referring to CP3 as The Great Chris Paul. We’ll have to put “great” in quotes because “great” players are usually able to push their teams past the second round. “Great” players don’t blow 3-1 leads in the playoffs. And “great” players don’t let their teams blow a 19-point second-half lead in close-out games.

That’s exactly what happened in Game 6.

The Clippers basically had one foot in the Western Conference finals when the Rockets slammed the door on their foot with a historic comeback despite not having their best player, James Harden, on the court. During a key stretch in the fourth quarter, the Clippers looked gassed and couldn’t make a shot, and that included their two superstars. Paul went 1-for-5 while Griffin was 0-for-4 from the field. The role players couldn’t bail them out either, as J.J. Redick, Matt Barnes, DeAndre Jordan and Jamal Crawford all folded under pressure. When the final buzzer sounded, the Rockets had outscored the Clippers 40-15 in a 12-minute horror flick that will go down as the defining moment of the Chris Paul and Blake Griffin era.

“We just stopped playing,” Clippers coach Doc Rivers said of Game 6. “You could see it. We got the lead and kind of got comfortable and started making plays that you shouldn’t make. Then we it got to eight (point lead) and we couldn’t make a shot.”

It would be unfair to say the Clippers choked against the Rockets, but that’s the CliffsNotes version of this story. When it was time to apply the knockout punch, the Clippers couldn’t pull the trigger. And Paul and Griffin where in the middle of it. Those are the two faces of the franchise. They’re the ones in the State Farm and Kia Motors commercials. When the Clippers needed their two stars to deliver an award-winning performance they both forgot their lines.

So what’s next for the Clippers? They’ll have to deal with a few in-house chores, most notably the contract of Jordan. The 6-11 center who blossomed into a defensive player of the year candidate this season is an unrestricted free agent. He has hinted he’d like to return to his home state of Texas.

It could be a long hot summer in L.A.

Gregg Popovich and the Spurs were eliminated by the Clippers in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs. (GETTY IMAGES)

Ask any basketball reporter and they will tell you their two greatest fears are being denied a free pregame meal and interviewing Gregg Popovich.

Popovich is undeniably one of the greatest coaches in NBA history. He helped build a model franchise in San Antonio, and he’ll likely find himself in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame some day.

Sure, he can be surly with the media because, let’s face it, winning five championships affords him that luxury.

Pop can play the role of Tywin Lannister better than anyone in the league. One bad question and you’re quickly sent to the chopping block. Just ask poor TNT sideline reporter Jaime Maggio when she had the unenviable task of trying to get more than five words out of the San Antonio Spurs coach.

In their in-game interviews, Maggio seemed like she couldn’t wait to get it over with as much as Pop.

Pop likes to poke the media for bad questions, and the media — for whatever reason — doesn’t poke him back even when Pop makes bad coaching decisions.

Pop isn’t immune to questionable moves. Remember Game 6 in the 2013 NBA Finals when he inexplicably took out Tim Duncan late in the game that allowed Chris Bosh to grab an offensive rebound and flip the ball to Ray Allen for a game-tying 3-pointer. The Heat went on to win Game 6 and eventually Game 7 to win back-to-back titles.

The poor-coaching bug hit Pop again in this year’s playoffs when he made several head-scratchers in the first-round series with the L.A. Clippers.

Let’s start with the hack-a-DeAndre-Jordan strategy.

It’s not a bad strategy to deploy, and it’s a momentum killer — we get it. But you can’t overuse it. It’s a get-out-of-jail card, which can only be good one time. Pop called for the hack-a-Jordan so many times TNT analyst Reggie Miller started shortening it to “hacka.”

Pop has repeatedly said he doesn’t like using the strategy, but it’s allowed in the rules so he’ll take full advantage until someone in the league decides to amend it. You can make a case either way whether the strategy works or not. Proponents say it works because you’re putting a sub-50 percent free throw shooter at the line and you remove the threat of the 3-point shot, especially when you’re ahead. However, opponents say the fouling strategy puts teams in the bonus a lot quicker, making it tougher to play defense without fouling. And it also stymies your own flow on offense.

What Pop and the Spurs coaching staff fell asleep on was the poor decision to use some of Tim Duncan’s fouls on hack-a-Jordan. Duncan is the most valuable Spur, so you don’t want to waste his fouls on silly fouls. But yet there was Duncan, hugging Jordan time after time, putting him in foul trouble in at least three of the seven games in the series. Why not send Matt Bonner or Aron Baynes to commit hack-a-Jordan?

Speaking of Baynes, Popovich’s decision to assign him to Clippers All-Star forward Blake Griffin in Game 1 led to a Clipper blowout. Griffin dunked on Baynes so hard twice the Spurs backup center lost an “r” in his first name. Baynes never saw Griffin again for the rest of the series.

But Popovich saved his most egregious error in the final moments of Game 7 when he chose to have Danny Green guard Chris Paul instead of Defensive Player of the Year Kawhi Leonard. As it played out, Paul beat Green going to his right and banked in the game-winning shot with one second left to eliminate the Spurs in the playoffs.

Green is a capable defender, and he’s had some success against CP3. But when you have the best one-on-one defender in the NBA, don’t you want to stick him on Chris Paul? Would love to find an answer from Pop, but the media is too scared to ask him that question.

Joel Huerto is editor and publisher of OneManFastBreak.net. Follow him on Twitter @onemanfastbreak.

Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker led the Spurs to the franchise’s fifth NBA title in 2014. (GETTY IMAGES)

For almost two decades, the San Antonio Spurs have accumulated an impressive collection of rings, bronze hardware and gold trophies.

Between future Hall-of-Famers Tim Duncan, Manu Ginobili and Tony Parker, and head coach Gregg Popovich, the Spurs have combined for 18 NBA championship rings, three most valuable player awards, three Coach of the Year awards and two Sixth Man of the Year awards.

But there is still one box left unchecked on their impressive basketball resumes.

Throughout basketball history, all the great teams repeated as champions. Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics did it, the Los Angeles Lakers with Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar did it, Hakeem Olajuwon’s Houston Rockets did it, Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls did it, and the Lakers again with Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal did it. Even LeBron James pulled off the back-to-back feat for the Miami Heat.

“Obviously, it’s back-to-back. It’s the last thing we want to accomplish with Coach Pop and the Big 3. It’s a big motivation for us,” Parker said on NBA TV’s “Game Time.”

For all the great things Duncan, Ginobili and Parker have accomplished in their soon-to-be-Hall-of-Fame careers, they’ve never repeated as champs. And this is not sitting well with this very proud group.

Parker knows he doesn’t have much time left with Duncan (38) and Ginobili (37). Even Popovich can’t coach forever. The 65-year-old coach has flirted with the idea of spending more time traveling the world than traveling in NBA cities. Those brutal winter trips to Chicago, Minnesota and Cleveland can certainly wear you down.

“We don’t know how long it’s gonna last,” Parker said. “Timmy, it might be his last year; Manu, it might be his last year. And we don’t know how long Pop is gonna do it. I know he wants to travel the world and drink wine. We need to take advantage right now.”

Parker added: “We understand that, and we’re approaching it like it’s our last one. Just because of that it’s great motivation for us. We want to try one more time.”

Repeating as champs will be a tall order for these Spurs, especially in the ultra-competitive Western Conference where at least six teams have a shot at reaching the NBA Finals.

But these Spurs are more than up for the challenge. They have a good mix of veterans to go with some young studs, such as Kawhi Leonard (23), Danny Green (27), Patty Mills (26) and Corey Joseph (23). Leonard is a budding star who could eventually be the face of the franchise when the Big 3 hangs up the sneakers. Leonard had his coming-out party last season when he was named NBA Finals MVP.

Pop has been able to rest his older players and lean on his bench during the regular season. When the playoffs start, he’ll call on the Big 3 for one more championship run. A sixth title would vault Duncan into an exclusive club. With the exception of Russell’s Celtics teams, only Jordan, Scottie Pippen, Kareem and Robert Horry have won at least six rings.

“The West is a beast. A lot of great teams,” Parker said. “It’s a long season, we just want to make sure we stay healthy. It’s the biggest key for us. It doesn’t matter where we finish in the rankings.”

The Spurs will begin their arduous climb back to the top as the sixth-seeded team in the Western Conference playoffs. History won’t be on their side because only one team — the 1995 Houston Rockets — were able to win the title as a sixth seed.

Stephen Curry ranks in the top 10 in five statistical categories. (GETTY IMAGES)

The race for the most valuable player in the NBA is too close to call. You can’t go wrong with LeBron James, James Harden, Stephen Curry and Russell Westbrook. But when it comes to Fantasy hoops, there is no contest.

Steph Curry doesn’t look anything like an assassin, but he has become one of the most feared players in basketball and is the favorite to claim the NBA MVP award. Curry, known as the Baby Face Assassin, is posting video game-type numbers. Statistically speaking, he’s the best player on the league’s best squad. An absolute deadly combination.

The 27-year-old All-Star for the Golden State Warriors is the new breed of point guard. He’s a scorer as well as a playmaker, cut from the same cloth as former NBA greats Mark Price and Steve Nash. The scouting report on Curry coming out of Davidson was “he’ll  likely to do a lot of his damage in spot-up situations, and he’s not going to be used a lot in one-on-one possessions.” Someone’s scouting department missed the boat on Curry.

To Curry’s credit, he diligently worked on his ball-handling skills and made himself into a triple-threat. When he’s rolling, he is nearly unguardable.

If you back off him, he’ll pull up from 25-feet and drill a 3-pointer from anywhere on the floor. If you charge at him and make him put the ball on the deck, he’s quick enough to take the ball all the way to the basket. And forget about fouling him because he shoots 91% from the free throw line.

Warriors head coach Steve Kerr paid Steph a huge compliment when he compared him to future Hall-of-Famer Steve Nash. Kerr should know because he was the general manager with the Phoenix Suns when Nash played there.

“I first saw it when I was in Phoenix and I scouted Steph when he was at Davidson. I think he was a sophomore. We walked away going, ‘That’s the next Nash,’ ” Kerr told the Contra Costa Times.

“The combination of the ball-handling, the shooting, anticipation, feel — very similar skill set,” Kerr said. “Very different approach, though. Steve was really a pass-first point guard, a reluctant shooter in some ways. Steph is just an assassin out there with his shot. He’s looking to shoot first and set the game up with his passing and moving the ball and creating offense for others.”

Curry is the only player in the Association who ranks in the top 10 in points (23.4), assists (7.9), free-throw percentage (91.4%), 3-point field goals (3.4), and steals (2.1). He is an absolute beast in most nine-category Fantasy leagues. He can fill up all the boxes on a stat sheet with the exception of blocks. Only New Orleans Pelicans star forward Anthony Davis — ranked No. 1 in Yahoo Fantasy hoops — is the closest player in terms of Fantasy numbers. But the biggest difference is Curry, currently ranked No. 2 in Yahoo, has stayed relatively healthy for the last three seasons, while Davis has yet to play more than 70 games in his first three years.

And when it comes to shooting 3-pointers (considered Fantasy gold), no one has been more prolific than Steph. He set the NBA record for 3-pointers made in the season with 272 in the 2012-13 season. He followed that up with 261 in 2013-14, and he is on pace to get close to those marks this season.

If you are one of the lucky ones to own Curry, there is no reason you shouldn’t be playing for a Fantasy League championship.