For the second consecutive season, the NBA Finals MVP went to a role player who performed very well in the final few games of the series. But this list is crowned by the guy who led his team throughout the entire postseason, including the Finals: Stephen Curry.
Golden State was not pressed as much as some champions were, but that's in large part thanks to the league MVP, who kept making the impossible seem regular, even expected. The Warriors twice battled back from 2-1 deficits to win it all. That's the story of most champions -- recovering from temporary failure and series deficits to find higher levels of play.
It will be fun to watch teams try to prevent the Warriors from winning 70 games next season. Because, with Curry playing like this, that seems possible.
Postseason MVPs
1. Stephen Curry, PG
Golden State Warriors
2015 playoff stats:
28.3 PPG | 6.4 APG
Late in the third quarter of Game 3 of the Finals, Curry went from reacting to the defense to anticipating what it was doing. Knowing what was going to happen helped him regain his confidence, which is a large part of any shooter's success. Even though the Warriors didn't come back to win that game, the series immediately flipped.
Curry went on to score 76 points (on 27-of-49 shooting) over the next nine quarters combined -- and his team outscored the Cavs by 46 points in that span -- far better numbers than his 55 points on 19-of-54 shooting in the series' first 11 quarters and two overtimes.
Although Curry missed eight 3-pointers in the deciding Game 6, he made enough of them to ease his team past a determined but undermanned Cavs team. Curry dominated the game on offense, dictating where and when the ball was going to move and accumulating plenty of hockey assists (as he had all series).
Over the last three games, Curry's plus/minus was a plus-56 (a team-high). And in the Warriors' four Finals wins, it was a plus-60 (also a team-high). So, with all due respect to Andre Iguodala, Curry was the best player in the NBA Finals not named LeBron. Add in his dynamic performances from earlier in the playoffs, and Curry is your undisputed 2015 Postseason MVP.
2. LeBron James, SF
Cleveland Cavaliers
2015 playoff stats:
30.1 PPG | 11.3 RPG
Much has been made of LeBron's efforts in the NBA Finals because he was simply that special. His numbers were historic, to be sure. And no statistic was more relevant to his and his team's success than this: Heading into Game 6, he had exactly 15 turnovers in the series. That might seem like a lot, but consider this:
In the first five games, LeBron took 163 shots and 57 free throws. Add in 44 assists and now we see he had just 15 turnovers in more than 200 possessions in which he earned his team a shot. And that's not counting the dozens of shots he helped create for his team that resulted in misses.
This is important because the main key for the Cavs to hang in these games was to keep their turnovers down, thus nullifying one of the Warriors' best weapons: transition 3-pointers.
In Game 6, the Warriors continued to swarm him on penetration and worked to make things difficult for the clearly tiring James, who still managed to produce 32 points, 18 rebounds and nine assists in defeat. But his six turnovers are an indication that he had nothing more to offer from a physical standpoint.
Going forward, though, as long as LeBron is playing like he did this June, his team will have a legitimate chance to contend for a title no matter who he's playing with. His contention after Game 5 that he's confident because he's "the best player in the world" is wholly accurate.