professor
No, there was not. And you are absolutely right. Palming happens on just about every possession, with Isiah Thomas (Boston) being the most egregious violator. I witnessed no fewer than 4 travels in last night's game, nary a whistle.
There was defense being played, however. Mostly from the Warriors, and from Klay Thompson specifically. He is by far the best defender the Warriors have, and arguably one of the best defenders in the league.
Cleveland played soft in the final quarter. LeBron took plays off... which is understandable given the minutes he played. Kevin Love sucks on defense. Tristen Thompson was a non-factor for most of the series. With exception of one game, Cleveland relied on LeBron in the 4th quarter for offense, at least in the latter stages of regulation. Tired, winded, all of the pressure clearly on his shoulders - he still gave a heroic effort. I don't blame LeBron for losing this series to Golden State. Golden State was just too good, on both sides of the ball, to beat.
Interestingly enough, Cleveland's starting 5 actually outscored Golden State's starting 5 for the series, by roughly 20 points. Yet the Warriors bench had a 50-point scoring advantage over the Cav's bench during the series.
This isn't rocket science. The Warriors were deeper... Iggy played like a man possessed in that second half. The lack of a reliable bench that could come in and contest open jumpers, body up on players down in the low-post, deliver hard fouls and make the Warriors earn their points from the charity stripe - it all played a role in the lopsided demise of Cleveland.
And quite frankly, I don't think any team in the league can stop this moving forward for the next couple of seasons, barring an inner-team squabble or injuries impacting GS.
I think Durant pretty much put to rest the LeBron vs MJ talk. He was that good in these playoffs, that clutch. Every time the Warriors needed to score, he stepped up.
He actually had a more Jordan-like series than LeBron had.