R&B superstar Rihanna has officially joined the NBA Finals craze as she traded barbs with a heckler following Golden State Warriors’ 113-91 win over and the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 1 of the NBA Finals last Thursday. Harassed by a Warriors fan on her way out of the arena, Rihanna retaliated by uttering the phrase “The king is still king, [expletive]."
Rihanna – the LeBron fanatic
Some of you are thinking that Rihanna is just another celebrity seeking a piece of the spotlight in the NBA finals by jumping on LeBron’s bandwagon. Well, she’s not. The pop star has been a fan of LeBron for over a decade now, sitting courtside at James’ games since 2006.
She has also a long history of social media posting showing her great admiration for the four-time NBA MVP.
In Game 1 of the 2017 NBA Finals, Rihanna once again reminded the world how "obsessed" she is for LeBron by visibly bowing down in front of him at the start of the fourth quarter. RiRi’s cohorts even tried to heckle LeBron’s rival Kevin Durant during the game. Unfortunately, all of their efforts backfired when the sweet-shooting forward drilled a trey that extended the Warriors’ lead to 21 points with four minutes left in the match and gave them a death stare afterwards.
When asked if he really stared down Rihanna during the post-game press conference, Durant said he never remembered staring at the pop star, adding that he will never get into that trap.
Durant, who joined the Warriors for the sole purpose of beating the Cavaliers and winning his first NBA championship, had a terrific Game 1 as he recorded 38 points on 14-for-16 shooting with 9 rebounds and 8 assists in 38 minutes.
Control the pace
James, on his part, didn’t have a shabby game at all. The Cavs star tallied 28 points, 15 rebounds and 8 assists in 40 minutes.
Kyrie Irving recorded 24 points on 10-for-22 FG shooting, while Kevin Love racked 15 points and 21 rebounds in Game 1 of the NBA Finals. Like many analysts pointed out, LeBron also feels that turnovers killed them in the match.
“You can’t play with pace when you turn the ball over,” James said on the Cavs’ 20 turnovers in Game 1.
“That’s one thing we did in Game 1. That is where we are going to be very conscious about going into game 2, especially on their home floor, so we know we are a team that plays with pace, we know that. And in order for us to be as good as we can be offensively, we have to play with pace but we have to control the ball as well.
