In a couple of weeks, we’ll know who the best basketball team in the National Basketball Association (NBA) is.
It will be either the Cleveland Cavaliers or the Golden State Warriors.
Those two teams are now battling it out in the finals of the playoffs. This is the third straight year the NBA playoffs have come down to these two teams. Last year, Cleveland won and the year before, Golden State won.
Of course, every player on the two best teams is an incredible basketball player. But each of the two top teams has a player that is particularly well-known and extremely talented. For the Cavaliers it’s LeBron James. For the Warriors it’s Stephen Curry.
In basketball, the playoffs comprise seven games. The team that wins the most games of the seven, wins the championship.
At the time we are posting this article (Sunday night, June 4), the Warriors have won one game in the playoffs.
UPDATE: The Golden State Warriors won the NBA Championship in game 5, 129-120 over the Cleveland Cavaliers on June 12, 2017.
Related Links
For more information about the NBA, visit their website.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
Cleveland’s team is the Cavaliers. The Cavaliers were named in 1970 in a contest in which people submitted names for the city’s new basketball team. The contest winner was Jerry Tomko who wrote that the Cavaliers “represent a group of daring, fearless men, whose life’s pact was never surrender, no matter what the odds” (www.nba.com).
Similarly, Golden State are the Warriors, who are also thought to be fierce, strong and fearless.
If you had to create a basketball team name, what name would you pick and why?
Reading Prompt: Extending Understanding
Even though the NBA (National Basketball Association) is filled with some of the best basketball players in the world, in addition to being very talented and hard working, many of them are also superstitious. For example, LeBron James supposedly has a secret handshake with each player on his team. Before each game, he will do the secret handshake with each of his teammates. Another example is Michael Jordan (one of the most famous basketball players in history) who was known for wearing lucky shorts under his Chicago Bulls NBA uniform.
Why do you think athletes are often superstitious? Are you superstitious? If so, when are you superstitious and what do you do to prevent bad luck?
Primary
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge and experience, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Junior
Extend understanding of texts by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Intermediate
Extend understanding of texts, including increasingly complex or difficult texts, by connecting the ideas in them to their own knowledge, experience, and insights, to other familiar texts, and to the world around them (OME, Reading: 1.6).
Language Feature: Compound Words
Compound words combine two words into one. For example, basketball combines basket and ball. Can you think of 10 other compound words?
