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NBA Finals 2015: Cavs vs Warriors

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Predict the series

  • Cavs in 4

    Votes: 18 4.1%

  • Cavs in 5

    Votes: 43 9.8%

  • Cavs in 6

    Votes: 286 65.3%

  • Cavs in 7

    Votes: 34 7.8%

  • Warriors in 7

    Votes: 16 3.7%

  • Warriors in 6

    Votes: 27 6.2%

  • Warriors in 5

    Votes: 11 2.5%

  • Warriors in 4

    Votes: 3 0.7%
  • Total voters
    438
  • Poll closed .
theSTEREO. said:
Just remembered that with League Pass, you can go back and watch archived games.

Bout to go watch that Feb 26 Cavs Warriors matchup. I thought we played them tremendously well that night, and I'm guessing we'll see a lot of the same.
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Alright, I'm just watching the condensed game on League Pass for now, so I don't get to see the stops we get on GSW, but I've noticed some interesting things about the way the Warriors played us defensively.

1) Ball movement is key. The Cavs got the Warriors scrambling a lot by driving, kicking, and swinging it around the horn. We've got one less shooter without Love, but we've got plenty who have been on fire to still make it work.

2) Other than in the post, the Warriors almost never brought a double on Lebron. They stayed home with the shooters, and Lebron waltzed to the basket a lot.

3) The Warriors gave Lebron a lot of different looks defensively. When Draymond was guarding him, Lebron took him straight to the block with success. Surprisingly, he blitzed right by Iggy and Barnes a bunch of times.

4) The Warriors also played Lebron very tight, which is weird. In the first half he got pretty much everything he wanted on the wing against Iggy and Barnes. I wonder if they change this up now due to Bron's broken jumper.

5) Love worked out of the high post a lot and made some great passes. :(

6) Lebron's jumper was on fire. Hope it comes back for this series.

7) Cavs brought almost no doubles on Steph. Just left Kyrie on an island and stayed home on Klay, Barnes Draymond. Occasionally they would hedge on a Curry screen, but mostly Kyrie fought over the top of screens and iced Curry toward Mozzy or TT. Seemed fairly effective.

8) Every Cavs player took Draymond straight to the block. Lebron, Love, Tristan. Draymond had no answer. They abused him on the block.

9) Since Draymond won't have to keep one eye on Love, he's probably gonna get the green light to play free safety. But, the Cavs had some success running "The Play" (you know, the elbow pick n roll that ends in a Delly or Kyrie to TT/Moz lob). If I were the Cavs, I would run that constantly.

10) Still gonna need to see the full game since I didn't get to see the misses and successful defensive plays, but I remember Curry's jumper being off that night. Wanna see if it was because of pressure, or if he just missed good looks.



Hoping to go back and watch the full game in the coming days to break down the defense.

I know you can't tell a lot from a regular season game (Atlanta, case in point). Especially one where we had Love.

But there are some pretty good foundations that we can exploit here I think. Teh Draymond angle is gonna be interesting. He struggled with the Cavs bigs and Lebron, and he looked GASSED tonight. Long season might be catching up with him and his style of play. Especially since he's gonna be asked to do a lot in this series.
 
Rich said:
The what-if games at this point in the playoffs make no sense to me. All of the teams are good. Largely what ends up separating them are small things. Late game turnovers, for one.

If LeBron doesn't hit the shot in game 4 the Bulls could have had a 3-1 series lead. Likewise, if J.R. Smith hadn't been suspended the Cavs could have won the first two against Chicago. And on and on and on we could go.
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I think he means Golden State let Houston hang around in a 3 of their 4 wins. Obviously, Golden State was the better team but they left a lot to be desired for a team that's a 2-1 favorite in the finals. They'll be the Cavs toughest test, but the Cavs will also be Golden State's toughest and most unique test, as well.

It's a pretty decent matchup for the Cavs. I'm real anxious to see how Kerr defends LeBron and which adjustments he'll make-- he is a rookie head coach, after all. I think the Cavs size and physicality in the front-court (plus LeBron) will be the biggest issue for the Warriors, which again, what does Kerr do? They love that small-ball lineup, do they go big? Can Bogut even play extended minutes? Do they force shots to Draymond and Barnes to force us to go small? Our best lineup this postseason has been with a TT-LBJ front court and Shump at SF, so does GSW want that?

With the Cavs, I think it's about how we stop Thompson and Curry. Who do we have defending those guys and how much help do we give? I know Delly, Shumpert and LeBron should be in a rotation guarding those two. Can we hide Irving on Barnes or Iguodala? How much James Jones do we use this series?
 
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I wasn't confident going against SA the first time around. I'm confident we'll be able to shut down GS and their offense. We have a lot of length, athleticism, toughness and smarts on the perimeter. We completely shut down Atlanta's potent offense. I have no doubt we can do the same to GS. Play man on Steph Curry and dare him to beat you while shutting down everyone else. That will completely shut down their ball movement and get them out of their offensive rhythm. We can throw Shump, Delly, JR, Kyrie and Lebron at Curry to give him different looks. Just like Teague, he can go and have himself a good game but everyone else will get abused on defense and on the boards. It was great that we played Atlanta because I they have very similar offenses that emphasize ball movement. Atlanta was like a tuneup for GS and our boys passed with flying colors.

Let's see if we can continue with the defensive dominance in the Finals. I haven't been this excited since getting a blowjob for the first time.
 
I bet the "Warriors in 4" vote was Jigo.
 
theSTEREO. said:
7) Cavs brought almost no doubles on Steph. Just left Kyrie on an island and stayed home on Klay, Barnes Draymond. Occasionally they would hedge on a Curry screen, but mostly Kyrie fought over the top of screens and iced Curry toward Mozzy or TT. Seemed fairly effective.
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This is why kyrie is so key to this. If he can fight through screens, we're good. If that would prove too much stress on him due to injuries, well... We still can't let curry have his 3pt looks.
 
I'm glad the Warriors were able to close it out. They are healthy either way, a few days of rest is all they really need it seems. But this way maybe they will continue to think they are invincible, and they still haven't faced any real adversity. So let's see how they handle being in the NBA finals going up against LeBron James.

I'm gonna go ahead and give us a 60/40 chance. I didn't like our chances much at all when Love went down but this team has consistently proven that his has a big heart and a lot of guts and confidence. They continue to play through adversity and every night 1-2 players aside from LeBron seem to step up big time and everyone else has a solid outing. So let's just go ahead and win that championship now.
 
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