Sometime late in 2014, the NBA embarked on a most excellent journey. Now, there are a maximum of seven games remaining before a champion will be crowned – the super-charged Golden State Warriors or the lottery-to-legendary Cleveland Cavaliers.
The Golden State Warriors were not just a better team than the Cleveland Cavaliers this season, they were playing on another plane of existence that probably has only been seen in glimpses by the game’s greatest yogis. Plus, they were doing it in a much more difficult conference, and Steph Curry has had the distinguished pleasure of facing all four players who joined him on the All-NBA First Team during this playing run.
Cleveland is going to have their hands full. But, they happen to have Lebron James so that makes up for not all, but a lot of their deficiencies against any team. In short, if you’re on the Cavaliers roster, you breathe a little easier knowing that Lebron is going to breathe a little harder to make sure he wins and drags you with him. Matt Moore of CBS Sports wrote a great breakdown of the Warriors defensive options against James.
We know almost everything we can possibly know about these two teams. You can read a great profile on this series from Zach Lowe over at Grantland in case there is anything you are missing on the court. There aren’t likely to be many, if any, wrinkles in the game plan for the Warriors. If you’re one of the very best regular season teams of all-time and you emerged from a loaded Western Conference, you’re probably doing most everything right.
We know how good, and flawed, both of the teams are and can be. If you need to brush up on your narratives, go check out Bryan Toporek’s work at Hardwood Paroxysm.
How can Cleveland win this series?
- Lebron James
I feel like I definitely covered this topic somewhere earlier in the playoffs. Look, Lebron is probably the one player in the NBA Finals who could alter weather patterns by sheer will. In spite of some atrocious outside shooting from long-two and three-point range in these playoffs, he has still managed to dominate games, coming up clutch in every way you could apply that term to an NBA player. He was just three assists short of averaging 30/10/10 against the Hawks in the conference finals. However, he will need to do at least that, if not more, if he hopes to bring a championship to Cleveland for the first time.
- Ex-Knicks
J.R. Smith needs to not have a meltdown or regress to the barely serviceable player he has been for a few years now. Iman Shumpert needs to play some out of his mind defense on every single possession that Golden State has. Timofey Mozgov needs to become a pick-n-roll defense savant. Basically, Shumpert and Mozgov are what they are. Smith is the only one of the three that showed us something that wasn’t there before. Can he sustain his performance against the buzz saw that is the Warriors on both ends of the court?
(Editor’s note: How amazing is it that former Knicks will play a large role in the Cavaliers winning a title?)
- Dragons
There isn’t any proof that dragons exist, but if the Cavaliers brought a few and put them on the court… it would probably a logistical nightmare and Blatt probably has about the same chance of getting them to run the plays he calls as Lebron so they should probably just go for it.
- Matthew Dellavedova
If there is any one thing that seems less sensible than J.R. Smith being a clutch piece in a championship team, it is the role of Dellavedova. The second-year guard is that guy: the one who bags your groceries in plastic even after you ask for paper a second time. He is that guy: the son of your second grade teacher who is a total brat because he has learned how to leverage his minimal power in a maximum way. Leg-lock to get Taj Gibson booted from a playoff game? Yes. Inadvertently end the season of one of the deadliest three-point shooters in the league on a hustle play? Uh huh. Set off mostly mild-mannered Al Horford, getting him ejected from a conference finals playoff game? Bingo. Not to be known only as an instigator, Dellavedova discovered some range that helped buries the Bulls and hammer the Hawks. After shooting 2-for-7 against the Celtics in the first round, Dellavedova shot 16-for-43 over the next two rounds. If you kindly forget game 1 against the Hawks, he has shot 41-percent from three over the last nine games.
- Tristan Thompson – Contract Winner
Thompson has been a revelation since early in the Bulls series. He has earned high praise from Lebron James. That is really all you need if you play for the Cavs. He is a high-energy player who will have to crash the boards and put in work against a rotation of Golden State bigs every time the run a small lineup with James at the four and then he will have to work on players like Draymond Green when the Cavaliers bring the Mozgov-Thompson combo. If he grabs lots of rebounds, frustrates the Warriors front court and creates foul trouble for Green, life could be very good for Cleveland.
- Maps
They could replace all of the Warriors’ maps with fake maps that send them to South America. It probably won’t work, but they would have a significant advantage if Golden State got lost and never made it to the arena for the game.
- Scott Foster
It has been a pretty incredible streak for Scott Foster. I wonder how many other referees have been involved in 10 consecutive road team wins in the playoffs. I’m not implying another, but it is remarkable. If Cleveland can figure out a way to have him officiate at least two of the game at Oracle, it would really help their cause.
- Luck
No, not Andrew Luck. Just regular, old-fashioned luck. A miraculous recovery for Kyrie Irving in which he averages 23 point and 11 assists per game. Maybe Thompson and Curry miss 95-percent of their shots and commit a season-high percentage of turnovers per 100 possessions.
It’s hard to imagine any team that boasts Lebron James in the starting lineup as an underdog, particularly so after sweeping top-seeded Atlanta in the conference finals. But teams like the Golden State Warriors and players like Steph Curry don’t go into the history books in seasons like this for no reason, they deserve to be here and they deserve to be the favorite. Personally, I’m hoping J.R. tries to summon a dragon.
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