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The new-look Warriors have eliminated one of the Cavs' defensive strategies, and it's going to make the Finals grueling
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One of the most exciting aspects of this year's NBA Finals will be the adjustments the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors make for each other during their third straight Finals showdown.
Last year, in storming back from a 3-1 series deficit to win the championship, the Cavaliers made a key adjustment by having LeBron James defend Draymond Green.
In doing so, the Cavs could switch pick and rolls more frequently, putting the much bigger James on Stephen Curry. Green, not much of a one-on-one scorer, couldn't take advantage of his matchup.
As a result, the Cavs could hide a weaker defender, like Kevin Love, on one of the Warriors' lesser shooters, like Harrison Barnes or Andre Iguodala, allowing him to provide his teammates more help defense.
This year's Warriors team presents a much tougher challenge — replacing Barnes is Kevin Durant, perhaps the best pure scorer in the NBA. Now the Cavs have nowhere to hide. To beat the Warriors, the Cavs will need to be fully engaged on defense, executing switches and hedges nearly perfectly, while hoping for a bit of luck in the form of missed shots.
James' defensive assignment may be key, and that should worry the Cavs. James is the Cavs' best matchup to defend Durant. James has the height and speed to hang with Durant on drives, and the strength to prevent Durant from posting up.
But if James were on Durant, it would also take him out of plays when his teammates need help. In other words, if another Warrior shook loose, it wouldn't be so easy for James to help off of Durant, who would can open shots. SB Nation's Mike Prada noted a play during the regular season where James was hesitant to leave Durant to provide help defense on a pick and roll.
Guarding Durant wouldn't just pull James away from the action, however. The Warriors wouldn't stop involving Durant in the offense. Putting James on Durant would also task James with an enormous workload: run the offense and defend one of the best scorers in the world.
However, it's tough to find a fit for the Cavs with each team's regular starting lineup on the floor. James guarding Green would mean Love would have to defend Durant. Good luck. The Cavs could put Tristan Thompson, a quicker, more capable defender, on Durant and put Love on Zaza Pachulia, but the Warriors wouldn't hesitate to let Durant attack Thompson one-on-one or attack the basket if Love is the primary rim defender.
As ESPN's Zach Lowe said on his podcast, "The Lowe Post," the Cavs simply don't have anywhere to hide players — everyone has to play defense:
"The best Golden State lineups do not have any player where you can just put Kevin Love. They don't have two guys — they don't have a center and a wing that doesn't do anything where you put Kevin Love and say, 'OK, be here,' and have LeBron rest.
"When you put starters to starters, my guess is Tristan Thompson will guard Draymond Green, Kevin Love will guard Pachulia ... and it's just process of elimination. LeBron is going to have to guard Kevin Durant or Klay Thompson. There is no sitting around anymore for LeBron on defense. And when the Warriors get smaller and put Draymond Green at center, which I think they will be more aggressive doing ... then it gets even harder. Because then Kevin Love has gotta guard Iguodala, Tristan Thompson has to guard Draymond. And can you hang in that alignment?"
Last year, when James defended Green, the Cavs put Love and Thompson on Barnes and Iguodala, Golden State's two least threatening shooters. Barnes faulted down the stretch, shooting just 35% from the field and 31% from three. Obviously, the Warriors now have Durant, who is shooting 41.7% from three this postseason.
Iguodala has struggled mightily shooting the three in the playoffs, and he shot just 30% from deep in last year's Finals. But two years ago, Iguodala made the Cavs pay mightily for this strategy, winning Finals MVP partly for his ability to hit the open shots the Cavs granted him.
Even with those two players misfiring from deep in last year's playoffs, the Cavs ended up outscoring the Warriors by only four points. Who knows what the difference would be if each shot closer to his season average?
Even wandering away from Green could be dangerous in the Finals. The common defensive strategy against the Warriors is to drift away from Green, a 31% career three-point shooter. In the playoffs, however, Green is shooting 47% from three. As Lowe put it in his Finals preview, if the Warriors' lesser shooters are hitting their open threes, "you lose." There simply is too much firepower.
Defensively, the Cavs' best option may be to remove Love from the court and go small with quicker, better defenders on James and Thompson. That still may not be the most pleasant option — Love is an important offensive weapon for the team, and it doesn't pay him more than $20 million a year to sit on the bench. Love has been playing some of the best basketball of his Cavs career, and they may have to ask him to dig deep on every defensive possession, as he did against Stephen Curry in Game 7 last year.
The best defensive weapon against the Warriors has always been to pick your poison and hope for the best. That could still work for the Cavs if any one of the Warriors shooters gets inexplicably cold. In the meantime, however, trying to slow down Golden State has become significantly more challenging with the addition of Durant.
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