It’s time for the Warriors to prove they were worth the hype
The Cavaliers have dictated the tempo throughout the finals. To even the series, the Warriors must regain their flow or find a way to adjust to the slow pace.
CLEVELAND -- When you're observing a situation like the one facing the Golden State Warriors, there's a tendency to demand radical change. It's not just that the Warriors are down 2-1 to LeBron James and the Cavaliers in the NBA Finals and facing a pivotal Game 4 on the Cavs' home floor. They've been in that situation before, down by the same deficit to the Memphis Grizzlies with a show-us-what-you're-made-of showdown at the Grindhouse staring them in the face.
The Grizz aren't the Cavs and Marc Gasol isn't LeBron, but you won't find too many more daunting challenges in this league than that one. The Warriors not only prevailed in that contest, they raced right past Memphis -- leaving the Grizzlies stuck in their own mud -- and right on through Houston on their way to the finals.
The issue here is that the Cavs have not just controlled the pace, they’ve dictated its terms. Possessions are at 89.7 per game, per basketball-reference.com, down almost 10 from the up-and-down frenzy of the conference finals against Houston, and even slower than the Memphis series.
Pace is everything for the Warriors and the Cavs simply aren’t letting them have much say in the game’s flow. Some of that is Cleveland’s offensive rebounding. A great deal is that the Cavs’ offense runs through LeBron on virtually every possession. Again, per b-ref, LeBron’s usage rate is an unheard-of 44 percent. In Kobe Bryant’s most ball-dominant season of 2005-06, he didn’t crack the 40 percent barrier.
NBA Finals
One way or another, the Warriors have to find a way to get the game at their speed. Or, failing that, they need to figure out a way to reach their destination in the slow lane. And they know it.
“That’s what we’re looking at,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “How can we speed the game up? Is it by changing our defense? Is it by what we’re doing offensively? In my mind it’s always a combination of things. It’s never one thing.”
And yet, through three games the Warriors have actually outscored Cleveland, 292-291. They’ve outshot them percentage-wise, made more threes and are within four rebounds of Cleveland’s total. The chasm may seem wide, but it’s not that deep. So Kerr must balance the desire to introduce radical change and stay true to his team’s identity that resulted in a dominant regular season and a swift journey through the Western Conference playoff bracket.
“That’s how this works, right?” Kerr said. “There is always overreaction to everything. Outside the locker room, for sure. Inside the locker room is where it’s much easier to control the dialogue, the narrative, whatever you want to call it. I think that’s what today is about is putting it in perspective.”
The Cavs have played a defensive scheme that's a mix of orthodox and unconventional tactics. They blitzed Steph Curry on pick-and-rolls, which is something most teams do, and followed that up by face-guarding Klay Thompson all over the court. In effect, they're daring Draymond Green, Harrison Barnes and Andre Iguodala to beat them. Iggy has had his moments this series, but none of them have made enough shots consistently to punish the scheme.
That all began to change late in the third quarter and throughout the fourth when Kerr called on David Lee to work in the pick-and-roll with Curry. Lee's defensive issues are well known, but he's a master at slipping through the cracks on the roll and scoring inside. He and Curry have done this for years and figure to do a lot more of it on Thursday. After Game 3, Curry suggested that he had cracked the code and he had 17 fourth-quarter points to back up the claim.
There's been a suggestion that Iguodala should supplant Barnes in the starting lineup, which wouldn't be that shocking of a transition considering Iggy's role as the primary LeBron defender throughout the majority of the series. There's also the idea that Lee's emergence should send Andrew Bogut to the bench to get the Warriors out of their early-game offensive funks that have plagued them at times during the series.
There will be other adjustments, subtle in nature, which are part and parcel of virtually every game in the postseason. Those kind of adjustments are closely held secrets, visible only to the coaches, players and the most keen observers.
Then there’s perhaps the best adjustment of all. It’s the simplest one to assign and the hardest to put into practice. It’s not deep or based in analytical analysis. It’s simply this: play harder.
“We’ve just got to act like we’re down 20 to start the next game,” Thompson said. “We just have to come out and play with so much emotion. That’s what we got to do. It’s that simple.”
Across the way, Green was telling reporters the same thing. Green pointed to the way the Cavs dove on loose balls, from Matthew Dellavedova (who played to the point of exhaustion) to old man Mike Miller, whose naked stat line didn't account for the floor burn when he hit the deck fighting for a loose ball.
To put it another way, the Warriors are pissed. They’re mad at themselves for the way they’ve played and they’re mad that the Cavs have been the aggressors. The Warriors may be a pretty team in terms of aesthetics, but their backgrounds are more in line with the blood-and-guts overachievers on the other side of the floor. Curry is too small, Green is an undersized four, Bogut has remade himself as a defensive force in the face of multiple career-threatening injuries.
You don’t get to be the top defensive team in the league by being soft, but you also lose the benefit of the doubt when you’re getting outhustled. Game 4 will reveal a lot about what these Warriors are made of. The Cavs have already shown their mettle. “Talk is cheap,” Thompson added. It’s time to deliver.
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