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Warriors’ title hopes unaltered by Cavs’ new philosophy

By Michael Shultz

December 25, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) shoots the basketball against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) in the third quarter of a NBA basketball game on Christmas at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 89-83. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
December 25, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Klay Thompson (11) shoots the basketball against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) in the third quarter of a NBA basketball game on Christmas at Oracle Arena. The Warriors defeated the Cavaliers 89-83. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports /
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The Golden State Warriors will be prepared to defeat the new-look Cleveland Cavaliers.

The Golden State Warriors just finished a miraculous comeback against the Oklahoma City Thunder, becoming just the 10th team to rally from a three games to one deficit. Their next challenge are the Cleveland Cavaliers and LeBron James.

In the regular season, the Warriors took care of the Cavaliers in both games but they will be seeing a much different Cleveland team in this year’s Finals. Since their season series sweep, the Cavaliers have a new man leading their team, Tyronn Lue, replacing David Blatt half way through the season. The head coaching change led to a change in philosophy, a philosophy designed to compete with Golden State and help better utilize the Cavaliers’ best players.

Jan 18, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt reacts in the third quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Jan 18, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers head coach David Blatt reacts in the third quarter against the Golden State Warriors at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

 Blatt looked to play big, starting Timofey Mozgov at the center position and played isolation ball with James leading the charge. But after the Warriors absolutely destroyed the Cavaliers in late January, General Manager David Griffin knew he needed the change the leadership if he wanted to bring a championship to the “Land”.

Enter Tyronn Lue, an assistant coach with the team and well respected member of the organization and personal favorite of James. Lue knew the Cavaliers needed to play quicker if they wanted to compete with the Warriors and the rest of the Western Conference. He immediately changed his starting lineup, replacing the slow Mozgov with the athletic Tristan Thompson.

This change made the Cavaliers more athletic and versatile on offense. Lue employed his team to spread the floor and shoot more threes. This move helped James immensely because he was accustomed to playing isolation ball, which may have been part of the reason why he wore down in last year’s NBA Finals. Now, he has shooters surrounding him with Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving, being completely healthy and J.R. Smith making them one of the most deadly three-point trios in the entire league.

Mar 23, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) and head coach Tyronn Lue talk with referee Scott Foster (48) in the fourth quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
Mar 23, 2016; Cleveland, OH, USA; Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James (23) and head coach Tyronn Lue talk with referee Scott Foster (48) in the fourth quarter at Quicken Loans Arena. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-USA TODAY Sports /

Their three point shooting got even stronger at the NBA Trade Deadline, adding sharpshooting big man Channing Frye. With all this firepower, James has not had to put this team on his shoulders and as a result, is fresher for this year’s rematch.

Will this new offensive philosophy affect the Warriors’ quest to repeat? The Cavaliers do have enough firepower to keep up with the Warriors fluid offense but where they will struggle is on defense. As good as Love and Irving are on offense, they are abysmal on defense and the Warriors are sure to exploit those matchups as much as possible.

Irving can not guard Stephen Curry, plain and simple. So who does Irving guard? Chances are the Cavaliers will put Irving on Harrison Barnes or Andre Iguodala, depending who the Warriors start in this series. If this is the case, Irving will have a massive height disadvantage, which plays right into the Warriors hands.

Love will be forced to guard Draymond Green, another huge mismatch. There is no way Love can stay with Green off the dribble and contend with the energy Green brings on a nightly basis. All this means is that Curry and Thompson will have plenty of open threes because Irving and Love’s teammates will have to help off their men.

The Warriors swept the season series but those games will have little impact on this much anticipated NBA Finals. This series will be won on the defensive end and the Warriors possess a much better defense. Their defense will fuel their offense by forcing tough shots from Cleveland, giving them the opportunity to get out in transition where they are lethal. The Cavaliers are a very good three point shooting team but no one is going to pick the Cavaliers in a shootout with the two best shooters in the history of the NBA.

Oracle will be rocking on Thursday night and with all the adversity the Warriors have gone through this postseason, it seems highly unlikely this team loses at home again. In the Western Conference Finals, the Warriors lost back to back games for the first time all season to the Thunder and unless a Green suspension occurs, it will not happen again.

The Cavaliers are not as good as the Thunder and the Blazers would give them all they could handle. While these games will be competitive, the Warriors are simply a better team and no one should stand in their way from hoisting the Larry O’Brien Trophy and repeating as champions.

Prediction: Warriors in 5        

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