5 reasons the Warriors will beat the Cavaliers on Christmas

Golden State has shown flashes of how good they can be on the defensive end and specifically in the interior.

The Warriors still have potential to be an elite defense. It will just take some time get used to an increased effort level at that end. For a while they had stout rim protection in both first and second units. Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli were essentially swapped out for Zaza Pachulia and Javale McGee.

While the ceiling is slightly lower for these two, it is still an elite one. Golden State has shown against interior dominant teams such as Atlanta, that they can make huge plays in the paint when the chips are on the line.

They had an elite defensive showing against other teams this season as well. They won’t ever be number 1 in defensive efficiency however, they can still be top 10 with good enough effort and attention to detail. They have shown flashes and there is no reason to see a nose dive as they have made positive progress on a game by game basis.

Steve Kerr has won a few championships as a player and one as a coach of the Dubs. It is hard to even entertain that he doesn’t have a game plan for this match-up. The Warriors as team will tackle the interior defense by committee as they have always done for other important things.