Two - O.
“Are you a smart guy?” LeBron James quipped at a reporter that asked him if he planned to defend home court after losing Game 2. “You know what happens if we do not defend home court, right?”
This place, though, isn’t new for LeBron.
Last season, after running over all and sundry in their quest for 73 wins, the Golden State Warriors found themselves up two games in an 2016 NBA Finals that was quickly turning out to be a formality.
Not for LeBron James.
Taking advantage of a missing Draymond Green in Game 5 (who was easily the best player in the playoffs that far), LeBron rallied the Cavaliers to a historic comeback, that included, among other things this timeless block in one of the greatest Game 7’s in NBA history.
How did they do it though? Surely Green missing one game should not have had such an impact? What happened in the other three losses? Where were the rest of the crew? What about unanimous NBA MVP Steph Curry?
Well, Draymond Green was their best player in the Finals. He was in the top three in every category, and led the team in minutes played, rebounds, assists and steals. Klay Thompson gassed himself out in the seven-game series against the Oklahoma City Thunder, Andrew Bogut was injured, and Harrison Barnes froze on the big stage. Curry disappeared (22.6 ppg, 40% from three vs. 30.1 / 45% in the regular season), They lost Game 3 by 30 points, Game 5 to 41-point performances by both Irving and LeBron, and Game 6 to a raucous Cleveland crowd.
And Game 7? Well, LeBron hadn’t lost a Game 7 since 2008.
What’s Wrong Thus Far These Playoffs?
The Cavaliers’ offense.
Entering the Finals, the Cavaliers were averaging nearly 121 points per 100 possessions. That average has fallen down by nearly 25 points against this stingy Warriors defense in the first two games.
The Warriors are undoubtedly the masters of moving the ball to the open man for the easiest shot, but the disparity in assists numbers between the two teams over two games (32.5 vs 21.0) isn’t something to be taken lightly.
The Cavaliers are a much better half court team, but shooting 40% from the field and 32% from the 3-pt line isn’t going to cut it against team that wants to annihilate them.
As stellar as Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving have been in Games 1 & 2, it’s the rest of the Cavaliers that have disappeared. Tristan Thompson, a beast on the boards who averaged 9.2 rebounds per game in the regular season, has just 8 rebounds in two games. JR Smith, a hero in last year’s playoffs, has 3 points, yes three points total, in two games.
Another problem that plagued the Cavaliers in Game 1 was missed layups. Missed layups tend to come at the tail end of a possession when everyone has shuffled around, making it harder to scramble back on defense, something the Cavaliers have struggled with all season long. They took corrective measures in Game 2, but still allowed the Warriors to go on short runs; runs that allowed the Warriors to close out the game in the middle of the fourth quarter.
The Warriors struggled coming out of the gate in Game 2. Curry was incredibly careless with the ball, and they looked a step to slow on the offensive end. This allowed the Cavaliers, especially LeBron, to sneak into passing lanes and cut off passes leading to fast breaks at the other end. That all sorted itself out in the third quarter when Curry steadied the boat a bit, finding open teammates for transition baskets.
With all that they did better in Game 2, though, the Cavaliers came up against an iconic Curry game and a classic Durant game, which begs the question...
Can The Cavaliers Recover?
This Warriors team is very very good. But they are not invincible.
The Cavaliers made 11 and 8 three-pointers in games 1 & 2, i.e. 33 and 24 points respectively, whereas they averaged 13 (39 points) a game during the regular season and 15 (45 points) during the playoffs. If they took better care of the ball and hit another five three’s a game and you can easily see the Warriors’ 20-point leads melt away.
There is still one monster LeBron game lurking, and one Kyrie lights-out performance due. Lest we forget, this the same Kyrie that torched a fully healthy Spurs for 57 points in the 2014-15 regular season. Doubters would do well to remember the Spurs had the third best defense and were reigning champions that season. Oh yeah, he also took and made the 2016 NBA Championship shot.
However, as discussed earlier, the Cavaliers needed a ton of things to fall in place for them to make that valiant run to the Championship last season. The likelihood of a similar chain of events occurring is terribly bleak.
Every Warrior is healthy, Green is nowhere close to the tally of technicals and flagrants he had last year, Thompson still has his legs under him thanks to sweeps in previous rounds, Curry has shown up to play, and they replaced Barnes with the second best player in the NBA.
As I wrote in my column last week, this is LeBron’s shot at establishing himself over Kobe as one of the five greatest NBA players ever. However, if LeBron can carry this Cavaliers team from 2-0 to another championship, then he, in my humble opinion, jumps two places to become one of the three best players, behind Russell and Jordan, in NBA history.