A King Asks For Seconds & A Chef Obliges: Official Warriors vs. Cavs 2016 NBA FINALS Thread

[Malta]

I can see the sense in not allowing Curry/Klay to get in any rhythm whatsoever, I just don't see the sense in the lineups he was using to carry out the scheme (unless lineups of Kyrie, JR and Love are giving them an advantage on offense, they can't be playing heavy minutes together - there's far too many defensive breakdowns). But then again, if he went for more defensive-orientated lineups, the Cavs would run into the same offensive problems as they did in the Finals last season. Damned if he does, damned if he doesn't. I'd be more worried that he had no adjustments for when both Curry and Klay went off and the Warriors' offense was even more dangerous. It's like he came in with one defensive gameplan and said fukk it, I can live with the rest; not taking into account that the rest could actually be the weapon that kills them.

I understand why he did it, but once it became apparent their teammates had figured it out he still stuck with it. You can't try and take away Klay/Curry by giving their teammates wide open shots, there were times there when Klay & Steph had 4 Cavs around them. I thought it was a terrible scheme, focus on one of them like that, to do it to both is inviting disaster.

 

[labelplant]

@Gil Scott-Heroin what did you think of Lue's overreaction to Curry & Thompson? That shyt didn't make any kind of sense to me, I could see if they came out on fire, but from jump the Cavs were going overboard with the defense of them.

Ya you can tell he told them "you don't leave those 2 no matter what!"
A lot of it though was bad communication and other mental breakdowns, like poor reads or bad angles. Kerr completely outcoached Lue tonight. This does make OKC look that much better also because when you are trying to switch everything, it's not just Curry and Klay you have to focus on. It takes a lot of mental stamina as well as athletic ability to consistently execute perfect switching all over the court.
I also like the Warriors strategy on the other end as far as trying to make LeBron beat them as a scorer. He had a few plays in the first where I thought might end up going for 35+ but it seemed like the Warriors might be in his head a little. He missed several lay ups. He needs to be able to dominate in one on one situations for the Cavs to have a shot. I'm starting to have doubts about LeBron being able to score 40-45 points at this stage of his career. It seems some of his first step is gone and the utter disrespect by defenses of his jump shot isn't helping. Btw, I still thought LeBron was the best player in the league this year not curry(it's pretty much a toss up but ultimately I gave Bron the edge) so I'm no hater

 

[kingjones29]

WARRIORS IN 5

 

[bl2k8]

Relating last years finals to this years finals is stupid. A lot of the first 3 games in last years finals had to do with nerves and never experiencing adversity. Since game 3 last year the Warriors have:

1. Won 3 straight after being down 2-1 in their first finals appearance
2. Played 6 playoff games without their best player
3. Overcame a 3-1 deficit against a team that had 2 top 5 players.

 

[labelplant]

One positive outcome for the Cavs from this is not all those shots Livingston and Barbosa hit were easy shots due to bad switching. Several were tough, I'm not sure they will have many more of these types of games even if Cleveland continues to overpursue Steph and Klay. And Cleveland was still up by one in the third. (Trying to play devil advocate)
So if they shut down Curry and Klay and Livingston and Barbosa aren't on fire they will have a much better shot. This will be especially effective at Cleveland.

 

[Hersh]

bron sounded like he was coo wit the game plan.. he was just harpin on 17tos that led to 25 warrior points...

 

[CarltonJunior]

I also like the Warriors strategy on the other end as far as trying to make LeBron beat them as a scorer. He had a few plays in the first where I thought might end up going for 35+ but it seemed like the Warriors might be in his head a little. He missed several lay ups. He needs to be able to dominate in one on one situations for the Cavs to have a shot. I'm starting to have doubts about LeBron being able to score 40-45 points at this stage of his career. It seems some of his first step is gone and the utter disrespect by defenses of his jump shot isn't helping. Btw, I still thought LeBron was the best player in the league this year not curry(it's pretty much a toss up but ultimately I gave Bron the edge) so I'm no hater

LeBron was never a good one on one player, and there were a few plays where the refs punished him for free arming which was pretty crucial. The thing about LeBron is that if the ball isn't in his hands he's borderline useless, he needs to learn how to operate without the ball in his hands, set backdoor screens, work to get in decent post position, and crash the offensive boards. Kyrie over dribbled a lot but the ball still wasn't in his hands enough

 

[Reid2Achieve]

Cavs actually tried to play uptempo in the first half

And they basically treated the Warriors sans Curry and Thompson like scrubs and didn't guard them

I don't understand the gameplan here

And Kyrie was food on defense. Barnes, Livingston, and Draymond took turns exploiting him.

 

[labelplant]

LeBron was never a good one on one player, and there were a few plays where the refs punished him for free arming which was pretty crucial. The thing about LeBron is that if the ball isn't in his hands he's borderline useless, he needs to learn how to operate without the ball in his hands, set backdoor screens, work to get in decent post position, and crash the offensive boards. Kyrie over dribbled a lot but the ball still wasn't in his hands enough

I thought Bron did a good job on the boards but ya Cleveland isn't gonna run a lot of split cuts and backdoors etc.. that's not their game.
Kyrie def overdribbled.
I was surprised Frye only playef 7 minutes

 

[Big Boss]

Chauncey Billups speaks nothing but true basketball shyt. No emotions or overreactions. Just basketball insight from somebody who has been there before. He should be coaching somewhere.

Word he a real brotha

 

[Gil Scott-Heroin]

I understand why he did it, but once it became apparent their teammates had figured it out he still stuck with it. You can't try and take away Klay/Curry by giving their teammates wide open shots, there were times there when Klay & Steph had 4 Cavs around them. I thought it was a terrible scheme, focus on one of them like that, to do it to both is inviting disaster.

It makes one wonder why he thought it was a smart decision to take such an aggressive defensive approach in the first place, when the Cavs don't have a rim protector to clean up any miscues. The Warriors only need to break the initial barrier and there's nobody to meet them at the rim/in the paint.

 

[CarltonJunior]

I thought Bron did a good job on the boards but ya Cleveland isn't gonna run a lot of split cuts and backdoors etc.. that's not their game.
Kyrie def overdribbled.
I was surprised Frye only playef 7 minutes

Your forgetting that LeBron got those boards off his own misses from missing at the rim like 15 times....and still not scoring

I don't see why LeBron wouldn't set backdoors, he's so big he probably can ring any guard's bell with a screen and force a mismatch

 

[SithLawd]

5:29
Now we know is the machine. But steph looked straight up out of it mentally today.

If he really is hurt maybe the cavs can make this interesting.

 

[Regular_P]

Relating last years finals to this years finals is stupid. A lot of the first 3 games in last years finals had to do with nerves and never experiencing adversity. Since game 3 last year the Warriors have:

1. Won 3 straight after being down 2-1 in their first finals appearance
2. Played 6 playoff games without their best player
3. Overcame a 3-1 deficit against a team that had 2 top 5 players.

Every time I mention how tight GS was in last year's Finals, especially after Kyrie went down, it gets downplayed.

 

[Thegospel]

Your forgetting that LeBron got those boards off his own misses from missing at the rim like 15 times....and still not scoring

I don't see why LeBron wouldn't set backdoors, he's so big he probably can ring any guard's bell with a screen and force a mismatch

doing those things may lead to another player getting finals mvp and we know bron ain't having that. you don't get pretty stats for setting screens. he wants to emulate warriors and spurs but still get all the glory. steph let iggy get his shine for the sake of winning. Steph sets up Hella people and gets no credit for it.