The Official NBA Finals Thread: Game 7 - Cleveland Cavaliers are your 2016 NBA Champions

Who will win the 2016 NBA finals?

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The market for my boy OJ looking bleak af right now 
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The Warriors' game plan is simple: Find Kyrie Irving and score on himJun 2, 2016; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors forward Harrison Barnes (40) shoots the ball against Cleveland Cavaliers guard Kyrie Irving (2) during the first quarter in game one of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ezra Shaw-Pool Photo via USA TODAY Sports
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By: Nate Scott | June 3, 2016 9:05 am
After the Golden State Warriors handled the Cleveland Cavaliers easily in Game 1 of the NBA Finals, winning 104-89, the talk was about how the Warriors’ scoring came from unexpected people. It wasn’t the Splash Brothers — Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson — leading the way with scoring (though they did have some big buckets) but the Warriors’ supporting cast that provided the points.

Watching the game back, however, it’s clear the Warriors’ scoring wasn’t a result of a game plan to have Shaun Livingston (who finished with 20 points), Leandro Barbosa (11 points) or Harrison Barnes (13 points) take the shots. Those guys scored because of who was defending them: Kyrie Irving.

By the fourth quarter, the Warriors’ game plan had become simple: Everyone work their tail off on defense, and on offense, find the guy who Kyrie is guarding. And then give him the ball and let him score.

The Cavaliers had to have seen this coming, and thus went with the somewhat counterintuitive strategy of having Irving guard Curry to start the game. Cleveland knew they were probably going to have to send a double team anyway, so might as well make Irving the first guy there who can hold Curry up for a second until help arrived, usually in the form of LeBron James.

With James cheating to help Irving with Curry, though, the Warriors promptly found Barnes — James’ man — on a back-door cut.

So that wasn’t working. The Cavaliers then made the quick adjustment and decided to try and have Irving guard Barnes directly. The Warriors immediately sent Barnes baseline around a series of picks, which Irving had no chance dealing with. Another easy bucket for Barnes.

At the end of the first quarter, Livingston came in, and the Cavaliers thought they’d roll the dice and have Irving guard him.

Look where Curry immediately goes with the ball:

These are all just from the first quarter. The Warriors were running their offense, but every play seemed to reach the same conclusion. Wherever Irving was, that’s where the ball went.

I’m not trying to be mean to Irving here, I’m really not. But the Warriors are so good and so deep that this isn’t a team that allows you to hide someone on defense. All night, the Cavaliers tried to trap the Warriors’ shooters. At times it worked, but more often than not Curry or Thompson would just move the ball around until they found whoever Irving was guarding, that person would be open, and they’d get a bucket.

By the fourth quarter, the Warriors had stopped even pretending to do anything else:
By the fourth, Irving might as well have been wearing a neon green jersey. Every single time down the court, the Warriors did the same thing — they found the poor sap, and they picked on him.

I’m not sure what the Cavaliers do from here. Irving’s offensive game is so much better than the next option — Matthew Dellavedova — that he has to be on the floor. (And even though Delly is a better defender, he seems to be a problem the Warriors have solved, and in his ten minutes on the floor last night the Cavaliers were -19.) Irving is the better ballhandler, a better playmaker, and his shooting allows the Cavaliers to space the floor the way they want to. He has to play.

I’m not sure what to do on defense, though. Cavaliers coach Tyronn Lue can try to put Irving on Curry, but I’m not sure having Irving chase around the greatest shooter ever — or, god forbid, try to defend the Curry-Green pick-and-roll — is a sustainable idea.

Sadly, I think the defense they came up with last night — trying to hide Irving on Livingston, Barnes, Barbosa, whoever — is probably the best bet. The Cavaliers need to be sharper with their rotations, need to be quicker to help Irving. They only gave up 104 points last night, which is actually a decent number against this Warriors team. Someone on the Warriors is going to beat you, so if you’re the Cavaliers, you figure it might as well be that cast of characters.

The Cavaliers need to score the ball better (obviously enough), and they need to help Irving on defense. Until this game plan stops working, the Warriors are going to go to it. Keep your eye on Irving on defense this series: That’s where the ball is heading.
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Crazy. There was gifs to back up this article but couldn't figure out how to transfer it over.

Vedran Modrić @vedranmo
Just rewatched 4th Q Warriors-Cavs.Cavs put Irving on Livingston,Shaun scores 6 pts and then they put Irving on Barnes then he scores 4 pts.
6:31 AM - 3 Jun 2016
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:lol:

So basically, Irving is on McDermott levels of defense. Is what GS figured out.
 
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amel223 said:
Crazy.
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This is what I am saying.  This doesn't even consider the fact that Barnes got like a quick 8 points in the first quarter off of switches getting easy layups and open jumpers.  Dude scored 25 and legitimately gave up 50.
 
Kyrie is washed out here, called it early after the Raptors.

Doesn't even matter how much you score if you are that much of a liability against great offense.
 
How much is it Kyrie being bad on defense vs him being at a size disadvantage against the likes of livingston and barnes
 
amel223 said:
The article really just laid out in detail how GS figured out to just attack one guy on defense. :lol:

Damn.
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What's messed up is that it's hard finding any fault in it :lol:

It leads to ask, do you sacrifice scoring for better d w/ Delly or keep Kyrie in and hopes he plays a solid possession or two on d? But even then, Delly hasn't been that effective either w/ how active off the ball Steph has been.

Cavs better hope JR and Mo Williams get hot next game.
 
shoeking2102 said:
How much is it Kyrie being bad on defense vs him being at a size disadvantage against the likes of livingston and barnes
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I was going to mention this but decided to just roll with the slander. That plays a part but aside from that he's still cheeks on d. And it doesn't help when you look at the other side and see the other lil guy, curry, at least holding ground against lebron in the post.
 
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awwsome said:
He was getting roasted by Lowry too though, he's just really bad.
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Yeah I know that I was just talking about last night.

I was half drunk so I may have to watch it again, but a lot of last night looked like he was just too small and Livingston was making shots along with being caught on harrison via a broken play or something like that
 
leemelone said:
I was going to mention this but decided to just roll with the slander. That plays a part but aside from that he's still cheeks on d. And it doesn't help when you look at the other side and see the other lil guy, curry, at least holding ground against lebron in the post.
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Curry really wasn't holding his ground on Lebron either though. Everytime that situation occurred, there was an either flat out double, or a shadow right behind steph.

And I agree that Kyrie is "bad" on defense, but last night didn't show me that he was that bad with the exception of a couple plays, which is standard for most players over the course of a game.
 
Being small is no excuse. Curry is smaller than Kyrie and it's not like Cleveland is eating attacking Curry.
 
shoeking2102 said:
Curry really wasn't holding his ground on Lebron either though. Everytime that situation occurred, there was an either flat out double, or a shadow right behind steph.

And I agree that Kyrie is "bad" on defense, but last night didn't show me that he was that bad with the exception of a couple plays, which is standard for most players over the course of a game.
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I'm saying, curry wasn't just getting mowed over. He was bodying up and offering at least some resistance giving time for the help to come. Kyrie just concedes the size advantage and doesn't even try to push back, just lets his man shoot and then try to challenge it.
 
shoeking2102 said:
 
Basketball doesn't work like this. It isn't this linear 
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There is a difference between shooting over someone and getting burnt repeatedly for easy layups and dunks.  A couple possessions Livingston just shot over him, not much you can do about that.  But there were at least 5 possessions where Barnes made a basic move to the hoop, or backcut, or just went in for a rebound unimpeded without any sort of resistance.  Those plays are terrible defense.
 
^^Not even just conceding the size advantage. He doesn't fight through screens. He loses track of his man. Peeps don't even need to string a-b-c-d combos out there to get by him. Just press a and they go by him. Etc.
 
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amel223 said:
Not even just conceding the size advantage. He doesn't fight through screens. He loses track of his man. Etc.
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Exactly.  There was a couple plays where he switched, lost his man on a back cut, and ended up conceding an easy layup or dunk.  That has nothing to do with size, that is just terrible court awareness.
 
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