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

[darthska]

The Warriors run a million screens on and off the ball literally every single possession to incite confusion & chaos. OKC's guards & wings did an AMAZING job of staying in Steph/Klay's jersey & fighting around those screens & not allowing GSW to force one of the Thunder's big to switch onto to Klay & Steph. They were very disciplined 99% of the time.

But that 1%

. Steph's 3rd quarter eruption in G2 happened largely because Kerr kept running all kinds of screen action for him: curls,pindowns, pnr. Russ//KD weren't fighting over the screens & just handed Steph off to Ibaka/Adams and they couldn't keep up. Steph's now has tons of space & hit every single three in that stretch to blow it open.

When you just switch everything against this team that's what happens.

Then in G7, Steph & Klay went 8-8 for 23 points on Adams, 6/6 from 3. Surgical. 14 of the Warriors 17 threes came on Ibaka, Adams, & Kanter. On all of those 14 you'll see Russ/Roberson/KD either getting caught up on a screen, forcing the switch or just lazily passing Klay/Steph to the big.

Kyrie & JR are gonna get a lot of mins and I just don't think they're gonna consistently do the dirty work & bump grab shove & fight over these screens. I certainly trust them less than Roberson & Westbrook.

CLE's best lineup is probably gonna be Kyrie/Delly/Shump/Bron/TT, but you can't run that for the whole 48. Frye, JR, Love are gonna get mins too & I don't trust them defensively. Moz gave them great mins last year but he looks like a shell of himself.

You also saw Enes Kanter get his mins substantially reduced in this series because he couldn't keep up with what GSW was doing in the halfcourt. He was awful in any situation involving a screen & Donovan couldn't trust him.

I think Kevin Love will suffer the same fate. Lue has already shown that he isn't afraid to bench him for an entire 4th quarter & I think he'll restrict Love's mins even further in this series.

But then Frye isn't any better so what you'll have is Bron/TT getting 40+ mins & exhausted as the series goes on.

All that to say Warriors in 5.

I remember you did this in the playoffs thread with KD in the final minutes of that crucial Gm. 6 loss for OKC, at least I'm pretty sure that was you.

*repped*

 

[Lovetohate3000]

Fantastic post

Agree on all points. I also do not see guys like JR, Kyrie, Jefferson being able to stay in front of that backcourt and get around the screens and pindowns.

LeBron is going to have to stick Curry this series. Thompson isn't an awful defender in the pick and roll situation either. He's also got some ability to stay out on the perimeter, but if he's on Curry or Klay they need to put him on an island and open the paint for penetration.

lebron cant guard curry . kawhi couldnt do what makes you think lebron can. cle d isnt really good. the size and advantage that okc had on the warriors , cle dont have that.  

gs in  5 or 6. 

 

[DeadsetAce]

warriors in 5

 

[junglejim]

Lebatard's show this morning is pretty interesting.  I guess Steph Curry was shooting 68% from 3 when either Kanter or Adams was guarding him on the perimeter, and shooting 60% from 2.

If Adams can't stick curry on the switch, no way Thompson or Love will be able to.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Lebatard's show this morning is pretty interesting.  I guess Steph Curry was shooting 68% from 3 when either Kanter or Adams was guarding him on the perimeter, and shooting 60% from 2.

If Adams can't stick curry on the switch, no way Thompson or Love will be able to.

Thompson stands somewhat of a chance, because of his size. But Love is BBQ chicken

 

[everysingletime]

TT has really good lateral mobility from what I recall.

 

[trynafeelmink]

Problem with Love not playing fourth quarters is that thompson takes his place in that role... and i would assume Kerr will allow Draymond to then play the "safety" role and gamble a bit more on defense. which can disturb those drive & kick outs they love doing.

 

[friscostylez]

Lebatard's show this morning is pretty interesting.  I guess Steph Curry was shooting 68% from 3 when either Kanter or Adams was guarding him on the perimeter, and shooting 60% from 2.

If Adams can't stick curry on the switch, no way Thompson or Love will be able to.

Thompson stands somewhat of a chance, because of his size. But Love is BBQ chicken

TT has really good lateral mobility from what I recall.

all looks fambs. TT stays getting cooked whenever he switches onto a guard.

 

[junglejim]

On a serious note, the thought of someone shooting 70% from three when they have a 7 footer on them is completely ridiculous.

 

[onetrust]

lebron cant guard curry . kawhi couldnt do what makes you think lebron can. cle d isnt really good. the size and advantage that okc had on the warriors , cle dont have that.  
gs in  5 or 6. 

This is how I feel and i'm not even being bias. OKC gave the Warriors matchup problems cause their 3 bigs were long and pretty active. Cleveland's bigs are slow and aren't as athletic. I don't see the Warriors having a rebounding issue in this series.

 

[junglejim]

This is how I feel and i'm not even being bias. OKC gave the Warriors matchup problems cause their 3 bigs were long and pretty active. Cleveland's bigs are slow and aren't as athletic. I don't see the Warriors having a rebounding issue in this series.

Also, I think people are underestimate how much KD and Roberson's length on the perimeter made a difference as well.  Their small ball lineup still included a 7 footer, KD, and Roberson at 6' 8'.

 

[dathbgboy]

The Warriors run a million screens on and off the ball literally every single possession to incite confusion & chaos. OKC's guards & wings did an AMAZING job of staying in Steph/Klay's jersey & fighting around those screens & not allowing GSW to force one of the Thunder's big to switch onto to Klay & Steph. They were very disciplined 99% of the time.

But that 1% . Steph's 3rd quarter eruption in G2 happened largely because Kerr kept running all kinds of screen action for him: curls,pindowns, pnr. Russ//KD weren't fighting over the screens & just handed Steph off to Ibaka/Adams and they couldn't keep up. Steph's now has tons of space & hit every single three in that stretch to blow it open.


Kyrie & JR are gonna get a lot of mins and I just don't think they're gonna consistently do the dirty work & bump grab shove & fight over these screens. I certainly trust them less than Roberson & Westbrook.

CLE's best lineup is probably gonna be Kyrie/Delly/Shump/Bron/TT, but you can't run that for the whole 48. Frye, JR, Love are gonna get mins too & I don't trust them defensively. Moz gave them great mins last year but he looks like a shell of himself.

You also saw Enes Kanter get his mins substantially in this series because he couldn't keep up with what GSW was doing in the halfcourt. He was awful in any situation involving a screen & Donovan couldn't trust him.

I think Kevin Love will suffer the same fate. Lue has already shown that he isn't afraid to bench him for an entire 4th quarter & I think he'll restrict Love's mins even further in this series.

But then Frye isn't any better so what you'll have is Bron/TT getting 40+ mins & exhausted as the series goes on.

All that to say Warriors in 5.

Fantastic post

Agree on all points. I also do not see guys like JR, Kyrie, Jefferson being able to stay in front of that backcourt and get around the screens and pindowns.

LeBron is going to have to stick Curry this series. Thompson isn't an awful defender in the pick and roll situation either. He's also got some ability to stay out on the perimeter, but if he's on Curry or Klay they need to put him on an island and open the paint for penetration.

Honestly, the worse thing for the Cavs is LeBron guarding Curry. Curry doesn't stand around waiting for the ball, all that chasing is going to tire LeBron out which will impact his offense. Add that too the fact that he's not that great an on ball defender anyway. One thing the Warriors are good at is screening to get Steph open and even if they can't, they still got Klay that can knock down the shots too.

I wonder if Iggy is going to step up to the challenge of guarding LeBron again. He did his job last finals to an extent.

 

[Hank Scorpio]

Iggy is welcoming that challenge again. After what he did to Westbrook and KD, his defensive confidence is on 100 right now.

 

[onetrust]

Also, I think people are underestimate how much KD and Roberson's length on the perimeter made a difference as well.  Their small ball lineup still included a 7 footer, KD, and Roberson at 6' 8'.

Agreed. That lineup was super long. OKC really messed up last night by trying to go small. They lost their composure after a few Warrior bombs.

 

[Lovetohate3000]

anyone know who is favored .  the odds  out yet. 

 

[Hank Scorpio]

anyone know who is favored .  the odds  out yet. 

I think I saw Sportscenter giving the Cavs a +5.5 advantage

 

[dathbgboy]

Iggy guarding LeBron again is going to be a good matchup. JR, Shump, and Frye are food regardless. I really don't see consistency in the Cavs for them to get 4 wins against the Dubs. The Cavs do great against teams who can't score, this aint the case this time.

Best thing the Cavs got goin for them is size in the paint, but Verejao in the paint for the Dubs is a great addition. Cavs better off giving Mosgov more minutes as he was a force last finals.

 

[lamekilla]

Iggy is welcoming that challenge again. After what he did to Westbrook and KD, his defensive confidence is on 100 right now.

Lebron is gonna destroy aight this finals. Ugly got on Lebron after he had to singlehandedly had to win the Cavs 2 games and was gassed

 

[firstclass]

also what is the rotation for the cavs Bench?? Delly, Shump, RJ & Frye..... That means a lot of Livingston post ups on delly, along with Iggy being guarder by shump. GS trio of Speights/Ezeli/Varajao >>>> Cavs have coming off the bench.

the only physical big the cavs play is Thompson... when he's in i'm Using Festus/ speights to have a big body out there... and when you have Speights TT can't just collapse in the paint because he can knock down that midrange shot.

The Cavs Bench plays with LBJ in the early second/fourth and they have been playing extremely well so far.

 

[617collector]

That first page

Sad to see "Inside the NBA" go but excited to get this Finals rematch going

Curry, Klay, Green vs. Kyrie, Lebron, Love

View media item 2051065

 

[trynafeelmink]

Iggy is welcoming that challenge again. After what he did to Westbrook and KD, his defensive confidence is on 100 right now.

Yea i don't think people are really taking into account how much momentum this team is now coming off of... Any "doubt" that came with going down 3-1 is cleared and i think the team will be even better for it.

Defensively when the warriors play their small ball lineup they have FOUR guys who can guard Lebron for stretches. Neither Love or Frye are gonna have many post up opps so GS will have no issue switching.

 

[HIM]

I am rooting for the Cavs but I think the Warriors win in 6.


Here's to an upset.

 

[al3xis]

I don't see a solution for CLE. I thought they would have OKC but that chance is gone.

I'd at least try to trap every ball screen or string it out as much as you can and if you lose to Draymond making plays as the roll man and Iggy/Barnes making corner 3's- so be it - so pretty much what they did last year. Kevin Love is so bad laterally that the switching is out of the equation, I would think. Might not be the worst thing since getting a big on an island with Steph seems to eventually fail over time.

But on offense they can't try to grind it out again, that's just going to be a slow death. I'd try to win this series shooting 3's this time - either play small or pair Love and Frye together and just bomb away. I don't see any other path. Make GS take as many 2's as possible and play off LeBron on other end and let it fly. Best thing they have going for them offensively is that if the games do get tight - it's much easier to play through LeBron on the post with Kyrie/JR/Love/Frye surrounding him than it was with Mozgov parked on the opposite block.

Still, I'd take GS in 5 or 6.

 

[MVP]

I picked the Dubs in 5, but I kinda want to see them win in 6 just for the crowd shots of those Cavs fans.

 

[WASHED KING]

I honestly don't know what to think...This Cavs team plays completely different than the one ran under Blatt. Im not going to use last year as a bar to determine whos going to win because so many things change in the year. I want the Cavs to win but right now idk whats going to happen.