The One-Sided Part Four
The road to a fourth consecutive NBA Final for the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors was no sure thing in the 2018 playoffs. The defending-champion Warriors were pushed to the brink down 3-2 to the Number One Overall Seed Houston Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. On the opposite side of the spectrum, Lebron James and the listless Cavaliers were also down 3-2 to the undermanned but underrated Boston Celtics in the Eastern Conference Finals. Two teams who for nearly half of this decade have made up the best-of-7 NBA Championship Series had to not only force a road game 7, but win it to cement their participation in a championship bout. It took the Celtics and Rockets to shoot horrific percentages from deep and former MVPs Steph Curry and Lebron James to do their part, but the Cavs and Dubs came through their grueling seven game series with victories to face off against each other for a fourth consecutive time.
The odds are stacked against Cleveland for another year and the verbiage behind it could be the lack of depth off the bench and shaky scoring production the Cavaliers's backcourt can provide. We know what the greatness of Lebron James can bring from an offensive standpoint on dribble-drives, post-ups, and when in rhythm his three-point shooting. Kevin Love as a floor spacer will have a tough time getting quality looks from deep with Draymond Green and Kevin Durant shadowing him beyond the arc, but when utilized through the post can provide the team an instrumental wrinkle in their gameplan. What Houston and the 2016 Oklahoma City Thunder have shown are that in pick-and-roll situations, the opposing center can hone his size and putback ability to obtain 10-12 points a game while possibly getting the likes of Draymond Green and Kevin Durant in foul trouble.
However, the backcourt production is something the Cavs can't schematically work around. Its success is based on productive player aggression and ultimately the valuable tool of hope and prayer. George Hill was hit or miss when playing on the road and at home in the Eastern Conference Finals. When his shot wasn't falling, it spreaded into his skillset as an on-ball playmaker opposite Lebron James making his minutes merely worthless. Defensively, he was fortunate to catch Celtic guard Terry Rozier in a miserable shooting slump, so from hindsight it looked as if he was performing stout defense when in reality, he wasn't. Then, there is the debacle known as J.R. Smith who was anemic from any range of the court as well as soundly worked upon offensively by the likes of Jayson Tatum. Their production from the offensive and defensive end will be tested throughout the NBA Finals.
Golden State was far from perfection either against the Rockets being pushed around nearly every game physically and at times being picked apart by the determination the rockets showed with their on-ball defense and reckless abandon when attacking the rim. In game 6, Klay Thompson set the tone with his energy and effort guarding James Harden while his offense continue to flow and ultimately blow the game wideopen. Free from having to deal with covering Harden and Paul on switches constantly for 48 minutes in game 7, Steph Curry exploded with a seven three-pointer performance riddled with savy playmaking ability around the basket and for others. This was all done in a series where from a simple eye test, viewers saw Draymond Green and Kevin Durant not play at their best throughout the series.
With those factors fully analyzed and completely assessed, it's easy to acknowledge that there's really no chance for Cleveland to upend the Warriors in the 2018 Nba Finals. A superhero effort by Lebron James could do wonders but they are the second worst defense in the leauge for a reason and have shown it throughout their playoff run. They can't bank on the Warriors to go cold from three for four games to win the series leaving their only hope being to make the game as slow of a grind as possible that the Warriors in a blink of an eye can retract into a track meet.
