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THE FINALS REMATCH between the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers — which throws in at 2am Friday — may feel different this year for one huge reason.
In this year’s finals, the Cavaliers will have both Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love healthy. Last year, Love hurt his shoulder in the first round of the playoffs and missed the rest of the year. Irving broke his knee in Game 1 of the finals.
The two injuries left LeBron James to carry a lesser supporting cast on the NBA’s biggest stage — and he nearly did as the Cavs went 2-1 up before the Warriors closed out the series in six games.
And though Love and Irving’s presence undoubtedly helps Cleveland on the offensive end while providing them with more depth, their presence also comes with a major concern on defence.
Simply put: neither Irving nor Love are great match-ups against the Warriors because both struggle to defend the very positions at which the Warriors boast great players — Steph Curry at point guard and Draymond Green at power forward.
In last year’s finals, the Cavaliers clung to life by riding LeBron James on offence, defending with vigor, and beating the Warriors on the boards.
It wasn’t a viable plan long-term — James wore down, the Warriors regained their mojo on offence, and the Cavs’ supporting cast wilted as the series went on.
However, as ESPN’s Zach Lowe teased, there are people around the NBA that believe this is the Cavs’ best recipe for success; let James handle the offence while his teammates defend and rebound like hell.
In a breakdown of the Cavaliers’ porous defence this postseason, Lowe dropped another nugget about the feelings toward this kind of Cavs lineup:
[Opponents] are putting Irving and Love into twice as many pick-and-rolls each game as they averaged in the regular-season, a massive jump out of proportion to the slight uptick in minutes the two are playing together. These are the sort of numbers that had members of the Golden State Warriors’ coaching staff quietly fretting when both Love and Irving missed last year’s NBA finals, forcing the Cavs to play superior defenders in their place.”
The numbers back up Irving and Love’s poor defence. Through the postseason, the Cavs are allowing 105.6 points per 100 possessions with Love on the floor and 107 points per 100 possessions with Irving on the floor — the two worst numbers for any regular rotation player on the Cavs.
Irving and Love will be crucial to the Cavs’ chances of winning the championship. Not only will their offence be needed to provide James with the assistance he needs, but they can’t simply trade points with the Warriors. The Cavs will need stops eventually, and it remains to be seen if they can get them with Irving and Love on the floor.
Part of the problem is that the Warriors don’t allow places for Cleveland to hide Irving and Love.
Take Irving off of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, Harrison Barnes, or Andre Iguodala will post him up or bully him on drives. Love can’t keep up with the Swiss army knife that is Draymond Green and the Warriors are licking their chops at the prospect of forcing him to defend their pick-and-rolls.
Should the Cavaliers put Love on a big man like Andrew Bogut or Festus Ezeli to minimize his defensive responsibility, the Warriors will likely go to their small-ball, “death” lineup with Green at centre, leaving no place for Love to hide as he’ll have to cover the entire floor.
The Cavs don’t need Love and Irving to transform into all-NBA defenders, but they need them to be competent.
Both players’ offence will be critical for the Cavaliers, but if they are giving up the points that they’re scoring, then the Cavs will have to go to more defensive-minded players. In turn, they’ll lose the precious points Irving and Love provide.
This finals rematch feels like a defining moment for the Cavs’ Big Three of James, Love, and Irving, and from the sounds of it, the Warriors aren’t shaking in their boots over facing the three of them together.
- Scott Davis, Business Insider
looks like he’s got no where else Togo
He’s had a lot of free time for the last 3 years !!
players like this are a cancer on the game
It’s not his fault clubs are so stupid it was well known what he was like before he signed for Spurs what type of player he was and they still gave him £100,000 a week for 4 years..
Barry, that’s a narrow minded comment.
Football is a job at the end of the day.
Adebayor has effectively managed himself into a situation that’s known as a “handy number” where I’m from!
He’s now paid more to do less than when he first started working in his life.
He’s not a cancer on the game.
The broadcasters, UEFA, FIFA, etc are the problem here. Adebayor is simply an employee riding out the Celtic Tiger years of football.
Good on him
Yep I’m with Adebayor on this. Not his fault the club gave him a massive contract. I just don’t get why the club don’t offer to pay up his contract rather than having him still on the payroll
Ah Barry. Poor comment bud. Or at least try back it up…
Beano, the funny thing is they did try to buy out his contract bit he wanted more than they were willing to pay
Waster ! Many a player out there who’s career has ended early because of injury, he’ll try and get his contract terminated next
He’s willing to play they won’t play him.. I don’t blame him for not moving no other club are stupid enough to give him £100,000 a week so he has every right to see it out..
When he spoke to villa , he supposedly looked for a sign off God for him to sign – to top it off he wanted his contract paid in full by Spurs – yes , Fifa , Sky and UEFA have caused this but adeboyer is a waste too
I sense another lengthy Facebook post coming…