Golden State Warriors

[Hawk-Lock]

I think the one problem the Cavs could have is that a lot of their guys aren't 2-way players. Kyrie, JR Smith, and Love are all average defenders at best. Most people consider Kyrie and Love below average defenders. Whereas pretty much everyone on the Warriors who plays significant minutes is a 2-way player with maybe the exception of Curry who is an average defender. It will be interesting to see how the Cavs matchup with GS. I'd assume they will try to hide Kyrie by putting him on Barnes/Iguodala, LeBron will likely defend Klay, and then use a mixture of JR Smith/Dellvedova/Schumpert on Curry. While Draymond hasn't been much of an offensive threat, Love will struggle to guard him out on the perimeter.

 

[hawknation2016]

I think the one problem the Cavs could have is that a lot of their guys aren't 2-way players. Kyrie, JR Smith, and Love are all average defenders at best. Most people consider Kyrie and Love below average defenders. Whereas pretty much everyone on the Warriors who plays significant minutes is a 2-way player with maybe the exception of Curry who is an average defender. It will be interesting to see how the Cavs matchup with GS. I'd assume they will try to hide Kyrie by putting him on Barnes/Iguodala, LeBron will likely defend Klay, and then use a mixture of JR Smith/Dellvedova/Schumpert on Curry. While Draymond hasn't been much of an offensive threat, Love will struggle to guard him out on the perimeter.

Good points all-around. Iguodala is once again an obvious mismatch against the Cavs. First and foremost, he is the one the most capable defenders in the NBA at slowing down Lebron James. And second, who will guard him? Kyrie Irving? LOL.

Curry is actually an underrated defender. He usually doesn't guard the opposing team's No. 1 PG in order to conserve his energy on the offensive end. But when he was guarding Westbrook, he was extremely effective against him. Curry also led the league in steals and is a capable defensive rebounder. Curry-Thompson are both formidable perimeter defenders, who continue to lead the league in 3-point defense; Thompson with his length and anticipation, and Curry for his quick feet, instincts, and unparalleled hand-eye coordination.

If Ezeli is used more in this series, his excellent defense, rebounding, and post-moves will give the Cavs headaches; that is if they don't intentionally foul him, which I suppose is why he has not played more.

Once again, the Cavs only saving grace is the fact that they have the best player in the league who they will need on the court for 40+ minutes every game. In just about every other way, Golden State has some kind of statistical advantage.

 

[Hasselbeck]

I think the one problem the Cavs could have is that a lot of their guys aren't 2-way players. Kyrie, JR Smith, and Love are all average defenders at best. Most people consider Kyrie and Love below average defenders. Whereas pretty much everyone on the Warriors who plays significant minutes is a 2-way player with maybe the exception of Curry who is an average defender. It will be interesting to see how the Cavs matchup with GS. I'd assume they will try to hide Kyrie by putting him on Barnes/Iguodala, LeBron will likely defend Klay, and then use a mixture of JR Smith/Dellvedova/Schumpert on Curry. While Draymond hasn't been much of an offensive threat, Love will struggle to guard him out on the perimeter.

And that one problem is one huge problem.

When Draymond Green gets going, the Warriors offense takes on a whole different look. Then they can beat you inside and out. Ibaka and Adams kept Draymond in check, and I would even go as far to say that Adams lived deep inside of Green's head the entire series. Kevin Love is absolutely not going to do that. And if Cleveland tries to hide Love on an Iguodala/Barnes/Speights/Bogut/Ezeli .. that's still a very awful matchup for them.

Kind of why I said in my previous post that while getting Kyrie and Love on this floor should give them more of an offensive threat, I almost feel like thats immediately negated by how poor they are on defense.

The Cavs are going to need huge series from Channing Frye and JR Smith if they are to win the title. Frye I believe is the one true mismatch the Cavs may have in this series, as he can stretch the floor and should have quite a few looks from downtown with all the attention on everyone else. But if Curry gets going, how long can Lue leave Smith out there while keeping his best defensive guards (Delly and Shump) on the bench? A barrage of offensive guys helps you when you face Detroit, Atlanta and Toronto. The best offensive team in the last 20 years? Not so much.

That said.. where the Cavs are weak, the Warriors are very, very strong. I bet if they were allowed to say who they preferred to face.. they'd have picked OKC 10 times out of 10. They just matched up a LOT better with OKC than they do GS.

 

[hawknation2016]

I think the one problem the Cavs could have is that a lot of their guys aren't 2-way players. Kyrie, JR Smith, and Love are all average defenders at best. Most people consider Kyrie and Love below average defenders. Whereas pretty much everyone on the Warriors who plays significant minutes is a 2-way player with maybe the exception of Curry who is an average defender. It will be interesting to see how the Cavs matchup with GS. I'd assume they will try to hide Kyrie by putting him on Barnes/Iguodala, LeBron will likely defend Klay, and then use a mixture of JR Smith/Dellvedova/Schumpert on Curry. While Draymond hasn't been much of an offensive threat, Love will struggle to guard him out on the perimeter.

And that one problem is one huge problem.

When Draymond Green gets going, the Warriors offense takes on a whole different look. Then they can beat you inside and out. Ibaka and Adams kept Draymond in check, and I would even go as far to say that Adams lived deep inside of Green's head the entire series. Kevin Love is absolutely not going to do that. And if Cleveland tries to hide Love on an Iguodala/Barnes/Speights/Bogut/Ezeli .. that's still a very awful matchup for them.

Kind of why I said in my previous post that while getting Kyrie and Love on this floor should give them more of an offensive threat, I almost feel like thats immediately negated by how poor they are on defense.

The Cavs are going to need huge series from Channing Frye and JR Smith if they are to win the title. Frye I believe is the one true mismatch the Cavs may have in this series, as he can stretch the floor and should have quite a few looks from downtown with all the attention on everyone else. But if Curry gets going, how long can Lue leave Smith out there while keeping his best defensive guards (Delly and Shump) on the bench? A barrage of offensive guys helps you when you face Detroit, Atlanta and Toronto. The best offensive team in the last 20 years? Not so much.

That said.. where the Cavs are weak, the Warriors are very, very strong. I bet if they were allowed to say who they preferred to face.. they'd have picked OKC 10 times out of 10. They just matched up a LOT better with OKC than they do GS.

Exactly. The more time the ball is spent in Kyrie and Love's hands, jacking up threes against active defenders and the best perimeter defense in the league, the less the Warriors have to worry about Lebron driving into the paint and getting to the free throw line. If the Warriors blow them out in the first couple games, I could see Lebron reverting to hero ball in order to win a game or two.

 

[Hawk-Lock]

I think the one problem the Cavs could have is that a lot of their guys aren't 2-way players. Kyrie, JR Smith, and Love are all average defenders at best. Most people consider Kyrie and Love below average defenders. Whereas pretty much everyone on the Warriors who plays significant minutes is a 2-way player with maybe the exception of Curry who is an average defender. It will be interesting to see how the Cavs matchup with GS. I'd assume they will try to hide Kyrie by putting him on Barnes/Iguodala, LeBron will likely defend Klay, and then use a mixture of JR Smith/Dellvedova/Schumpert on Curry. While Draymond hasn't been much of an offensive threat, Love will struggle to guard him out on the perimeter.

And that one problem is one huge problem.

When Draymond Green gets going, the Warriors offense takes on a whole different look. Then they can beat you inside and out. Ibaka and Adams kept Draymond in check, and I would even go as far to say that Adams lived deep inside of Green's head the entire series. Kevin Love is absolutely not going to do that. And if Cleveland tries to hide Love on an Iguodala/Barnes/Speights/Bogut/Ezeli .. that's still a very awful matchup for them.

Kind of why I said in my previous post that while getting Kyrie and Love on this floor should give them more of an offensive threat, I almost feel like thats immediately negated by how poor they are on defense.

The Cavs are going to need huge series from Channing Frye and JR Smith if they are to win the title. Frye I believe is the one true mismatch the Cavs may have in this series, as he can stretch the floor and should have quite a few looks from downtown with all the attention on everyone else. But if Curry gets going, how long can Lue leave Smith out there while keeping his best defensive guards (Delly and Shump) on the bench? A barrage of offensive guys helps you when you face Detroit, Atlanta and Toronto. The best offensive team in the last 20 years? Not so much.

That said.. where the Cavs are weak, the Warriors are very, very strong. I bet if they were allowed to say who they preferred to face.. they'd have picked OKC 10 times out of 10. They just matched up a LOT better with OKC than they do GS.

If the Cavs do lose this series, then their next obvious move will be to add a SG who can help both offensively and defensively. Right now they have too many 1-way players. While Delly and Schump are great on defense, they are liabilities on offense. And the opposite can be said for Kyrie, Frye and Love. What makes the Warriors so great is they have so many 2-way players.

I still won't count the Cavs out. They have a very hungry LeBron. And I still feel like the Warriors are not playing their best ball, whereas the Cavs are. If the Warriors want to win the finals, they'll have to play better than they have this postseason. Warriors got outplayed in a lot of the Portland series. And they got outplayed for a majority of the OKC series.

 

[Laloosh]

Apologize if this was already posted. Scrolled up, didn't see it.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BIrvin_WVU11/status/737476040344227840[/tweet]

Is it too late to make Bruce my favorite Seahawk?

 

[Maulbert]

Apologize if this was already posted. Scrolled up, didn't see it.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BIrvin_WVU11/status/737476040344227840[/tweet]

Is it too late to make Bruce my favorite Seahawk?

Awesome. He had no reason to post that, but he did. I hope he has a good future in Oakland. :thirishdrinkers:

 

[hawknation2016]

Apologize if this was already posted. Scrolled up, didn't see it.

[tweet]https://twitter.com/BIrvin_WVU11/status/737476040344227840[/tweet]

Is it too late to make Bruce my favorite Seahawk?

Nice! Hope Bruce and Malcolm Smith kill it this year.

 

[Hasselbeck]

I still won't count the Cavs out. They have a very hungry LeBron. And I still feel like the Warriors are not playing their best ball, whereas the Cavs are. If the Warriors want to win the finals, they'll have to play better than they have this postseason. Warriors got outplayed in a lot of the Portland series. And they got outplayed for a majority of the OKC series.

The funny thing about Golden State is they don't have to dominate a team start to finish. They are so dangerous as a team, especially shooting the 3-ball, that they can (and usually do at some point) go on a 10-12 point run in a flash.

I think with them being a 73 win team and how they blew out so many teams in the season that many think they should just run roughshod over an opponent all the time.

Portland I give a bit of a pass, because they didn't have Steph Curry until Game 4.. and he was extremely rusty until the 2nd half. OKC honestly matched up with them better than any other team this year, Spurs included. To combat Golden State you need length, which the Thunder have in spades, and a guy to negate Draymond Green - which OKC had two guys to do that. Kevin Love and Tristan Thompson pale in comparison to Ibaka/Adams or even Plumlee/Davis/Aminu

Barring a big series from JR Smith (and he's as streaky as they get) and Channing Frye .. I don't think the Cavs have the ammo to outscore the Warriors 4 times.

We'll see though. Going to be interesting.

 

[irocdave]

I'm so happy that the Thunder lost tonight. Here's hoping that Kevin Durant leaves the team followed by Russell Westbrook and the whole franchise sinks permanently to the bottom of the league.

:13: :th2thumbs: :thirishdrinkers: :snack: :0190l:

My sentiments exactly. I haven't watched an entire NBA game since the Sonics left town until last night. I couldn't be happier. I just wonder what happened to the power forward position and defense?

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

What I don't get is the feeling the Warriors can't be physical. They did it last year against the same team no less and if they are decently healthy there's no reason they won't do it again. If Curry is 75% it's a done deal. He's just that good at the forgotten skill of real basketball. Which is shooting the damn ball not driving the lane and dunking like Lebron. That man should be a tight end in rhe NFL given he has far more in common with Kellen Winslow and Tony Gonzalez than Larry Bird or Ervin Johnson.

 

[CurryStopstheRuns]

Doesn't matter that your turkey is moist if the river runs dry in April. Also, has anyone ever been frightened by a flying squirrel posing as a wildebeast in Canada? It doesn't get more real than that. Taco Tuesday.

 

[Hasselbeck]

My sentiments exactly. I haven't watched an entire NBA game since the Sonics left town until last night. I couldn't be happier. I just wonder what happened to the power forward position and defense?

Well if you haven't watched for nearly 10 years, you have some catching up to do. It's a shooters game now. Once the Pistons and Spurs put teams to sleep with grind it out defense, the league wasn't having any of that anymore.

 

[Hasselbeck]

What I don't get is the feeling the Warriors can't be physical. They did it last year against the same team no less and if they are decently healthy there's no reason they won't do it again. If Curry is 75% it's a done deal. He's just that good at the forgotten skill of real basketball. Which is shooting the damn ball not driving the lane and dunking like Lebron. That man should be a tight end in rhe NFL given he has far more in common with Kellen Winslow and Tony Gonzalez than Larry Bird or Ervin Johnson.

Just because Bron can't shoot the 3 like Curry (no one in the game can) doesn't mean he can't shoot the ball.

He's physically imposing, hence why he drives to the lane a lot. And I don't even know where to begin with the last sentence of this post. :lol:

 

[JSeahawks]

What I don't get is the feeling the Warriors can't be physical. They did it last year against the same team no less and if they are decently healthy there's no reason they won't do it again. If Curry is 75% it's a done deal. He's just that good at the forgotten skill of real basketball. Which is shooting the damn ball not driving the lane and dunking like Lebron. That man should be a tight end in rhe NFL given he has far more in common with Kellen Winslow and Tony Gonzalez than Larry Bird or Ervin Johnson.

I actually think magic Johnson is one of the most accurate cômparisons for lebron, at least offensively. Lebron is more explosive then magic was, but they play similarly. Magic used to bully people with his size too.

 

[MizzouHawkGal]

What I don't get is the feeling the Warriors can't be physical. They did it last year against the same team no less and if they are decently healthy there's no reason they won't do it again. If Curry is 75% it's a done deal. He's just that good at the forgotten skill of real basketball. Which is shooting the damn ball not driving the lane and dunking like Lebron. That man should be a tight end in rhe NFL given he has far more in common with Kellen Winslow and Tony Gonzalez than Larry Bird or Ervin Johnson.

I actually think magic Johnson is one of the most accurate cômparisons for lebron, at least offensively. Lebron is more explosive then magic was, but they play similarly. Magic used to bully people with his size too.

Lebron feels like he's far more physical then Magic. It was not that he couldn't be very physical it just doesn't look like he was when he was doing his thing.

 

[IndyHawk]

My sentiments exactly. I haven't watched an entire NBA game since the Sonics left town until last night. I couldn't be happier. I just wonder what happened to the power forward position and defense?

Well if you haven't watched for nearly 10 years, you have some catching up to do. It's a shooters game now. Once the Pistons and Spurs put teams to sleep with grind it out defense, the league wasn't having any of that anymore.

Thats right it's a shooters with no defense league because thats what the NBA wants..Lots of scoring.The thing is when they played defense like the 90's Bulls you wouldn't be able to shoot like today but then they changed the rules to make it easier for offense.It is what it is but I'm not fooled and it isn't anything that special ukeface:

 

[Hawk-Lock]

My sentiments exactly. I haven't watched an entire NBA game since the Sonics left town until last night. I couldn't be happier. I just wonder what happened to the power forward position and defense?

Well if you haven't watched for nearly 10 years, you have some catching up to do. It's a shooters game now. Once the Pistons and Spurs put teams to sleep with grind it out defense, the league wasn't having any of that anymore.

Thats right it's a shooters with no defense league because thats what the NBA wants..Lots of scoring.The thing is when they played defense like the 90's Bulls you wouldn't be able to shoot like today but then they changed the rules to make it easier for offense.It is what it is but I'm not fooled and it isn't anything that special ukeface:

NBA and the NFL have progressed very similarly. Both leagues want more scoring and less defense. Fans want scoring, so scoring is what we get.

 

[IndyHawk]

My sentiments exactly. I haven't watched an entire NBA game since the Sonics left town until last night. I couldn't be happier. I just wonder what happened to the power forward position and defense?

Well if you haven't watched for nearly 10 years, you have some catching up to do. It's a shooters game now. Once the Pistons and Spurs put teams to sleep with grind it out defense, the league wasn't having any of that anymore.

Thats right it's a shooters with no defense league because thats what the NBA wants..Lots of scoring.The thing is when they played defense like the 90's Bulls you wouldn't be able to shoot like today but then they changed the rules to make it easier for offense.It is what it is but I'm not fooled and it isn't anything that special ukeface:

NBA and the NFL have progressed very similarly. Both leagues want more scoring and less defense. Fans want scoring, so scoring is what we get.

I know and I get it but I'm of older age where you earned what you got the hard way so it's a bitter pill to swallow.I just want Cleveland to win so I can totally erase todays game and ways from my mind.There is no more Jordan,Magic,Bird and there hasn't been anyone besides Kobe/ Lebron that comes a little close.The NFL may be heading the same way and I'll probaly be on here saying the same stuff lol.I'll always have baseball though,not sure you can change enough to turn me off on that..

 

[Hasselbeck]

Doesn't bode well for the Cavs to get blown out on a night Curry and Klay were pretty much awful. Really don't see this match-up getting any better for them the rest of the way