The Cavs can't play like their old tired selves and hope to beat Golden State -- Bud Shaw's Sports Spin
CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Cavs waited a year to show the Warriors they’re not the same one-man team they became out of necessity in last year’s NBA Finals.
No sir. Get yer popcorn.
With this year’s NBA Finals on the line in the second half of Game 4, they became a two-man team.
Take…that?
The Warriors like their chances five-on-five let alone when LeBron James and Kyrie Irving take 33 of the team’s 38 shots in the second half.
The fourth-quarter line: 19 of 21 shots for James and Irving. Two assists as a team.
With Irving’s and James’ needles dipping toward empty thanks to their head coach, the rest of the Cavaliers launched five second-half shots.
Warriors keep the trust in taking a 3-1 lead on Cavs
Tristan Thompson might’ve collected some of those rebounds but none were long enough to find him on the bench. The dervish most responsible for the Cavs holding a half-time lead missed a quarter’s worth of the second half for reasons Lue couldn’t make clear.
“I’m not sure,” he said when asked about Thompson’s absence.
Lue allowed that fatigue could’ve hurt the Cavs late but said he made the decision, down 2-1, one quarter remaining, to go with “my best players.”
“In nine days, you can rest all summer,” Lue said.
An old-school quote, for sure. And totally beside the point.
Knowing a raft in Cancun awaits doesn’t help when Irving and others are hyperventilating in the fourth quarter.
J.R. Smith played all except five seconds in the second half and didn’t attempt a shot. Smith smartly glossed over that when someone brought it to his attention. Nobody likes to be that guy who says he wanted more opportunities.
It’s not so much that Smith earned more shots – he was 3-10 in the first half. That 0-for-0 stat speaks more to the Cavaliers falling into bad habits under pressure and the ball getting glued to the hands of Irving and James.
Because of it, the Cavs need lots of help to prevent elimination. They sounded desperate in that pursuit Friday.
Cavaliers once again got lost defensively
Their own shortcomings, their own bad habits doomed them. Not the refs missing foul calls against James. The Cavs best player didn’t seem to know what he had in mind on half those drives, leaving his feet with no real intention, looking to dump off to covered teammates or to spots where they could do no real harm.
When the fourth quarter began, Lue opted to keep his stars on the court while Steve Kerr rested Steph Curry. If that was based on being down 2-1, OK, but it just speaks to the biggest difference between the Cavs and Warriors.
Golden State has a system, a plan it’s executed with great success for two full seasons now. The Cavs adopted their Share-the-Ball slogan in the final months of the season.
What comes naturally to the Warriors is not ingrained in the Cavaliers.
And now, the Cavs simply don’t have the discipline or the trust to embrace the philosophy in the three games (at most) remaining in the series.
Are refs letting the Warriors off the hook when James goes to the basket?
The refs correctly see the Warriors as a team that consistently protects the rim without a rim protector consistently on the floor. Andrew “The Human Eraser” Bogut played 10 minutes.
Any benefit of the doubt is an earned benefit of the doubt.
The Cavs lost because they played tired and selfishly when it mattered most and because Lue looked like a rookie head coach.
The only thing the Cavs shared in Game 4 was the blame.
The Cavs can"t play like their old tired selves and hope to beat Golden State -- Bud Shaw"s Sports Spin
Post a Comment