Does the Loss of Kevin Love Worsen the Cavaliers’ Slim Chance of Winning the NBA Finals?

 

During the second quarter in Game 2 of the NBA Finals between the Warriors and the Cavaliers, Kevin Love was inadvertently elbowed by Harrison Barnes, who hit Love with his left elbow while going up for a rebound. He was able to return to the game, but after a few minutes of play during the third quarter, he left due to dizziness. He did not return for the rest of the game, and after the game, media was told that he would have to undergo concussion protocol. NBA listed him as day-to-day, but his Game 3 status was still uncertain.

Yesterday, Kevin Love was cleared to fly back to Cleveland from Oakland. This does not mean much; it just meant was Love did not have to stay in Oakland for an extra day. This information does not help us figure out Love’s Game 3 status, as he still has to go through the full concussion protocol. Many say that the Cavaliers slim chance of winning the series is over with Kevin Love out.

But do the Cavaliers need Love to win?

First, the defensive gameplan improves greatly with Love off the court. The Cleveland Cavaliers love to switch everything. Often, this leaves Love, an awful defensive player, guarding someone like Curry or Thompson. Even if they do not switch, this still leaves Love on Draymond Green, who, so far, is the Finals MVP. I’m sure the Cavs do not want their worst defender on the Warriors’ current best player. There are many defensive problems with Kevin Love on the court.

On the offensive end, Kevin Love has not helped the Cavaliers. In Game 1, the Warriors were switching, and this left many smaller players on Love. The Cavs threw it to Love when he had a mismatch, but he was not able to take advantage of these opportunities. Then, in Game 2, before he was elbowed by Barnes, he was not playing well, going 2 for 7 with 5 points.

The Cavaliers do not have a big chance of coming back in this series, but if Kevin Love does not play in Game 3, it might be better for the Cavaliers, as they have many other options. Channing Frye, who has been great all playoffs, and Timofey Mozgov, who had a great series against the Warriors in the 2015 Finals, are both available. Although he is great player, losing Kevin Love will not decrease the Cavaliers’ slim chance of winning the Finals.

The Rout Continues

 

Reporter: “LeBron, are you frustrated or disappointed with your team’s performance tonight?”

LeBron James: “Neither…”

Well, I’m sure that many Cleveland Cavaliers fans are both frustrated and disappointed with their team’s performance, as the Cavs fell to the Golden State Warriors 110-77 in Game 2 of the 2016 NBA Finals. This game was another blowout, as the Game 1 differential of 15 points and the Game 2 differential of 33 points is the largest in NBA Finals history for the first two games. Surprisingly, the Cavs were up 21-19 after the first quarter, with LeBron James not even scoring a point. During the second quarter, the Warriors started to run away with the game, getting to a 15 point lead before the Cavaliers cut the deficit to 8 points by halftime. LeBron played much better in the second quarter, scoring 14 points. He ended the game on 19 points, 9 assists, and 8 rebounds. None of the Cavs’ starters played in the last ten minutes of the game, as it was evident that it would end in a blowout. Kevin Love exited the game during the second quarter, as he was elbowed to the back of the head by Harrison Barnes while going up for a rebound. Love played only 20 minutes, going 2 for 7 from the field, with 5 points. Kyrie Irving had another off-night, finishing with 10 points and going 5 for 14. The only positive the Cavs could find in the game was Richard Jefferson, who finished with 12 points and was great on both ends of the floor.

On the other side, everybody on the Warriors played great. Andrew Bogut set the tone early, having 4 blocks, finishing with 5. Klay Thompson and Stephen Curry both had average games, each hitting 4 from 8 from the three point line, and having 17 and 18 points, respectively. The star of this game was Draymond Green. The Cavaliers gameplan from the start of the series was to make sure Klay and Curry do not get hot, but this left Green wide open. In Game 2, he took advantage of this, having a team-high 28 points, 5 assists, 7 rebounds, and went 11 of 20 from the field. Barbosa also had a great game, hitting his first five shots of the game, and had 10 points. He had two steals in the fourth quarter, which shattered to all Cavalier player hopes of a comeback. Shaun Livingston did not have nearly the impact he had in Game 1, but still had 7 points.

So let’s go over the many reasons the Cleveland Cavaliers got blown out by the Warriors.

Firstly, there were too many turnovers. In the first quarter, the Cavs had no turnovers, and they were up by 2 at the end. From the second quarter until the end of the game, the Cavaliers finished with 18 turnovers, LeBron having 7 of them. Lebron, widely acknowledged as the greatest passing forward of all time, has got to be more careful with the ball, as the Warriors love to get out and run. Their transition game is one of the best in the NBA, as they make sure they make their opponents pay the price for turning over the ball. Second, the Cavaliers did not win in a single aspect of the game. They lost the points (obviously), assists, and rebounds. There were also more isolation plays from Kyrie. One stat shows it all for Irving: in the NBA Finals, off the pass, he is 8 for 9 from the field, but off isolation plays, he is an astounding 4 for 27. This shows that Irving needs to stop trying to beat his defender by playing him one-on-one. He needs to feed his teammates, cut towards the ball, and try to get open off the pass. To win a basketball game, you have to make shots, and this is the exact opposite of what the Cavs have done in this series so far. In the first two games, they have shot 14-50 from the three point line, and in Game 2, they shot an atrocious 21.7% from three. In the paint, they missed 24 shots, after missing 28 in Game 1. The head coach of the Cavaliers, Tyronn Lue, must find a way to fix these mistakes before this series ends in a sweep.

Drastic changes must occur for the Cleveland Cavaliers to win any game in this series. They need to start making their shots and get back to how they played against the Eastern Conference teams. Lue must try to run new plays, anything that might work against this brick wall that is the Warriors defense. Maybe Richard Jefferson, who had a fantastic Game 2, could start over JR Smith, who had an awful Finals last year and seems to be doing the same this year. Last year, Mozgov had an amazing Finals, playing a huge part in the Game 2 win, and having 28 points in Game 4 last year. Something must happen for the Cavs to have a chance in winning this series. Just look at last year, when down 2-1, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr decided to start Andre Iguodala, and this ended up winning them the series, with Iguodala getting Finals MVP. LeBron James needs to start pulling his weight on defense, as, unlike Game 1, many of the Warriors’ open layups and dunks were his fault. The Cavs need to be better on both ends of the floor to win a game.

After Game 2, ESPN gave the Cavs an 8% chance of winning the Finals, but unless the Cavs fix their mistakes, this chance could go down to 0%. Stephen A. Smith, an American sports television personality said it best: “Their chances of winning this series is 0, as far as I’m concerned. The only reason that 8% is up there is to give human beings a chance. After all, Steph Curry could have food poisoning, or might get kidnapped, or Klay Thompson might get injured, or somebody might have diarrhea, I don’t know.”

What the Cavs did wrong and how to fix it

 

The Cleveland Cavaliers lost Game 1 against the Golden State Warriors in an NBA Finals rematch of last year. They were outscored 104-89, and statistics show that teams that have won Game 1 by more than 15 points have gone on to win the series 100 percent of the time. For the Cavs, Kyrie Irving led all scorers with 26 points, but he shot a horrible 9 of 22 from the field. Kevin Love had 17 points and 13 rebounds, but he was a liability on defense and did not shoot well, missing easy layups and open threes. LeBron James was by far the best player on the court for the Cavs, being one assist away from a triple double. On the other hand, the Warriors played through their bench, as Shaun Livingston was the highest score with 20 points. Leandro Barbosa also added a spark to the game, and Draymond Green finished with 16 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists. Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson, widely acknowledged as the best shooters in the league and maybe, of all time, only had 20 points combined, a low for them since 2012. At first look at the box score of Game 1, it may seem that the Cavs played well, but their bench was their downfall, as the Warriors bench outscored the Cavs by a humongous 45-10. JR Smith, who is known to chuck up many threes, only took three shots, making one of them. Channing Frye, who had been the Cavs’ spark throughout the playoffs, shooting the three ball at the highest percentage in the league, had only two points. So what did the Cavaliers do wrong?

The Cavaliers’ offensive gameplan needed work. Although they only scored 89 points, they missed several shots that are easy makes for a team like them. Open jumpers, easy layups, floaters, were all off the mark, but you can count on them to not miss those shots again. If they can start playing like how they played in that Hawks series, where they hit a record 77 threes in one series, then they still have a chance in this series. Still, the Cavs offense went back to what they were doing under the David Blatt era: Iso-ball. Kyrie Irving turned back to iso-Kyrie, where he played one on one with his defender. To put this into perspective, this stat shows it all: the Cavs had 25 possessions where they did not pass the ball, even once! This needs to be fixed, as you cannot win a championship through one-on-one basketball. The ball needs to move around the court, as that was how the Cavaliers ran through the rest of the Eastern Conference.

The bigger problem was still on the defensive end. Too often were there miscommunications. JR Smith was caught many times not following his man, and on one possession, he got confused and ended up double teaming Andre Iguodala, leaving Harrison Barnes wide open. The Warriors also played extremely smart, and knowing that Kevin Love’s defense is his weakness, they attacked him. They put Love’s man in pick and roll situations, and this is where Tyronn Lue, the Cavs coach, should have stepped in. Kevin Love was extremely slow, stepping too late to contest shots, or leaving opponents wide open under the basket. Lue should have talked to Love during a timeout or halftime, but there was no change in Love’s defense throughout the game. Kyrie Irving, after missing layups at the bucket, lagged behind everyone, not getting back on defense, leading to a 3 on 2 fastbreak, which the Warriors will win every time.  Tristan Thompson and LeBron James played good on defense, but you cannot win a championship when 3 of the 5 starters are not pulling their weight on defense.

So what can the Cavaliers do to stop the Warriors and still score on the other end?

First, the ball needs to move around, and there should be limited possessions with isolation. Even though the Cavs need to pass the ball more, this should also mean less turnovers, as the Warriors had an outstanding 25 points off turnovers. Next, Channing Frye played on 7 minutes, but during his little time, his defense was superb. He contested shots and the Cavaliers had a 50% better defensive rating with him on the court. This means that when Love is costing his team on the defensive end, Lue should insert Frye into the game for him. Lastly, they just need to make their shots.

This series will not be a close one unless the Cavaliers lock down on defense, pass the basketball, and hope and pray that Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson continue their horrid shooting performances.