Warriors defense leaving Cavaliers bewildered
OAKLAND — Easy basket after easy basket for the Golden State Warriors, and Cleveland Cavaliers players looked around for the culprit.
Whose man was that? Who blew the assignment? Why is it happening over and over and over?
Golden State’s ball movement and player movement have rendered the Cavaliers lost on defense.
"Defensively we've been good at times and then at times we just looked like OK," Cavs star LeBron James said. "We're a step slow. We messed up on the coverage. We don't get back or we're just one step behind where we should be. We should be closer to our man. When you're behind these guys, they make you pay every single time."
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Equally as troubling for the Cavaliers is their offense resembles nothing like the high-scoring machine that powered through the Eastern Conference playoffs.
That efficient three-point shooting? Non-existent. Easy buckets in the paint? Difficult to come by.
If Game 1 was a bad loss for the Cavs, Game 2 was worse. The Warriors have a 2-0 series lead after their 110-77 victory on Sunday, and now the Cavaliers face a seemingly-impossible task if they want to win a championship: take four of the next five games from Golden State, the team that won an NBA-record 73 regular-season games.
Good luck with that.
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The Warriors are treating the Cavaliers like the Cavaliers treated Detroit, Atlanta and Toronto, and the Cavs have no answers for what the Warriors are doing offensively and defensively.
"We can't have as many mental lapses. More on the physical, it's a lot of mental as well," James said. "These guys put you in so many mental positions where you have to figure it out, and they make you pay for it when you don't."
The Cavaliers shot 35% from the field and 21.7% on three-pointers. They made five three-pointers in Game 2 and seven in Game 1 after entering the Finals with a playoff-best 14.4 made three-pointers per game and playoff-best 44.3% on three-pointers. They are at 27.3% on threes against Golden State.
That’s not going to work against the Warriors, who deserve credit for slowing Cleveland’s offense with versatile defenders who can switch from defending one Cavs player to another with ease.
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In the past five Finals games between the two teams, starting with Game 4 of the 2015 Finals and through Game 2 of the 2016 Finals, the Cavs have not shot better than 40% a game. They are 153-of-414 for 37% in those five games — all losses.
Meanwhile, Golden State shot 54.3% from the field and 45.5% on three-pointers, and made it look easy. Two games, two double-digit victories for Golden State.
"I think we're surprised the way they won, yes, but that's what the playoffs are about," Cavs coach Tyronn Lue said. "They took care of home court. We know we're going home. We have to play better. The guys are not discouraged. More pissed than anything. But we've got to be tougher. That's the main thing for us. We've got to be tougher, got to play more physical, and then live with the results."
A combination of bad offense and bad defense leaves the Cavs in a troublesome situation.
Follow Jeff Zillgitt on Twitter @JeffZillgitt.
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