Here is my break down on why the Cavs are a bad match (at least on paper) up for the Warriors...
When teams play the Warriors they are forced to either play big and be slow or play small and have Thompson shoot over them... The challenge that the Cavs poise for the Warriors that the Memphis was not able to do was the Cavs could play LeBron at 2-5 with out worrying about giving up size or speed...
Here is something that people are going to be up and arms about, but the truth to the matter Curry isn't that much better than a healthy Irving. Sure Curry is a better three point shooter, but Irving attacks the rim much better (Curry misses a lot of layups and gets his shots blocked more), Curry is a better perimiter defender but not as good in the paint and vs the pick and roll... But if you look at their numbers they are almost identical, Curry scored a bit more 23ppg vs 21 by Irving, but Kyrie shot at a higher % so he shot less and their three point % was also close Curry 443 to KI 415....
My point is GS best player is almost identical to the Cavs 2nd best player and in the game JR Smith can match Thompsons numbers on the court and Shumpert and A.I are just about a wash... Which leave one major match up problem, who is going to match LeBrons numbers...
Another problem for the Warriors is that they don't require any double teaming or special attention towards one player, why double up on Curry, let him hit his 30 pts, put a big defender on Thompson, keep his numbers around 20 pts and make the other guys earn their points with set plays and one on one offense... This is the very same stratagy that worked like a charm vs OKC..Meanwhile LeBron and Irving is going to require so much attention with their ability to attack the hole (something that GS is not used to in the West) and unlike the Spurs they don't have one guy they can put on James..
Basically I see it playing out similar to the way the game played out the last time they played, funny that game looked eerily similar to how OKC looks when they go up against a LeBron ran team...
But thats getting ahead of ourselves there are still plenty of games left and like I always say once the ball starts bouncing anything can happen..
When teams play the Warriors they are forced to either play big and be slow or play small and have Thompson shoot over them... The challenge that the Cavs poise for the Warriors that the Memphis was not able to do was the Cavs could play LeBron at 2-5 with out worrying about giving up size or speed...
Here is something that people are going to be up and arms about, but the truth to the matter Curry isn't that much better than a healthy Irving. Sure Curry is a better three point shooter, but Irving attacks the rim much better (Curry misses a lot of layups and gets his shots blocked more), Curry is a better perimiter defender but not as good in the paint and vs the pick and roll... But if you look at their numbers they are almost identical, Curry scored a bit more 23ppg vs 21 by Irving, but Kyrie shot at a higher % so he shot less and their three point % was also close Curry 443 to KI 415....
My point is GS best player is almost identical to the Cavs 2nd best player and in the game JR Smith can match Thompsons numbers on the court and Shumpert and A.I are just about a wash... Which leave one major match up problem, who is going to match LeBrons numbers...
Another problem for the Warriors is that they don't require any double teaming or special attention towards one player, why double up on Curry, let him hit his 30 pts, put a big defender on Thompson, keep his numbers around 20 pts and make the other guys earn their points with set plays and one on one offense... This is the very same stratagy that worked like a charm vs OKC..Meanwhile LeBron and Irving is going to require so much attention with their ability to attack the hole (something that GS is not used to in the West) and unlike the Spurs they don't have one guy they can put on James..
Basically I see it playing out similar to the way the game played out the last time they played, funny that game looked eerily similar to how OKC looks when they go up against a LeBron ran team...
But thats getting ahead of ourselves there are still plenty of games left and like I always say once the ball starts bouncing anything can happen..