Warriors vs. Cavs: What We Learned From Games 1 & 2

Jun 4, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA; Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (30) guards Cleveland Cavaliers guard Matthew Dellavedova (8) during the fourth quarter in game one of the NBA Finals at Oracle Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

When a series starts out with two close games, at points it becomes a matter of perspective. Some will argue that each team “should” be up 2-0.

Instead, what I see as the biggest story so far is that the Cavs will do their best to make the rest of the series look exactly like Game Two. Losing Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love severely narrowed the paths Cleveland can use to win games but also provided clarity for exactly how the rest of the series will look. The team LeBron James called the “Grit Squad” (meaning the guys who played, not any specific lineup from what I could tell) are actually very well suited for it with heavy minutes for Mozgov, Thompson and Dellavedova. While that may concern some Warriors fans (and everyone who prefers beautiful basketball to what we saw Sunday night), remember that Golden State took Game Two to overtime despite their worst shooting performance of the season.

-== 5 Reasons Why the Warriors Will Beat the Cavaliers ==-

The rationale for the Cavs here is readily apparent: teams with a clear talent disadvantage should try to reduce the number of possessions in a game because it reduces the amount of chances the other team has to flex their superiority. Beyond that, Cleveland also can create extra-long possessions using offensive rebounds and David Blatt deserves a ton of credit for having a Cav (typically their power forward) stay back and pressure the Warriors in the back court to short circuit some potential fast break opportunities. Stephen Curry and the rest of the Warriors did not look particularly comfortable handling that kind of pressure and have a travel day to figure out some better methods because just working through that could be enough.

Jun 7, 2015; Oakland, CA, USA;  Credit: Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports

Another major storyline has been Timofey Mozgov outplaying Andrew Bogut despite both of them sitting for most of the crunch time minutes. Simply put, Mozgov has been a monster through two games, making the Warriors work for baskets in the paint and capitalizing on the extra attention LeBron has to receive through well-time cuts. Bogut had some nice stretches as a rim protector in both games but it will take a better effort from him and the rest of the team finishing off possessions to make a difference. While some of Cleveland’s offensive rebounds have been bad bounces, an opponent devoting as much energy as the Cavs do on offensive rebound forces the defending team to work hard to establish position before the shot goes up.

That change in mentality has been another way Cleveland has limited Golden State’s fast break opportunities. Simply having more players closer to their own basket when a shot goes up changes the shape of their transition and likely will continue to do so the rest of the series. The Warriors were the best defensive team in the league over the regular season but there are trade-offs to every tactical choice and if anything was going to be the slipping point it was always the boards as a middle of the road defensive rebounding team. Golden State has done an excellent job limiting the damage on second chance opportunities (Cleveland was 3/17 in Game Two and 1/11 in Game One) but simply giving up that many extra chances makes it hard.

Many of the clean looks that did not turn into baskets in Game Two will in the next few games, so there should not be too much worry there. That said, there were stretches early and late in the game where the Warriors settled for subpar shots early in the clock. Something I talk about a ton is the concept of “feedback loops”, the idea that succeeding on one end of the floor makes it easier on the other. A good defensive team gets more possessions in transition and a high-scoring team has more opportunities to defend in the half court. When the Warriors take unnecessarily hard shots, particularly early in the shot clock, they let the Cavs off the hook defensively and make their own jobs harder. Considering how narrow Cleveland’s bench has become due to injury, the Dubs need to make sure to work for great shots every time down. Some of these will not go in but that patience and diligence will reap rewards on defense too. It also could lead to some foul trouble as well, though the Cavs do not commit a ton of them.

The Warriors still have a clear talent advantage and should be the favorites in the series as we move to Ohio for two games. We just have to see if they can thrive and survive a series played far outside their comfort zone.