Cavalier Film Room: The MVPs

LeBron James and Stephen Curry are two of the most unstoppable forces we have in the NBA. It’s no coincidence that they’ve led their teams to the NBA Finals because of their ability to get their shot at any time. Both teams have multiple capable defenders that will attempt to minimize the damage from these MVP candidates. However, in the one matchup that these two had at full strength, both teams showed holes in their defensive strategy. Let’s take a look at what each team has to do to make the stars work for their shots.

The Warriors started this game with small forward Harrison Barnes guarding LeBron James. James goes down into the post and gets the pass from Kyrie Irving. James turns to face and immediately attacks with his left on the baseline.

Barnes fouls him, and James heads to the line. At 210 pounds, James has at least 40 pounds on Barnes, and this will benefit him in post-up situations. Because James attacked quickly, Andrew Bogut’s rim protection has no chance of stopping the baseline drive. This is similar to the early attacking James did in the Chicago series at times on Jimmy Butler.

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Some expect first team All-Defensive forward Draymond Green to spend the majority of the time on James, and that may be the case. However, that will force an interesting cross-matchup of Harrison Barnes on Tristan Thompson when the Cavaliers have their big lineup with Mozgov on the floor.

On this set, it’s Green that James fights for position with in the left mid-post area. If you recall, this Golden State game was the first one in which James made a concentrated effort to go down into the post for an extended period and dominate the game. It looks like old hat after the last two rounds, but this was not always a given.

Barnes cannot pinch down anymore than he is, because it leaves Kevin Love wide open on ball side. Steph Curry has Irving to account for on opposite wing. Bogut is outside of the paint on the other side of the floor concerned about Mozgov. James, though, uses his sheer power and backs Green down until he’s able to shoot a half-hook with his right in the middle of the paint. Green at one point even attempts to cut off his move to the middle, but it’s no match for James. Yes, the Cavaliers no longer have Love, but when they go small, someone will be in that position that can knock down that three point shot.

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After Green and Barnes, the Warriors have veteran Andre Iguodala coming off the bench to spend some time guarding LeBron, as he did in this early February matchup. Iggy is checking James on the right side of the floor, and he’s closely protecting against the jumper over him.

Because of this, LeBron looks to use his speed to get around the edge and attack the hoop. David Lee does a poor job of rotating to help as he gets caught watching a non-threatening Mozgov standing behind the three-point arc. James starts left, then uses a quick spin move right to turn the corner on the baseline with Iguodala on his hip. He finishes on the glass with contact using excellent body control to shield Iggy from the ball.

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The last LeBron possession we’re going to take a look at is near the end of the game with the Cavs in control. James is back down in the post, on the right side this time, against Green. Once again, with Kyrie standing at the top of the key waiting for a kick-out, Barnes can only sag so much.

Green is REALLY up in James’ airspace this time. His base is incredibly wide and he’s contacting James 15 feet from the basket. Using an arm bar, Green is still unable to stop LeBron from taking it to his chest and eventually getting a shot in the paint. All three primary James defenders play a role in this one, with Barnes swiping from the help-side and Iguodala attempting to leap for the block at the very end. There’s nothing you can say that Green did wrong here, but James uses his height and weight advantage to create enough separation to sneak it in, even with a double-clutch.

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One thing not shown here is that James was incredibly effective shooting the ball from the outside on this night. He was 15-of-25 from the field, including 4-of-9 from three point range plus two mid-range makes. That type of outside stroke has eluded LeBron in these playoffs, but even with that knowledge, the strength and advantage the Cavaliers have against this cast of Warriors defenders is LeBron’s size, strength, and ability to finish in traffic with contact.

James also turned the ball over six times in this game at The Q. Doing so in this NBA Finals will feed the Bay Area beast that is the Warriors in transition and converting points off turnovers.

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Let’s move on to the current league MVP and his sharpshooting skills. Curry connected on just 5-of-17 shots and 3-of-9 from long distance for 18 points on this evening. The Cavaliers did a pretty admirable job of constantly keeping contact with Curry and forcing him to have other teammates beat you. One of those teammates was David Lee, who poured in 19 points off the bench to lead the team in scoring.

In this first possession, Bogut sets a high-ball screen for Curry with Irving and Mozgov defending the pair. Mozgov plays this beautifully, first throwing up a wall for Curry to shoot over and then recovering to block Bogut’s shot.

Kyrie, however, gets caught napping on the second chance opportunity. Curry is allowed to leak out to the right corner unaccounted as Irving just swarms to the ball with Mozgov on Bogut. There’s nobody on that half of the floor for the Cavs except for Smith high on the wing. Curry is going to knock down that type of shot all day.

This is the exact type of play that plagued the Rockets in the Western Conference Finals. In Game 1, Curry shot 13 UNCONTESTED shots. That absolutely cannot happen, and I don’t think it will. Curry is going to get his points, but these types of breakdowns on second chance opportunities must be eliminated.

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Here’s another classic example of a too-easy shot attempt for Curry. Golden State grabs the defensive rebound, and they’re off to the races with the ball in Curry’s hands. You can see Iman Shumpert communicating with J.R. Smith about which guards to pick up. Timofey Mozgov is paying attention to Curry, but he keeps giving ground.

Smith is sagging far too much off of Thompson in the right corner. Shumpert realizes he needs to track Curry, but it’s too late. The Cavs allow Curry to dribble into a top of the key three ball, which he buries with relative ease. The transition defense is just a train wreck all around as David Lee is in great position to grab an uncontested offensive rebound were Curry to miss.

The wine and gold defense has come a long way since late February, and Shumpert is the best the Cavaliers have when it comes perimeter defense. If I’m head coach David Blatt, he’s playing the majority of the minutes on Curry.

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Here’s a template for the Cavalier big men to use when tracking Curry in the halfcourt. Kevin Love does a brilliant job here in a tough spot. David Lee dribbles right and gives Curry a hand-off after Marreese Speights blasts Shumpert with a pick. Love picks up Curry as he heads left.

What Love does right here above all is that he plays the three-point shot. Often, when big men are put on that island with a guard, the instinct is to give ground and close late to contest the shot as best as one can while guarding against dribble penetration. That should NOT be the case with Curry. As automatic as he can be when uncontested from deep, you must crowd his airspace and force him to either give it up or drive past you. I expect the Cavaliers to close out games with a lineup of Shumpert, Dellavedova, Smith, James, and Thompson,¹ and four out of those five can switch on to Curry confidently while Tristan is the big man most capable of holding his ground and bothering a perimeter shot.

Kyrie secures the long defensive rebound, and kudos to Shumpert for a terrific box-out of Lee. This brings up another point. The Cavaliers must rebound at an elite level on the defensive end in order to win this series. Sharpshooters like Curry and Thompson cannot be afforded ample second chances.

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Finally, we look at another possession that goes the Cavaliers’ way. It’s the end of the first quarter, and Curry rushes the ball up court to make a play. Shumpert hounds Curry on the perimeter and chases him off of the spot that he wants to step into to shoot.

When he does this, James leaves Iguodala and provides a jab of help defense, enough to freeze Curry’s drive and allow Shumpert time to recover. Curry takes a long, contested two-point fadeaway, and he clanks it. A good amount of contested long two-point shots like that from Curry would be a very good thing for the Cavs. Either you win, or you tip your cap because there’s nothing else you could do to stop him.

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The duo of Shumpert-Dellavedova and the trio of Green-Barnes-Iguodala will go a long way in determining who the NBA champion will be. Whoever has more of an impact making Curry or James work for everything they get could tip the scales in their team’s favor. Then again, both of these MVPs are capable of torching you even when you do everything fundamentally sound.

Until next time, the film room is closed!

1. Yes, I know I’m not including Kyrie here. We’ll see how he holds up, but I don’t think he can be playing defense in the game’s final minutes. [↩]