Golden State Warriors: 2015 NBA Finals Preview

Slowing Stephen Curry

On the other side of the coin, how will the Cavaliers try to stop Stephen Curry’s potent three-point-centric, break-you-down-off-the-dribble onslaught? If we’re looking strictly at the matchup of star point guards, this series really doesn’t look good for Cleveland.

Kyrie Irving played well against the Warriors this season and when he’s been healthy, he’s been dynamite in the playoffs. But there are two major problems: 1) He hasn’t been healthy often enough and 2) His defense makes him a major liability against the NBA’s second-ranked offense.

With eight days to rest up for the Finals, you can expect Kyrie to play and be much more effective than he was in the Eastern Conference Finals (13.0 PPG, 5.5 APG, 47.6 FG%). But that defense of his is still going to be a problem, especially since Golden State’s best offensive player just so happens to be a point guard as well.

Will David Blatt really attempt to leave Irving on Curry for the entire series, or even a whole game? If the Cavs want to win, the answer to that question had better be “Hell no.”

The only problem is, who does Kyrie defend then? The best way to help Klay Thompson gain confidence would be putting the undersized Irving on him, and the Cavs don’t want that happening. Put him on Harrison Barnes and Barnes will make Cleveland pay in the post by backing Irving down. There is nowhere for the Cavs to hide him on the defensive end.

It really will come down to picking your poison, which may have to change on a game-by-game basis. But assuming Blatt takes Kyrie off of Curry, that will mean Iman Shumpert and Matthew Dellavedova will be taking a majority of the defensive workload. Shumpert is Cleveland’s best shot at “containing” the MVP, but he might not be able to have enough of an offensive impact to stay on the floor if he’s constantly chasing Curry around screens.

Dellavedova can get inside Curry’s head by playing physical basketball, hounding him up and down the floor and basically being the NBA version of “I’M NOT TOUCHING YOUU!!!” But he’s even worse offensively than Shumpert, even if he had a few great games against the Hawks.

Like LeBron, Curry isn’t going to be stopped by anyone. He’s already gone through two of the top four MVP candidates in the playoffs (Anthony Davis and James Harden) and has shot the lights out in this postseason — nearly 45 percent from three-point range. Unless nerves get the best of Curry, the Cavs might have a harder time slowing Curry than the Dubs will have slowing LeBron.

Next: Role Players