Knocking off this small-ball, 3-point-heavy Golden State Warriors squad would be a lot to ask from LeBron James. It would also be exactly what he needs to polish the outlook of his legacy.
The fact of the matter is, LeBron isn’t supposed to win his third NBA title this season. Place the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Finals right now, or the newcomers from Los Angeles that haven’t even advanced to the conference finals yet, and LeBron would be expected to take home the crown. After all, the public perception would remember that he annihilated Kevin Durant in 2012, and nobody would invest any faith in the Clippers’ chances with such a shallow bench. Not against a top-10 legendary superstar.
Nonetheless, it’s the Golden State Warriors.
Typically, that would fall under the category of “teams LeBron is supposed to trounce.” With the 2014-15 Warriors, though, it’s the direct opposite. This is a beast like no other (record wise) and something that seems more powerful than last year’s Spurs — who ran through Miami in five games. Most will still side with Gregg Popovich’s behemoth last year as the best team LeBron has played, but Steve Kerr has his group looking unstoppable in so many aspects — the unguardable starting lineup, deep bench, and best defense of the Western Conference.
In no way is LeBron supposed to will a shallow, partly hobbled Cavaliers team past one of the five or six greatest teams in NBA history. In the past, he’s crumbled a couple times against top-notch West competition once he made it out of the East Finals.
In 2007 vs. Tim Duncan‘s fourth title quest, James posted an offensive rating of just 83 through the Spurs’ four-game sweep. Additionally, his effective field goal percentage of 37.8% was perhaps the lowest we’ve ever seen from James on a huge stage. For as much of the talk about LeBron’s inefficiency throughout this 2015 postseason, he’s still shooting with an eFG of 44.5% through Cleveland’s 14 playoff games. That’s how bad his 2007 showing truly was — 6.7% worse than his current shooting, which is making a lot of noise.
In 2011 against Dallas, LeBron stumbled with a turnover percentage of 19.5%, miles higher than any other Miami player. Normally, you’d expect your highest usage-rating guy to rack up their fair share of turnovers. However, that really wasn’t the case in the 2011 Finals. LeBron’s usage rating of 22.9% was lower than Chris Bosh‘s 25.8% and Dwyane Wade‘s 30.2%. James was coughing up the ball regularly, despite not controlling the ball as much as Miami needed him to.
It was understandable that Wade’s usage rating would be higher than LeBron’s (giving that it was really Wade’s team when the South Beach party was assembled). But, under no circumstance should Bosh ever be in more control of the offense than LeBron, still the best player in the world at the time.
Therefore, he came up extremely short in both of those Finals, four years apart.
Now, these 2015 Finals should instill a little fear in the mind of LeBron maniacs. Regardless if he claims that he’s “the best he’s ever been” in his career, he’s up against a demon that may bring back a lot of the nightmares. It wouldn’t completely be his fault, though. Instead, you could probably blame it on the fact of Cleveland only having one indicative game of experience against Golden State this year, and the Eastern Conference ride being so anemic.
Based on a number of factors, Golden State is no deal to mess with.
Kerr and Curry have led this Bay Area onslaught into one of the best seven months in NBA history:
(Note: all teams are ranked by their total winning percentage)
1995-96 Chicago Bulls:
- Regular season record: 72-10
- Playoffs: 15-3
- Total: 87-13 (.870)
- Home season record: 39-2
- Home playoffs: 10-0
- Home total: 49-2
- Won NBA Finals
1971-72 Los Angeles Lakers:
- Regular season record: 69-13
- Playoffs: 12-13
- Total: 81-16 (.835)
- Home season record: 36-5
- Home playoffs: 6-2
- Home total: 42-7
- Won NBA Finals
1996-97 Chicago Bulls:
- Regular season record: 69-13
- Playoffs: 15-4
- Total: 84-17 (.832)
- Home season record: 39-2
- Home playoffs: 10-1
- Home total: 49-3
- Won NBA Finals
1966-67 Philadelphia 76ers:
- Regular season record: 68-13
- Playoffs: 11-4
- Total: 79-17 (.823)
- Home season record: 28-2
- Home playoffs: 6-2
- Home total: 34-4
- Won NBA Finals
1985-86 Boston Celtics:
- Regular season record: 67-15
- Playoffs: 12-3
- Total: 82-18 (.820)
- Home season record: 40-1
- Home playoffs: 10-0
- Home total: 50-1
- Won NBA Finals
2014-15 Golden State Warriors:
- Regular season record: 67-15
- Playoffs: 12-3
- Total: 79-18 (.814)
- Home season record: 39-2
- Home playoffs: 7-1
- Home total: 46-3
- Title or no title?
1972-73 Boston Celtics:
- Regular season record: 68-14
- Playoffs: 7-6
- Total: 75-20 (.789)
- Home season record: 33-6
- Home playoffs: 4-3
- Home total: 37-9
- Lost in East Finals
1991-92 Chicago Bulls:
- Regular season record: 67-15
- Playoffs: 15-7
- Total: 82-22 (.788)
- Home season record: 36-5
- Home playoffs: 9-3
- Home total: 45-8
- Won NBA Finals
Out of all eight legendary teams listed (and there’s plenty more through history), these current Warriors have the sixth-best winning percentage when you combine the regular season and playoffs. If they oust Cleveland in five games, their winning percentage would remain about the same.
A lot is on the line for Golden State, since six of the other seven teams listed above all finalized their season with an NBA championship. It actually builds a lot of pressure for the Warriors to not let off the gas pedal too early, so they won’t go down as “chokers” or whatever the critics would call it.
While this actually serves as a little “excuse” for LeBron — if he loses, it can be said that nobody ever knocks off an historically great unit — it should also serve as motivation for him to do the unthinkable.
Could you imagine the hysteria if James prevents Golden State from solidifying its place in the history books with Phil Jackson‘s Bulls, K.C. Jones‘ Celtics, and Bill Sharman‘s Lakers? Michael Jordan has three of the top eight teams in NBA history on this list, and nobody ever stopped him from finishing the run with a title. If James could stop this unbreakable Warriors team short, it would be the greatest accomplishment of his 12-year career.
One could go as far to argue that this one playoff achievement (wiping out the 79-18 Warriors) it would be greater than any single Finals that Jordan or Kobe Bryant won. It may be stretching it, since Jordan was always a Finals god, but it would at least be up for discussion.
Jordan’s 4th championship came against a 75-22 Seattle SuperSonics unit that blazed through the Western Conference in 1996. Then in 1998, Jordan beat down the 75-21 Utah Jazz in the Finals to grab his last title.
The only difference with those years compared to this current stage? Cleveland isn’t favored. Jordan and the Bulls were always favored, and they had supporting casts that thrived under Coach Jackson. This Cavaliers roster (with Irving hobbled and Kevin Love completely out) really isn’t supposed to be here in their first year together.
It was supposed to take time. It was supposed to take a struggle for the city of Cleveland to return to the Finals for the second time in franchise history. After all, no city in America knows the definition of “struggle” more than this one in Northeast Ohio.
Instead, LeBron has guided his team to the grand stage. With that, comes responsibilities. He can’t come up small, just because it’s a leviathan of an opponent.
Along with responsibilities, comes a monumental chance for Cleveland’s king. A chance to even up his Finals record, and a chance to cement his legacy with something more difficult than he’s ever faced.