How The Cleveland Cavaliers Are Shocking The World

Better Without Love And Irving?

The Warriors had zero players with Finals experience heading into the series, so it’s been easy for some to write them off as being unprepared for the moment and side with a four-time MVP who’s been in five championship series before this one.

But every available metric and every previous eye test told us the Dubs were the overwhelming favorites in this matchup. So when Kyrie Irving went down with a knee injury in Game 1 — a game which the Cavs narrowly lost in overtime — it felt like the series was over.

No Kevin Love was one thing, but without two of Cleveland’s three leading scorers, it was going to be LeBron against one of the deepest teams in the league, headlined by one of the NBA’s most versatile starting fives. Not many people expected Stephen Curry to outperform King James in this series, but he didn’t need to; Chef Curry had way more help in his kitchen than there were jokers in King James’ court.

And yet, without two of Cleveland’s three best players, the Cavaliers are up 2-1 in a series against a team that’s won 80 percent of its games thus far. Is it possible the Cavs are somehow better with LeBron James playing hero ball and Love and Irving watching from the bench?

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To spare you the suspense, the answer to that question is “no.” In fact, it’s more like “hell no.”

During the regular season, the Cavs had the league’s fourth best offensive rating at 107.7 points per 100 possessions. In this Finals series, mostly with Love and Irving out, that number has plummeted to 94.3 points per 100 possessions.

That’ll sometimes happen against the league’s most prolific defense in a minuscule three-game sample size. But it hasn’t mattered because Cleveland’s defense has turned into a world-devouring amoeba with the kind of impermeability that renders it impervious to Splash Brothers.

That never would’ve happened with Irving and Love on the floor. Or at least, it never would’ve happened in this series. LeBron’s two main sidekicks are still too young to label them as eternally hopeless on the defensive end, but Cleveland’s defense has been night and day since the roster depth grew thinner than the Night’s Watch.

In the regular season, the Cavs were the NBA’s 20th ranked defense, giving up 104.1 points per 100 possessions. In the playoffs, they’re stifling opposing offenses to the tune of 98.7 points per 100 possessions, the fourth best rhythm among playoff teams. But even that number doesn’t do Cleveland’s defense justice in this series.

On paper, the Warriors should be winning this matchup. They have the higher offensive rating and the superior defensive rating, they’re holding Cleveland to 39.6 percent shooting despite shooting 41.4 percent themselves, they’re averaging more assists and they’re virtually even with the Cavs in rebounds, turnovers, steals and blocks.

But the Cleveland’s D has stifled Golden State’s normally high-powered offense, holding them to 31.3 percent shooting from three-point range and preventing them from getting out in transition. We’ll get to how their grind-it-out offense has contributed in this regard, but the first three games have been such ugly slogs through the marshes because Cleveland’s been swamping the Dubs’ offense.

The Cavaliers are not better without Love and Irving, and no one should think this playing style is sustainable over an 82-game season. But in a seven-game series against a team that already struggled in a playoff series when their opponent tried to drastically slow down the tempo?

The Cleveland Cavaliers may not be better overall without Love and Irving, but they’re better suited for this particular series and the style it needs to be played in.

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