Cleveland Cavaliers: 5 Keys To Beating Golden State Warriors

2. Cavs Must Be Mindful Of Klay Thompson

Whenever you talk about the Warriors, the conversation usually begins and ends with Curry, and rightfully so. He’s the two-time MVP who averaged over 30 points per game during the season on .504/.454/.908 shooting splits.

Although Curry did struggle with his shooting efficiency against the Thunder, eclipsing the 50 percent plateau just once in the first six games, in the series finale, Chef Curry scored 36 points on 13-for-24 shooting and shot 7-for-12 from distance.

He also handed out eight assists and grabbed five rebounds.

That being said, it is a safe bet that Curry will go off at some point. While Curry is often the focal point of the Warriors, another player the Cavaliers will need to keep a watchful eye on is Klay Thompson.

In his first finals appearance against the Cavs last year, Thompson averaged 15.8 points per outing while shooting 41 percent from the field overall and just 30 percent from beyond the arc.

And with the exception of the first-round series against the New Orleans Pelicans — a four-game set in which he averaged 25 points per game — Thompson failed to score more than 18 points per game in any of the following rounds of that playoff run.

During this postseason, though, Thompson has been nearly as good as Curry, averaging 26.2 points per outing on shooting splits of .449/.450/.882. These numbers are comparable to Curry’s 26.7 points per game on .458/.407/.909 splits.

Additionally, when Curry went down with a knee injury that forced him to miss a total of six games against the Houston Rockets and the Portland Trail Blazers, it was Thompson who provided the necessary scoring punch during Curry’s absence.

Against the Rockets, Thompson averaged 26 points per game on 46 percent shooting in the games Curry missed, and he averaged 33 points per outing on 46 percent shooting in the first three games of the conference semifinals against the Trail Blazers before Curry returned to the lineup for Games 4 and 5.

Also, let’s not forget about Thompson’s recent performance in Game 6 of the Western Conference Finals against the Thunder.

In that contest, Thompson scored a career playoff high 41 points while setting a postseason record with 11 three-pointers. I mentioned earlier the importance of players being able to step up at crucial moments and that is exactly what Thompson did.

If not for that performance, the Warriors’ season would have been over. Simply put, if the Cavaliers’ defensive schemes are geared toward merely stopping Curry, Thompson will be more than ready to make them pay for that strategy.

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