Golden State Warriors: 10 Keys To Beating The Cleveland Cavaliers

10. Avoid Turnovers

We’re going to try to avoid as many no-brainers like “take care of the ball” as possible, but this one is particularly pertinent to the Golden State Warriors, who have been at their most vulnerable when they’re turning the ball over.

Out of their nine regular season losses, the Dubs committed at least 16 turnovers in five of them, posting an admittedly fantastic 30-5 record in such games.

The other four losses, in games where they committed fewer than 16 turnovers? A loss to the Nuggets in a game where Draymond Green rested, a loss to the Mavericks with Steph Curry out injured, a blowout loss to the Pistons and a tough matchup against the Spurs with Bogut sidelined.

The Dubs posted an otherworldly 43-4 record when they committed fewer than 16 turnovers. This is sort of nitpicking for a team good enough to win no matter what, but when the Warriors are fully healthy and don’t commit a plethora of turnovers, they’re damn near unbeatable.

To be fair, four of the Dubs’ five postseason losses have come in games where they committed fewer than 16 turnovers, but against a Cavaliers team averaging the second most points off turnovers among all playoff teams (second only to GSW), the Warriors need to limit their mistakes.

It’s pretty simple: Avoid unforced turnovers, wear Cleveland’s defense down with ball movement and don’t hand out easy transition buckets to a poor fast break team.

Next: No. 9