Golden State Warriors: 10 Keys To Beating The Cleveland Cavaliers
3. Make LeBron Shoot
A look at LeBron James’ playoff field goal percentage (54.6 percent) would normally suggest this is a terrible idea. Let one of the league’s best players and most efficient scorers put up shots? That’s moronic!
Here’s the thing though: If the Warriors can keep LeBron out of the paint and turn him into a jump shooter, it’d take an extreme outlier kind of shooting performance from the King to make the Dubs pay on the defensive end.
In the playoffs, LeBron is shooting an unstoppable 71.6 percent on all shots inside of five feet, taking 96 of his 137 field goal attempts from that area. In other words, he’s shooting nearly 72 percent on a shot that comprises about 70 percent of his shot selection.
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Outside of five feet? He’s shooting just 35 percent. Those splits on shots from inside and outside of five feet pretty much match his regular season percentages as well.
LeBron has made just 32.2 percent of his three-point attempts in the playoffs, which is actually an upgrade over the 30.9 percent shooting he posted during the regular season.
But the Cavs’ offense is the exact opposite of Golden State’s prolific three-point attack. It’s almost entirely dependent on LeBron using his strength to penetrate the defense, force a double team and kick it out to perimeter shooters or cutters slashing toward the basket.
With Andre Iguodala, Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson and possibly even Shaun Livingston to throw at LeBron, the Warriors have plenty of length, giving them as good a chance of keeping LeBron out of the paint as anyone.
Nobody’s going to go toe-to-toe with King James, especially when he makes up his mind to get to the basket and put that massive locomotive frame of his to good use. But even when LeBron averaged an outrageous 35.8 points, 13.3 rebounds and 8.8 assists per game in last year’s Finals, Iggy still managed to limit him to .398/.310/.687 shooting splits.
Coming off a series in which he held Kevin Durant to 42.3 percent shooting, Iguodala will be seeing plenty of time trying to slow King James down. If he’s able to keep LeBron out of the paint and turn him into a jump shooter, the Splash Brothers’ advantage on the perimeter will help them run away with this series.
Next: No. 2