Golden State Warriors: 5 keys to beating the Cavaliers in the 2017 NBA Finals
3. Limiting Love
In the last two Finals series against the Warriors, LeBron James has averaged 32.5 points, 12.2 rebounds, 8.8 assists, 2.0 steals and 1.5 blocks per game. We KNOW he’s going to put up big numbers. It’s just what he does in the Finals, especially against this team.
As much as the Dubs hope his production will veer more toward his inefficient numbers in 2015 compared to his scorching 2016 stat lines, no combination of Draymond Green, Kevin Durant, Andre Iguodala, Klay Thompson and Shaun Livingston is going to stop him.
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The key, then, will be limiting the firepower of his fellow superstars, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love. We’ll get to Irving in a bit, but Love is the most vulnerable member of the group, and he’s the one whose production could really be a thorn in Golden State’s side if he gets going.
Last year, everyone made the mistake of thinking Love would be unplayable against the Warriors because of his defensive flaws. Instead, he wound up making the second-biggest defensive stop of the Finals, hurt the Dubs on the glass in Game 7 and pretty much all but redeemed himself.
Love enters this year’s Finals averaging 17.2 points and 10.4 rebounds per game, canning 2.9 three-pointers a night on a red-hot 47.5 percent shooting from deep. The Warriors need to key in on taking him out of the series with either their Defensive Player of the Year frontrunner, who still needs to redeem his Game 5 suspension in last year’s Finals, or Kevin Durant, who was playing at an All-Defensive team level before his injury.
Since Green may spend his time on LeBron, it’ll most likely be up to KD to keep Love off the offensive glass and defend him out on the perimeter. Then, if Draymond can exploit Love’s defensive flaws on the other end, the Warriors will make him a complete non-factor. From there it’s a matter of hoping their superior star power, depth and defense wins out over whatever monster performances LeBron James has buried within.