Cavs’ winning plan rests on defence
Silencing Curry’s Warriors not prettiest way to win, but effective on big stage
CLEVELAND— The Cleveland Cavaliers are making Dwane Casey look good.
In an NBA final that’s turning into a contest between old-school basketball and the new-age game, Cleveland’s reliance on smothering, intricate defence has often been the difference in the compelling championship series that resumed here Thursday night.
So all those times Raptors coach Casey hammered home the point that defence is critical to any significant success should resonate even more.
LeBron James has been outstanding and is putting up historically great offensive numbers, but Cleveland’s ability to hold the powerful Golden State Warriors offence in check has been the biggest factor.
“We said it from the beginning, that in order for us to win we have to defend,” James said. “My guys do a great job of coming out and defending. Everyone knows their role, and we all play our role to the best of our ability. We don’t step outside our box. When you have that type of chemistry out on the floor, it makes everything work.”
By double-teaming or trapping Golden State’s Stephen Curry on pick-and-roll plays and dominating the boards, the Cavs have thrown a blanket over the Warriors.
It has slowed large chunks of games to a pace far more suitable for Cleveland, no matter how unattractive it may look.
It’s as if the Cavs are a team from years ago — relying mainly on isolation plays on offence, solid rebounding and suffocating defence. It’s not the kind of high-powered, everyone-can-shoot style favoured by so many teams in the regular season, but there’s no denying how effective it can be.
“We’re trying to play in a way that allows us to be successful in this series. Whatever that means or however that looks or however it’s interpreted is fine with me,” coach David Blatt said. “We know what we want to do. We know how we want to play and how we need to play. The important thing is to execute it and to work at it on both ends of the court, and I think we’re doing a decent job of that.”
It is not an oversimplification to say that the Cleveland defence was the difference in the first three games, and it is winning against one of the best offences of the last few years.
The Warriors want to play faster. The Cavaliers haven’t let them.
“Their pace has been pretty slow,” coach Steve Kerr said. “Their pace has actually been faster when LeBron’s been out of the game in the playoffs overall, so he’s controlling the tempo. He’s doing a great job of it.
“Yeah, that’s what we’re looking at. How can we speed the game up? Is it by changing our defence? Is it by what we’re doing offensively? In my mind it’s always a combination of things. It’s never one thing.”
“They definitely want to play slow,” Golden State’s Klay Thompson said. “Three games now we’ve played at their tempo, and we’ve got to change that.
“Four transition points is not enough. We need at least double digits with that. We’ve just got to, like I said, be the aggressors. If we do that — I’m not worried about defence.”