Cavaliers:
Golden State knows all about Cavs’ star who picked apart Celtics
Red-hot Kyrie Irving sliced and diced Celtics in East finals.
OAKLAND — Some really bad memories likely surfaced for the Warriors this week as they watched Cleveland point guard Kyrie Irving slice and dice the Boston Celtics’ defense over the final two games of the NBA Eastern Conference finals.
Irving scored 42 points in Game 4, making 15 of 22 shots, and added 24 more in the closeout Game 5, making 9 of 15 attempts. In both games, he made some pretty decent defenders in Marcus Smart and Avery Bradley look absolutely silly trying to guard him.
They couldn’t. Over the final four games of the fivegame series, Irving shot a frightening 66.7 percent (42 of 63). Lest you think he amassed that gaudy number mostly on his uncanny drives to the basket, Kyrie also nailed 15 of 27 3-point tries (55.6 percent). So how do you pick your poison with this guy?
In short, Irving is coming to Oakland this week for Games 1 and 2 of the NBA Finals on a scary roll, not that the Warriors need to be reminded just how scary he can be. His Game 4 against Boston was eerily similar to his Game 6 against Golden State in last year’s Finals, when he made 17 of 24 shots, including 5 of 7 3-pointers, and scored 41 points as the Cavaliers sent the series to a Game 7.
Of course, everyone remembers Game 7, when Kyrie buried the dagger 3 over Stephen Curry with 52 seconds left that ultimately served to cinch the Cavaliers’ 93-89 victory. For anyone who might have thought it was a fluke, Irving also hit the gamewinning shot over Klay Thompson in the Christmas Day 109-108 showdown in Cleveland this season, with Thompson’s hand virtually planted in Irving’s face.
Thompson couldn’t have played much better defense.
“Well, I could have blocked it, so there’s always a way to get better,” Thompson said Saturday. “I just have to internalize that for next time that situation comes about. But it was a good shot, a real good shot.”
The Warriors have to internalize a lot of things about how to better defend Irving. Over the last five games of last year’s Finals when the Cavs flipped the series, he averaged 30.8 points on 50.8 percent shooting. He was plus-68 over that span, which even topped teammate LeBron James, who was plus-55.
The Warriors routinely face elite guards in the Western Conference during the regular season, notably the two primary MVP candidates, Russell Westbrook and James Harden, but they seem to have more trouble with Irving than anybody.
Acting Warriors head coach Mike Brown, the team’s resident Kyrie authority, having coached him during his third season in 2013-14, can articulate why — the 25-year-old dribbling wizard has no real weaknesses in his offensive game, and very few tendencies.
“When you talk about Westbrook, he can’t shoot the 3 like Kyrie,” Brown said. “Not only that, Kyrie’s pull-up game is off-thecharts remarkable. And James Harden is either going to shoot the 3 or get to the rim, so you know you only have to prepare for one of those things.
“With Kyrie, his versatility to score from all three levels (drive, midrange pull-up and long distance), plus his ability to go either direction with his dribble, it makes it tough. With other guys, you have a feel for what they like to do. It doesn’t mean you can stop ’em, but you feel a little more confident in what you’re trying to do to make them work to score points.”
So is there any hope of slowing him down, or do the Warriors have to hope for a few off games like the one Irving had in Oakland on Jan. 16, when he was 6 for 19 and made just one 3 in a Warriors rout?
“All great players, you have to mix up the coverages every once in a while,” Brown said. “If you give guys like him a steady diet of the same thing, they’re going to figure out ways to beat it. So we’ll mix up coverages, mix up guys who’ll guard him, and try to force the action with him and make his uncomfortable as possible.
“But you can do all that stuff and it may not work. That’s how good he is.”
Without question, it could be an electric faceoff between Irving and Curry now that they both head into the Finals fully healthy. Two years ago, Irving departed Game 1 with a kneecap fracture and was lost for the series. Last year, Curry was hobbled by a knee issue and just the general physical beat-down of a 73-win MVP season.
Curry, to be sure, knows what’s coming. He has the ultimate respect for Irving’s game, particularly as a ballhandler. As good a handle as he possesses himself, Curry willingly cedes that crown to Kyrie.
“His ballhandling skills are probably tops in the league,” Curry said. “He’s so shifty and finds way to create space. He’s tough to guard, and you just have to try to take one thing away and hope for the best in that aspect and funnel him in to your defense.”
Thompson said half the battle against Irving is mental, relishing the challenge as opposed to dreading it.
“You can’t hold him in check but you can try to make it tough by throwing different bodies at him, mixing coverage and making him work on the defensive side of the ball, too, expending energy,” he said. “We have a game plan for him and it should be fun.”
It won’t be fun if Irving has his way in the big moments like he did last year, and based on his most recent shredding of the Celtics, he appears quite primed to try and do just