MEET THE CAVALIERS
Getting this patchwork roster — that was overhauled at midseason — to the NBA Finals may be LeBron James’ greatest achievement
How the Cavaliers got here
Sidekick defection: Kyrie Irving was Robin to LeBron James’ Batman, but he wanted a starring role. So the point guard, whose late shot beat the Warriors in Game 7 of the 2016 NBA Finals, demanded and received an offseason trade to the Boston Celtics. Without him, James became the de facto point guard (he sort of was anyway) and shouldered an even greater scoring burden without Irving’s 25.2 points per game.
Early roll doesn’t last: The Cavaliers appeared to hit stride when they began a 13-game win streak in mid-November. Everything was clicking. Cleveland scored at least 100 points in each game and held six opponents under the century mark. But the good times didn’t last. They dropped 11 of their next 15, losing to virtually every playoff contender, including twice to the Warriors.
Midseason facelift: After nine defeats in 14 games left the Cavs at 31-22, they did more than tweak their roster — they overhauled it. In the span of an hour on Feb. 8, Cleveland traded six players with an average age of 30.3 years for four with an average age of 26.5. With the playoffs barely two months off, the Cavs provided reinforcements for James in Larry Nance Jr., Jordan Clarkson, Rodney Hood and George Hill.
Finding a groove: The new-look Cavaliers won 11 of their final 14 regularseason games, including victories over Milwaukee and Toronto to finish a 50-32 and fourth in the Eastern Conference. One of the defeats, however, seemed ominous: fast-improving Philadelphia beat them 132-130 despite 44 points and a triple-double from James.
Survive and advance: The Cavaliers needed Game 7 victories to move past Indiana in the first round of the Eastern Conference playoffs and Boston in the Eastern finals. In between, they swept the top-seeded Toronto Raptors. James did it all, including a spectacular running bank shot to win Game 2 at Toronto. Getting this patchwork roster to the NBA Finals may have been James’ greatest achievement, but he has beaten the Warriors just once in the past three NBA Finals.
Starting five + one
LeBron James: ”The King” has led his team to the NBA Finals for the eighth straight season — an achievement matched in league history by only five members of the early Boston Celtics dynasty. At 33, James had one of his greatest seasons, averaging 27.5 points, 8.6 rebounds and 9.1 assists while playing in all 82 games and leading the NBA in minutes. He has been better still in the postseason, contributing 34.0 points, 9.2 rebounds and 8.8 assists, with seven 40-point games.
Kevin Love: Constantly nagged by injuries (he missed 23 regularseason games this year), the 29-year-old power forward/center sat out Game 7 of the Eastern Conference finals after sustaining a concussion in Game 6. He scored 31 points in a playoff game vs. Toronto and has nine double-digit rebounding games in the postseason. But will he be healthy?
Tristan Thompson: A rock in the paint the previous five seasons (when he missed a total of just four games), Thompson has had problems this year beyond issues in his high-profile marriage to Khloe Kardashian. The 6-foot-9 post player missed 29 games with calf and ankle injuries. Thompson started the final six games of the Celtics series, averaging 7.3 points and 7.5 rebounds. George Hill: The 32-year-old point guard came to Cleveland from Sacramento in February and started the final 24 regular-season games. He has had his moments, including 20 points in Game 6 vs. the Celtics. But the 38 percent career 3-point shooter is converting just 27.5 percent in the postseason and was just 5 for 21 from deep in the Eastern Conference finals.
J.R. Smith: A longtime Warriors playoff antagonist, Smith, 32, shot 58 percent from 3-point range and averaged 11.8 points in the 2017 NBA Finals. But his production is down this year, and in the 2015 and ’16 NBA Finals, he shot just 32 percent from deep vs. Golden State.
Jeff Green: The 6-9 forward started in place of Love in Game 7 vs. the Celtics and delivered 19 points — the most points he has scored in a playoff game in five years — to provide James the complement he needed. His backstory is better than that: In January 2012, Green underwent open-heart surgery to repair a life-threatening aortic aneurysm that left him with a nine-inch scar on his chest.
The Cleveland X-factor
Kyle Korver: The Warriors have the Splash Brothers, but Cleveland has Korver, whose 2,213 career 3-point baskets rank No. 4 in NBA history — ahead of Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. Korver, 37, has been a barometer for the Cavs’ success this postseason. When he scores at least 12 points, they are 8-0.
What they do on offense
• It all starts with James. The 6-foot-8, 250-pounder, listed as a power forward, small forward and shooting guard, is also the team’s offensive facilitator. James has played 100 regular-season and postseason games this year and had double-digit assists in 39 of them.
• Love’s availability will be crucual. He is the Cavaliers’ No. 2 scoring option in the post-Irving era, although his 17.1 average in four seasons with Cleveland is well off his peak of 25.9 in 2014 with the Minnesota Timberwolves. When healthy, Love provides post and perimeter scoring and is an excellent rebounder and great outlet passer.
• The Cavs were the third-most prolific 3-point shooting team in the NBA during the regular season, making more shots from deep than even the Warriors. But their .372 accuracy from beyond the arc during the regular season has slumped to .339 in the playoffs.
What they do on defense
• The Cavs’ big trades in February benefited their defense as much as anything. Cleveland ranked 22nd in the NBA in 3-point field-goal percentage defense during the regular season (.368), but with quicker, younger perimeter players has improved to sixth in the postseason (.339).
• While the Warriors often struggle with turnovers, generating takeaways is not a big part of the Cavs’ defensive scheme. In fact, they rank 14th among the 16 teams that participated in the postseason, forcing only 12.2 turnovers per game.
• It should come as no surprise that when the postseason arrives, James ratchets up his intensity, even on defense. Since 2015, he has averaged 1.8 steals and 1.2 blocked shots in the postseason, compared to 1.4 steals and 0.7 blocks during the regular season. So he will be a factor at both ends.
Matchups to watch
• LeBron James vs. a rotation of Golden State defenders. Andre Iguodala made life tough on James in 2015 on the way to winning Finals MVP honors, but Iguodala missed the last four games of the Western Conference finals with a bone bruise in his knee. Steve Kerr will mix up his coverages against James, but no one is likely to spend more time wrestling him than Draymond Green, the 2017 NBA Defensive Player of the Year. There is history here: In 2016, James baited Green into behavior that led to his Game 5 suspension and the Warriors’ ultimate collapse.
• Curry is likely to face an assortment of defenders who will try to play physical against him. Six times in 18 NBA Finals games over the past three years, the Cavs have held Curry to fewer than than 20 points. But in five other games, he has erupted for 30 or more.
• The Warriors need to respect the Cavs’ 3-point shooters even while devoting attention to James. But Cleveland struggled shooting the deep ball on the road against the Celtics, converting just 27.8 percent (32 for 115) in four games. They lost three of those games.
The numbers say
• The Warriors have had the Cavaliers’ number the past four years, posting an overall record of 17-9 vs. Cleveland, including 6-2 in the regular season and 11-7 in three previous NBA Finals. Three of those defeats came in a span of seven days in 2016 when Golden State squandered a 3-1 series lead.
• The Warriors have had plenty of practice trying to slow James in the postseason, but with only mixed results. In 18 NBA Finals games the past three years, James is averaging 32.8 points, 12.3 rebounds and 9.2 assists vs. the Warriors.
• The Warriors’ slogan, “Strength in Numbers,” certainly gives them a potent counterpoint to James’ individual brilliance. In the 2017 NBA Finals, the threesome of Kevin Durant, Curry and Thompson combined to average 75.7 points, 21.0 rebounds and 15.0 assists. Durant, who scored at least 31 points in all five games, was Finals MVP.