Cavaliers go all out on defense
The Cleveland Cavaliers had just eliminated the Chicago Bulls in the Eastern Conference semifinals, and a reporter asked LeBron James if he and the Cavaliers were underdogs against the Atlanta Hawks.
More amused at that idea than anything — certainly not miffed, and he didn’t scoff at the suggestion — James said, “Underdog? Me? … I would never be an underdog.”
Even Cavs general manager David Griffin said Saturday after losing Kyrie Irving (fractured knee cap) for the rest of the Finals, “It’s hard to imagine that our team is David and anyone is Goliath when Goliath is on our team. It’s really hard to say too much of ‘We’re the underdog ’
when you have a player of that nature.”
And yet here the Cavs are in the NBA Finals as serious underdogs, playing without Irving and also-injured Kevin Love (dislocated shoulder). They are tied 1-1 with the favored Golden State Warriors after two compelling overtime games that have fans watching in record numbers.
James has embraced and is thriving as the underdog in a spectacular, though less efficient, manner. In another one of the Cavaliers’ identity changes this season, they have found themselves deep in the postseason a defensive, gritty, grind-it-out, muck-it-up team, and that’s the style, rather the substance, that the Cavs need if they’re going to pull off this upset.
James called the Cavs the Grit Squad. It’s more Memphis Grizzlies than Showtime. It’s a little bit of hockey — forechecking and backchecking, putting a body on someone.
“It’s not cute at all. If you’re looking for us to play sexy, cute basketball, then that’s not us,” James said. “That’s not us right now. Everything is tough. We’re going to come in with an aggressive mind-set defensively and offensively.”
It’s Tristan Thompson on a pogo stick, constantly jumping and lunging and chasing down rebounds. It’s Matthew Dellavedova diving and hustling and frustrating opponents. It’s Timofey Mozgov clogging the lane. It’s Iman Shumpert’s sleight of hand making game-saving steals.
And, of course, it’s James doing everything, including firing shots at a rapid rate because efficiency is not the name of the game. Not now. He figured that out in the Bulls series. Without Love, he needs to rebound more. Without Irving, he needs more assists. Without both, he needs to score more.
He did all that in Game 2, registering game highs in points (39), rebounds (16) and assists (11). It was his fifth Finals tripledouble and the 13th of his postseason career.
“Geez, you’d be hard-pressed to find a guy anywhere, anytime — I can think of a name or two, but that’s the whole history of basketball — that can give you the kind of all-around performance and all-around leadership that LeBron does for his group,” Cavs coach David Blatt said. “He really willed his guys to win that game. That’s what a champion does, and obviously he’s a champion.”
What seemed impossible after Irving ’s Game 1 injury — the Cavs beating the Warriors for the title — now seems possible with James and the Cavs believing they can win this series without Irving and Love when so many others discarded their chances.
In the playoffs, James is averaging 29.3 points, 10.6 rebounds and 8.3 assists, and the only other player in NBA history to average at least 29-10-8 in the postseason is Oscar Robertson, according to Basketball-reference.com.
“All we can do is go out and play hard,” James said. “We’re undermanned. I mean, we’re without two All-Stars, and I don’t know any other team in this league that would be able to do that, to compete the way we compete and be a force.”
The Cavaliers held the Warriors to 39.8% shooting, and Stephen Curry had one of the worst shooting games of his career. Cleveland can’t expect to force Golden State into kind of shooting every game, but it can continue to make it tough on the Warriors, trying to disrupt that offense with pressure and physical defense.
The Cavaliers were rarely a top-10 defense during the regular season but found their defensive calling through necessity.
“For us to win a Finals game shooting 32% from the field, it’s just a testament of how gritty we can be,” James said. “It has to be that for the rest of the series, no matter how many games it takes.”
James said he wasn’t concerned about who was writing the Cavs off, but he acknowledged his teammates had taken notice.
“Our guys love the fact that we’ve been counted out and come into the series being an underdog,” James said. “They’re pretty much saying that, especially after Kyrie got hurt and the series was over. I think our guys are using that as motivation.
“I use a little bit of it, but I have a lot of motivation already to just be a part of greatness and be a part of this atmosphere.”