Thoughts on the nba finals

I made a bold prediction months ago that the Golden State Warriors would repeat as NBA champions that is why I almost choked when they went 1-3 down against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals. OKC looked like they would upset the Warriors, but the defending champions proved all the doubters wrong and came back, one game at a time. The Warriors clawed their way back by winning three games in row to set up the stage for a dream rematch with LeBron James and Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, Game 1 of the NBA Finals is over and GSW dealt Cleveland a 104-89 beating. Actually, the game looked manageable at the end of third quarter but the Warriors’ bench players erupted in the first six minutes of the fourth that brought  heavy damage on the Cavs.

LBJ, on his sixth straight Finals appearance, managed to bring back the deficit down to 11 with more than three minutes left to play but another turnover by the ‘King’ led to a 6-0 blitz by the Warriors on back-to-back triples by Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson. In the end, the Warriors’ bench had 8 players scoring in double figures. 

Here are my inputs on what the Cavs should do to win game 2 and the series.

•Review the tapes on Warriors-Thunder series and study how OKC played defense against GSW.

•Bench must step up. The Warriors bench outscored the Cavs by almost five folds.

•LeBron must be more aggressive in offense and be more of a threat in offense. Most often he settles for a pass which makes him very predictable. He dribbles the ball too much. If I were LBJ, I would go hard to the basket and bring the defense to me and for sure it opens up a Cavs’ spot up shooter.

•Kevin Love must take advantage of the mismatch. Again he is taking too long to decide on what to do with the ball and by the time he decides to post up, he would have wasted 5 to 6 seconds already and the help has arrived.

I have talked to a good friend Archt. JoDL-Job Dabon, who is certified Cleveland fan. These are some of his inputs for the Cavs to recover.

For Dabon, it's still Game 1 and there's no need to panic. Cavs will have to adjust, anybody who will think  that it is over after Game 1 is not a basketball fan. The series has still a long way to go. LBJ and the Cavs will fight back. The Cavs must remember how they make it this far in the playoffs. The team is humming like a well-oiled fast car. The players should settle back to their roles. No more confusion, frustrated looks on players after missed plays or defensive assignments.

On offense, Cavs must shoot the lights out whenever they are open. This team has finally learned to share the ball. A distinct departure from what David Blatt did before. Cavs must bully the Warriors in the paint, Lebron James must continue to be aggressive, at the early part of Game 1, LBJ mowed Bogut inside and drove hard to the basket and in return it opened up the shooters.

On defense, the Cavs must close down the Warriors shooters and leave no easy shots. Warriors love to gun it, so expect long balls and leak outs galore. Rebounding is vital, both in offense and defense, which Cavs are pretty good at.  JoDL-Job Dabon predicts that Cleveland will win the series in Game 6.

Going back to the Warriors, for this team to repeat, all they have to do is to continue doing the small details that makes every play possible. This starts from setting up the screen, back cut and moving without the ball are all part of making their game easier. There are times the Warriors celebrate too much that they tend to forget to play defense. Best defense is offense. This is quite strange but let me shed some light regarding this matter. Like I said, every small details is part of a bigger play, every screen, pick, pass and cut enable the team to get the shot they designed for. It may look like an ill advised shot for the viewers but this is what they do in practice. For me it is very similar to the vaunted triangle offense of 95-96 Chicago Bulls. But trouble starts when Warriors get impatient and take poor shots then broken offensive play often leads to poor defense for the Warriors.

On my end, I am sticking to my prediction that Warriors will repeat. Maybe via sweep, but the worst case scenario is the Cavs will take Game 2 and the Warriors will win the next 3 games. But then again, the ball is round anything can happen. What is important here is for the fans to view and enjoy the games!