Cavaliers out of answers, hope
The Cleveland Cavaliers may only be down 2-0 in their best-of-7 series in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, but make no mistake: it’s over.
You are going to hear all the company lines over the next few days in the leadup to the Game 3. It will sound something like “nobody has lost on their home floor yet” and “you can’t count out LeBron James.” Except you can, and only a fool would not at this point.
The Warriors turned the ball over 20 times in Game 2 after getting exactly 20 points from Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson combined in Game 1. On Sunday night, that prolific duo only scored 35 points between them, but Draymond Green finally awoke and led all scorers with 28 points in a 110-77 rout at ORACLE Arena. Golden State is playing mediocre by its standards, and destroying the Cavaliers.
Cleveland is a very good team, but it is not going to beat Golden State. The Warriors won 73 games in the regular season to establish a new league record. They are one of the great teams of all-time, led by perhaps the best shooting backcourt this game has ever witnessed. Golden State’s incredible talents were briefly muddled by the Oklahoma City Thunder putting the Warriors in a 3-1 series hole during the Western Conference Finals, due to an incredible performance by the underdogs.
Since the end of Game 4 in that series, Golden State has been nothing short of brilliant, raining down threes at a staggering rate. At this point, no team in the last 15 years would have any shot of beating the Warriors. Heck, even the Michael Jordan-era Bulls would have a tough time taking care of business.
The Cavaliers are a fine team, they are just not a great one. To beat Golden State, you have to be that at the bare minimum. James is a legendary player, Kyrie Irving is a very good one and Kevin Love is a high-quality star. The rest of the team is either a bunch of good players (Iman Shumpert, Tristan Thompson) or highly-overrated bench guys (Matthew Dellavadova, J.R. Smith, Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye).
In the offseason, the powers that be in Cleveland (James, owner Dan Gilbert and the front office) need to work the entire summer around beating Golden State. Perhaps the Cavaliers try to trade Love for a couple of shooters. Maybe the Cavaliers do whatever they can to add either size on the interior a la Oklahoma City, or a few elite perimeter defenders to cause havoc.
Regardless, that idea is for another moment. In the present time, the Cavaliers can sit back and relax. This series is over. Their fate has been predetermined. Golden State is going to win its second straight championship.
The only question is whether it happens in Cleveland’s gym.
