NBA: 5 observations to Cavs vs.

The 118:108 victory of the Golden State Warriors over the Cleveland Cavaliers has led to a number of insights: while the duel between LeBron James and Kevin Durant is still unparalleled, there is now a big difference in quality between the teams. Can Cleveland still change this?

It’s not only since the last finals that LeBron James is still the best player in the world – but that Kevin Durant is at least in similar spheres or closer to the King than any other NBA player. The two protagonists also seem to be quite aware of this.

Whenever the two of them are now facing each other, it seems personal – not vicious, but competitive. Especially in a direct duel, both try again and again to mark their territory. This was also evident in this game, almost all of the many highlights involved James and Durant.

Once Durant James, for example, brought on a poster (including a subsequent primal scream), and once LeBron also managed to beat one of his patented chasedown blocks against an Leger of the reigning final MPP. Both showed individually strong matches and finished the evening with exactly the same score (32).

Of course, this tells only half the truth: James had to work much more for his points than KD and had to shoulder a greater burden than KD. He has enough experience with it, but in the second half he was running out of energy – only 12 points after the break tea, but in return he lost a lot of balls (8 in total).

KD meanwhile didn’t really run hot until the third quarter and turned the game with 16 points in this section (together with Stephen Curry). You didn’t have the feeling that he had to spend too much of his time on it – although this is something you rarely get with Durant anyway. Of course, he also spends a lot of time and effort, but most of the time the dubs get along fine if he plays more inconspicuously or sits on the bench. The cavs are often toast when LeBron pauses for a few minutes.

It may be a bit of a pity that the teams around them do not meet at eye level. However, as a basketball fan, you can still enjoy how Durant and James incite each other. Individually there is currently no better matchup in the league.

Isaiah Thomas has now played five games for Cleveland in the game against Golden State, with 32 minutes of time remaining at a record high after his hip injury. It was quite obvious that IT is making progress. The litter doesn’t want to fall yet, as you know it from last season (8/21 FG), but Thomas came into the zone much better and showed one time and again that the Pick’ n’ Roll with LeBron could become a very dangerous weapon.

He will need some more time, but offensively he will give the cavs a dimension they haven’t had since the Kyrie-Irving-Trade. Of course, this was also to be expected. The question is: Can Cleveland survive against Golden State if Thomas and Kevin Love are both on the court at the same time?

Now one or two Cavs sympathizers might say that Irving was not a good defender either; he often was not. Irving was able to deliver defensively in high-pressure situations – just think of the 2016 finals. And a very simple fact is added: Thomas is just one head smaller. Hiding it becomes much harder.

The Warriors were still relatively gracious with him in this game. The pick’ n’ roll with Curry and Durant, which Golden State rarely plays in the regular season anyway, was only looked for a couple of times at halftime – but then it was immediately apparent how massive the problems that could be caused for Cleveland are. One should certainly not assume that Golden State will also be so accommodating in a potential final rematch.

Page 1: The duel LeBron vs. KD and the role of Isaiah Thomas

Page 2: The rotation of warriors, problems with cavs and the unclear future