The Cleveland Cavaliers also lost Game 2 of the finals – partly because LeBron James reached his limits. He too needs the support of players who are not called Kevin Love.
One against all, LeBron against the rest of the world, one-man army against super collective – that was the tenor of the pre-reporting for the 2018 finals. most experts agreed: without a super-dominance of LeBron James, the Cavaliers will have no chance against the Warriors – because the King’s supporting cast is probably the weakest he has ever worn into the finals.
An interim conclusion after two games should now be: This statement turned out to be correct. What’s more, the Cavs are trailing 2-0 despite two outstanding games by James. 40 points, 10.5 assists and 8.5 rebounds on average – without any return.
The problem: LeBron can no longer increase (yes, he can also feel something like fatigue at some point). Two sequences from Game 2 in the Oracle Arena illustrate this.
Number 1: James is doubled on a pick and roll. He manages to split the double team and get into the zone, where a total of three defenders attack him. It is not even possible for him to graduate in this way. Of course he finds the inevitably free player: Kevin Love in the corner. The ball flies perfectly to him, the threesome flies – onto the ring. In return Stephen Curry meets one of his nine triples – instead of 39:44 from Cavs’ point of view it is 36:47. Although LeBron has initiated a perfect attack.
Number 2: Just before the end of the third quarter, LeBron pulls into the basket. He jumps off, but the Helpside is here. From an apparently impossible angle, James plays a great pass to Jeff Green’s piano, which in turn unpacks an extra pass to Smith posted in the corner – Airball. The drama continues: Larry Nance gets the offensive rebound, gets fouled and awards both freebies. The Cavs don’t manage to shorten it to 5 points, on the other side a threesome immediately falls in. Although LeBron initiated a perfect attack.
The bitter and expected realization in such cases is that the individual talent apart from LeBron (and Kevin Love, he is to date the second constant, even if he only hits 25 percent from a distance) is not enough.
Smith is out of the field in the series at 5/19, his unforgivable mistake from game 1 hovers above everything. Warriors fans have now “rewarded” him with MVP chants. “Horrible” is the appropriate description for what he has achieved so far – he said himself.
Things aren’t going any better with Jordan Clarkson. He throws a lot and hits a little. 3/13 is his yield, the ball does not seem to fit his world view. Since Game 4 against the Raptors, he hasn’t played an assist until Game 2 of the finals (52 throws!).
Jeff Green – still celebrated as a hero against the Boston Celtics as a love substitute – also has shooting problems (5/16). He was still a good defender against Kevin Durant in game 1, but there was nothing left of that in game 2. “He could be a little more energetic, more aggressive,” said Coach Tyronn Lue at the press conference. Green may not have heard this for the first time in his career.
Another example is Kyle Korver. In the previous series he was a (offensive) X-factor of Cleveland, so far nothing works for him. In 33 minutes he stands at 4 points and 1/4 from downtown – but also because the Warriors take away his strengths and would rather do without a helpside than let him stand free.
“Every play we run for him, they switchen,” Lue recognized. “That’s why he doesn’t get his litters. That’s hard, because he won’t beat many people out of dribble.”
Korver is not the only victim of the warriors strategy off the ball. Although they increased the pressure on LeBron, double teams and aggressive pick and roll hedges remained the exception, true to the motto: Let him do it quietly and limit the rest.
Surely there are still open threesomes now and then (see above) – but the fact is that 22 of 27 Cavs threesomes in game 2 were’contested’. This explains the weak rate of 33 percent.
So the not too surprising second realization remains that the Cavaliers have to come to terms with the Warriors with other virtues: hard defense, physique, rebounding. But that didn’t work at all at the start of the game. The dubs started with 7 successful dubs in a row, 6 of them were unchallenged layups or dunks in the zone.
“We didn’t start the game the way we should have,” Lue complained. “We weren’t physical enough, so they could leave right away.”
What speaks for the Cavs: They proved morale, shortened the gap again and again, did not give up until garbage time. This was particularly surprising in the third quarter, which the Warriors traditionally use to move away. This time it was 34:31 for the Cavs: “I was very proud of the boys, of the way they held against it. We can build on that.”
What the team can also build on is its own home strength. Since losing to the Pacers at the start of the play-off, the Cavs have not lost a game in the Quicken Loans Arena, especially their threesome is a completely different house number in front of their own audience (37.7 percent versus 27.8).
However, no eastern opponent was not even nearly as strong as the Dubs, which is why it will be a mammoth task to equalize the series at home. The vice champion certainly does not lose faith in this, which has a lot to do with LeBron James.
When asked if he was tired of constantly playing as an underdog and against the odds, he replied: “This has been the case since I was five or six years old. And so far it had gone quite well anyway.
That’s why I’ll stay focused, give my best and trust my fellow players until the last buzzer of the season is played. That is my job, that is my responsibility and my duty – and I will do it.”
However, it looks as if this will not be enough in 2018 – because even its dominance cannot be enough in a five-on-five game.