Ethan Sears
How does Cleveland defend the Curry-Durant pick and roll?
Golden State has its own lethal pick-and-roll combination. ut, unlike Cleveland, the Warriors have barely used it. All year, the coaching staff has treated the pick and roll like a vintage Corvette, keeping it in the garage with the cover on, unless needed. Presumably, they’ll use it more liberally in the Finals, because there’s no other time left to bust it out.
Exactly how much they go to it remains to be seen. Golden State is consistently near the bottom of the league in frequency running the pick and roll — it prefers to stay within their motion-fueled offense. But that doesn’t mean Smith/Kerr won’t use it. If and when they start using this combination with regularity, stopping it feels like an impossibility.
Switch a smaller guy — probably J.R. Smith — onto Durant and it’ll be easy money in the post. Switch a bigger guy — probably James — onto Curry, and he could be toast on a drive or pullup three. Going under means ceding an open three to either the best shooter in basketball history or Durant, who shot 37.5 percent from deep himself (the Warriors invert this, with Curry as the screener, occasionally as well). Going over likely means being a step behind and potentially creating a 2-on-1 for Curry and Durant, forcing help.
All things considered, the Cavs will probably at least try a fairly traditional pick and roll defense: going over on the screen, dropping James into contain (when Durant is the screener) and helping off Andre Iguodala (at least when Iguodala is on the floor). With Iguodala struggling this postseason, it makes sense to dare him to beat them, but even that presents some challenges. The screener could slip or fade to the 3-point line, taking James out of position, forcing help, and potentially getting an open trey out of it.
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Curry or Durant can decline the screen — that is, go the opposite way — and try to catch the defender leaning. Iguodala could find his stroke again.
There’s no good way to go about this, but Cleveland would rather cede an open shot to Iguodala than do anything else. Unless they’re comfortable switching (and maybe they are) that’s probably their only option.
