If the Cleveland Cavaliers find themselves continually getting blown out in the NBA Finals by the defending champion Golden State Warriors, there will be a ton of questions thrown the team’s way this summer.
Why didn’t their success in the Eastern Conference Playoffs extend to the Finals? Was it an issue with coaching and scheme under Tyronn Lue?
Well, the first-year head coach doesn’t seem to be gaining a bunch of supporters following Cleveland’s embarrassing 33-point loss to Golden State on Sunday. That’s primarily due to the comments he’s made about said scheme following the loss.
Lue added to this skepticism with comments during NBA Finals media availability on Tuesday.
Tyronn Lue on Kyrie: "He has the best handle in the NBA, so he's able to play iso basketball."
— Brian Witt (@Wittnessed) June 7, 2016
First off, the argument that Irving has the best handles in the NBA can surely be questioned. Heck, he’s probably not the best ball handler in the Finals with Stephen Curry playing on the other side.
This isn’t necessarily the issue with Lue’s comments. Instead, there seems to be a major disconnect between what he thinks his team can do and the level of competition it’s going up against.
Coming off a seven-turnover performance and with 11 giveaways through two games, LeBron James has struggled playing isolation basketball against an elite-level perimeter defense. Overall, the Cavaliers are shooting under 25 percent on isolation plays during the Finals.
If James can’t beat the Warriors’ defense with this strategy, what makes Lue think Irving can? That’s a befuddling stance that underscores the issues Cleveland is having from a schematic standpoint in the series.
Not a single player in the NBA can go toe-to-toe with the Warriors playing isolation basketball and come out on top. We saw this during the latter stages of the Western Conference Finals with Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook. We saw it earlier in the playoffs with Damian Lillard and James Harden.
It’s been a staple of the Warriors’ defense under Steve Kerr since he took over as the team’s head coach last season.
More than that, defensive guru Ron Adams (the best in the game) has made it clear that swift switches and double teams are needed to combat elite-level isolation games. In this, the players have responded to his teachings.
If you’re going to beat this team, ball movement and spacing becomes the paramount objective on offense. And in reality, that’s where Cleveland has failed through two games.
All said, the Cavaliers have 32 assists on 60 made field goals, 18 of those assists coming from James himself.
If Cleveland is going to get back in this series, its head coach must at some point understand that it is not going up against the same type of opponent it faced in the lead up to the Finals. The team also must get back to the basics with ball movement.
If Tuesday’s comments are any indication, the Warriors are probably even more confident in their ability to make this a short series.
Now whether Lue actually decides to go isolation again on Wednesday remains to be seen. If he does, the Cavaliers will continue to get owned.