SU has been looking forward to the NBA Finals even though I must admit that I pretty much forgot about them during the week and a half interlude. When teams have that much time off in between games, you can generally expect some poor outside shooting in game 1. There was some of that last night but for the most part, better than usual.
Steve Kerr won 5 rings playing with Michael Jordan and he had the chance to see how teams tried to deal with a superstar type player in the post-season. There are usually a couple of approaches. One is to always send help and leave open the other players and see if they can beat you. You don’t want the star player to go off and win that way. The other is to play the superstar man-to-man and not allow the other players to score. You will give up the 40 points to the superstar but make him earn it with a lot of shots.
Last night, we saw that Kerr has opted for plan B. LeBron scored 42 points on 38 shots. Jeff Van Gundy kept commenting that he had never seen so much isolation offense in a game. SU kept checking to see if Mike Woodson was calling the plays from the Cavaliers’ bench. It almost worked for Cleveland as LeBron had a shot to win it and Shumpert came oh so close with a miracle attempt at the buzzer. But SU says on a night when they had a pretty productive Kyrie Irving, this was the wrong strategy. You need to get others involved and they have to touch the ball to be able to score. Shumpert only took 6 shots and while JR Smith was firing and missing late and in the overtime, he made three 3’s in the first half but then never saw the ball again until late. It’s hard to be expected to start hitting shots late when you are not part of the offense.
If Irving is done for the series now which is possible, then LeBron really needs to get others involved. Only Kobe Bryant would appreciate the approach used last night. SU says pass the ball. It was like Carmelo Anthony had sneaked into the line up. Michael Jordan always found a way to get his teammates involved and while he had Pippen, the rest of his roster really did not measure up to what Cleveland puts out there now offensively. LeBron needs to not be taking 38 shots.
The playoffs are all about adjustments and we will see what game 2 brings.
Sports Update Intergalactic 
Speaking of time off, Game 2 is not until Sunday night! And it’s in the same city. It’s like someone in the NBA knows they want to span as many weekends as possible but forgot to actually schedule games on the weekends.
Agree with Seth’s comments above. Basketball is one of those “momentum” sports and the time off between games makes it almost like a sunday football game.
I admit that I was surprised by the Cleveland game plan. LeBron has always worked hard to get others involved. Throughout his career he has been a player who will make a concerted effort to focus on things the next game – look for much more passing in game 2 (I think we are well beyond the theory that LeBron is afraid to take the big shot at game end).
However – neither Curry nor Thompson played especially well so I look for improvement on that end also.
Last question – any chance that a ref will ever call an offensive foul on LeBron for pushing off as he drives to the hoop?
Agree with both of your comments. In terms of the start date for the playoffs, it’s not like they needed to reserve hotel rooms in advance for a certain date in a certain city. Quite frankly, watching basketball in June is not appealing. LeBron gets every call and is constantly arguing with the refs. He has not committed a foul all year that was justified. And his behavior makes his teammates do the same thing. Of course, Draymon Green is in the same boat. How he is not teed up is beyond me. Just play on and get back on defense. Is that so hard to do at the NBA level?
While not entirely related to this story, being a Knick fan I can’t pass up the opportunity to comment on a story that has both the word “Carmelo” and “passing” in it. Rumor has it that Carmelo doesn’t want to play with a rookie PG which is very likely going to be the position they will be able to fill in the upcoming draft. I’m guessing it is because Carmelo doesn’t really know what this thing called passing is and how it adds to the success of a team. Then again I’m not sure that he knows what the word “team” means either.
Tying this back to the actual article above, isolation is great for stuffing the stat sheet but passing is better for loading up in the W column: Kerr 1 – LeBron 0
Mark, I have read similar recent stories about Melo regarding the kid playing in China. In a way, I can understand that he doesn’t want to be in a rebuilding situation at age 31 and would prefer that they just sign veterans with the cap space. The reality is that he took the money to stay here. There is a story today about the Knicks possibly trading him to either Denver or the Bulls. It reads like a made up story to me – some sports writer trying to attract attention. However, it would be better for all parties to move him. The problem is that you need to take back equal salary in a deal and you would end up with guys like Josh Smith who are equal on the ball hog scale. And by the way, scoring 42 points on 38 shots just does not feel efficient to me.
Challenge on “…the rest of his roster really did not measure up to what Cleveland puts out there now offensively.” 1) You really cannot say aside from Pippin; 2) Horace Grant was also better than any 3rd player on the Cavs for Bulls 1st 3 championships; The later Bulls teams had Pippin, Kukoc and Armstrong;3) Cavs bench scored a total of 9 points in an OT game.
Cavs bench didn’t score because LeBron took 38 shots. Pippin is a hall of famer. Kyrie could very well be one. Mosgov scores better than most Bull centers that played with Jordan. I think JR Smith puts up similar numbers to Kukoc. Let’s see how the roster responds in game 2 with Kyrie out for the season now. We wil monitor the situation.
I believe it is a little early to call Kyrie a Hall of Famer
Hey, beat the rush and get on board!