Cavs looked great tonight

Justin Holiday is gonna lock down LeBron.

As a sports bettor, vegas isn't giving the Cavs much of a chance. The series line opened at GS -260. I can't remember the last time a finals series was more than -200. Pretty insane that you can get 2/1 odds on a LeBron James team in the finals.

Tequilla said:

NeedleInTheSky88 said:

As a sports bettor, vegas isn't giving the Cavs much of a chance. The series line opened at GS -260. I can't remember the last time a finals series was more than -200. Pretty insane that you can get 2/1 odds on a LeBron James team in the finals.

What's insane about that?

Outside of LBJ, who the Warriors have about 3-4 guys that they can realistically throw on LBJ for significant minutes, where do the Cavs have any kind of advantage in the series?

Both the Hawks and Bulls had suspect wing players that allowed JR Smith and Shumpert to have big moments. The Warriors can throw wing after wing on the court ... and almost all of them are better than Smith/Shumpert.

If the Cavs go with 2 bigs on the court + LBJ, the Warriors will carve them up. If the Cavs go small to match GS, they lack the explosive abilities to be able keep up.

This series is going 5 games. It may be a relatively close 5 games ... but the Warriors are one of the top 10-15 teams to ever play the game:

In season long point differential per game, they rank 8th all time as one of the 8 teams in the HISTORY of the league to have an average differential of more than 10 points per game. Of the prior 7, 6 of them won the title. The one that didn't (the 71-72 Bucks) lost to the team with the greatest point differential of all time, the 69-13 Lakers.

They won 67 games during this regular season. Only 5 teams in the history of the league have ever won more in a season. 4 of those 5 won a title (the 5th, the 72-73 Celtics lost to the Knicks in 7 who went on to win the NBA Title).

Their 39 wins at home have only been surpassed by the 85-86 Celtics for a better record. The only other teams with 39 home wins in a year were the 95-96 and 96-97 Bulls and the 09 Cavs team that lost to the Magic in the East Finals.

There will be many that look at LBJ and think he can work a miracle. But by almost every metric of dominance, this Warriors team is an all-time great team. A 5 game victory seems very likely.

Pretty much this. LeBron will get his like he always does, but Golden State is really fucking good. They have been the better team all season. They are deeper than Cleveland and they are better coached. The only negative about the Warriors is that sometimes they are careless with the ball.

I know Golden State doesn't have a track record of success, but this is Cleveland. TSIO.

RaceBannon said:

They should have kept Wiggins

It's not talked about much, but Golden State almost traded Klay Thompson for Love. That's the best move they ever made, not only because of Thompson, but because Draymond Green would have been marginalized if Love was traded to the Dubs (ILTCTT).

1) Nobody on the Warriors has Finals experience that I'm aware of ... but as was said last night, they didn't really have West Finals experience either. By the 2nd quarter of Game 1, it won't matter much. The Warriors don't have many guys that I see shying away from shots.

2) The fact that the Warriors are a jumpshooting team is comical to me. First, they won 67 games during the regular season. That tells me that regardless of what they did, they not only did it at a high level (and as I illustrated earlier, they did it at a level that few teams have EVER done it regardless of styles), but they were consistent in how they did it. Second, the reason that they don't slump is a combination of the fact that they move the ball at an insane level, that ball movement creates a lot of clean looks for their jumpshooters instead of contested looks, and that the ball movement combined with the threat of the jumper results in a lot of penetration, layups, and little flip shots that are insanely high percentage shots. Their efficiency is off the charts.

3) The Warriors were +20 last night in rebounding in a close out game against one of the better bigs in the league in Dwight Howard. I don't think most people realize how good Bogut is. Festus Ezili is good enough to start for at least half of the teams in the league. Green plays with a massive chip on his shoulder and is a high end rebounder. Add in a number of mid-sized wing players that allows them to rebound at a fairly high level. Thompson is good for sure and will be interesting to watch in this series. But outside of Thompson, LBJ, and Mozgov, there aren't a lot of guys on Cleveland that I look at as strong rebounders. If the Bulls weren't in such turmoil on the inside and with injuries, they probably beat Cleveland.

4) The thing with the Warriors that nobody talks about is how strong they are defensively. Their ability to minimize the impact of everybody outside of LBJ should be a key to the series.

5) The biggest threat to the Warriors long-term is an ownership group being overtly budget minded (i.e. not paying Green in free agency) and injuries. This is a team that clearly looks like they like playing with one another and with the success they've had this year, they should have no problem getting a strong line of role players to play for them as the years continue. LBJ may be able to get to the Finals a few times in the next few years, but this is a Warriors team that could have a really strong 5+ year run in them. And if you add to that that any team that beats them in the West has to be damn good, you're probably looking at that team being a favorite over LBJ's Cavs going forward.

Tequilla said:

1) Nobody on the Warriors has Finals experience that I'm aware of ... but as was said last night, they didn't really have West Finals experience either. By the 2nd quarter of Game 1, it won't matter much. The Warriors don't have many guys that I see shying away from shots.

2) The fact that the Warriors are a jumpshooting team is comical to me. First, they won 67 games during the regular season. That tells me that regardless of what they did, they not only did it at a high level (and as I illustrated earlier, they did it at a level that few teams have EVER done it regardless of styles), but they were consistent in how they did it. Second, the reason that they don't slump is a combination of the fact that they move the ball at an insane level, that ball movement creates a lot of clean looks for their jumpshooters instead of contested looks, and that the ball movement combined with the threat of the jumper results in a lot of penetration, layups, and little flip shots that are insanely high percentage shots. Their efficiency is off the charts.

3) The Warriors were +20 last night in rebounding in a close out game against one of the better bigs in the league in Dwight Howard. I don't think most people realize how good Bogut is. Festus Ezili is good enough to start for at least half of the teams in the league. Green plays with a massive chip on his shoulder and is a high end rebounder. Add in a number of mid-sized wing players that allows them to rebound at a fairly high level. Thompson is good for sure and will be interesting to watch in this series. But outside of Thompson, LBJ, and Mozgov, there aren't a lot of guys on Cleveland that I look at as strong rebounders. If the Bulls weren't in such turmoil on the inside and with injuries, they probably beat Cleveland.

4) The thing with the Warriors that nobody talks about is how strong they are defensively. Their ability to minimize the impact of everybody outside of LBJ should be a key to the series.

5) The biggest threat to the Warriors long-term is an ownership group being overtly budget minded (i.e. not paying Green in free agency) and injuries. This is a team that clearly looks like they like playing with one another and with the success they've had this year, they should have no problem getting a strong line of role players to play for them as the years continue. LBJ may be able to get to the Finals a few times in the next few years, but this is a Warriors team that could have a really strong 5+ year run in them. And if you add to that that any team that beats them in the West has to be damn good, you're probably looking at that team being a favorite over LBJ's Cavs going forward.

Great points. Can't really argue with much of what you said. Only thing i would argue is that Houston isn't as good a rebounding team as most think. Sure Dwight is a monster on the glass, but they don't really have much after that. I just looked up rebounding stats, and Cleveland and GS are both top 5 in a lot of categories. Cle is #1 in rebounding differential, GS is #3.

The biggest difference in the series is that GS is 100% healthy (they should get Speights back) and Cavs are going to be without Love and good chance Irving and LeBron will be hobbled through the series.

Tequilla said:

I'd be surprised if Speights plays much in this series unless needed. Why mess with the current rotation when it is working so well?

And it's always funny to remember that David Lee sits away on the Warriors bench doing nothing more than being the most talented cheerleader in sports.

I can't help but think how Lee feels. He was one of the longest tenured Warriors, and it wasn't long ago (last year) when he was one of the better PF's in the league. Now he has been designated to cheerleader duties. I think if he took a lie detector, he'd probably rather be playing and losing than cheer-leading for a team headed to a championship.

One reason why Kerr is 10X better than Jackson, Kerr has the balls to bench Lee, a guy who has never played defense, for a guy like Draymond Green.

Lee was either the first or one of the first guys Kerr hugged when they won yesterday. I am sure he wants to play, but what has happened is pretty self explanatory. Green established himself as the starting PF and a premier defender when Lee was out to start the year. Speights played well in the regular season too and established himself with Lee out.

Lee played decent minutes in GS's last three wins against Memphis. Against Houston, Ezeli played well and his defense was needed on Dwight Howard. If Ezeli plays shitty against Cleveland, maybe Lee will get some time. Probably not though because Cleveland likes to go small, so I don't see a match up that enables Lee to get on the floor. Golden State is better off with Bogut/Ezeli protecting the rim and playing Barnes at the 4 when Cleveland goes small.