3. Cavaliers’ coach Ty Lue being able to make difficult decisions
Kyrie Irving and Kevin Love are the two best offensive sidekicks LeBron James has ever had. But, they also happen to be the two biggest defensive liabilities in this series. Overall, Love is not a terrible defender, but he struggles mightily in pick and roll coverages, and the pick and roll is Golden State’s bread and butter.
It does not matter who Love guards, the Warriors will seek him out and put whoever he guards into pick and roll situations. Kyrie will likely start off guarding Curry, but despite his one blazing defensive game of Glory in Game 1 of last year’s finals, Irving is not even close to answer for the MVP. The enigmatic Kyle Lowry gave Irving all kinds of problems in the Eastern Conference Finals. Curry is on an entirely different level.
This brings me to Ty Lue. There may be multiple long stretches of games where Kevin Love’s offensive ability does not outweigh the liability of having him on the other end. Ty Lue already benched Love for the entirety of two fourth quarters in the Toronto, and he is probably going to have to do so again in this series.
Kyrie is way harder to replace offensively, and can play with his potential replacement (Dellavedova) in some spots. But for the Cavs’ to win this series, it’s going to have to be more Tristan Thompson/Channing Frye and Dellevadova, less Irving/Love (for the record, Channing Frye could be huge in this series if he proves capable enough defensively to play heavy minutes and continues shooting like he has been).
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