White Lies and Small Guys: How the Warriors won Game 4

   by  Keith Allison 

---

After game 3, the Finals looked more like LeBron’s personal record-breaking campaign than anything else. The Warriors looked lost and helpless against the world’s greatest player and Cleveland’s physical defense. But then game 4 happened and the Warriors once again looked like the havoc-wreaking, pedal to the floor basketball team we saw all year.

Tempo, Tempo, Tempo:

Throughout the first three games of the series, the Cavs had controlled the tempo. They slowed down the league’s fastest team and LeBron had his way with the league’s best defense. But then again, LeBron tends to do that with any defense. More impressive was Cleveland’s defense, which held the league’s highest scoring offense to under 100 points during regulation in each of the first three games.

In game 4, those things did not happen. Instead, Golden State pushed the tempo on an undermanned and overworked Cavs team. The Warriors turned a basketball game into a mini track meet, pulling down rebounds and sprinting up the court for fast break dunks and corner threes.  The Cavs simply could not keep up, and once you let the Warriors jump out to a lead they don’t lose. Literally. They’re 57-0 this season (including playoffs) when they lead by 15 or more. Injuries to Love and Irving have forced more minutes out of role players.  Dudes are gassed. It showed last night.

White Lies:

Although Steve Kerr said there would be no changes to the starting lineup in game 4, there were.  “If I tell the truth, it’s the equivalent of me knocking on David Blatt’s door and saying ‘Hey, this is what we’re going to do.’ So I lied,” was all Kerr really had to say about it. So the Warriors went small and put the 6’7” Green at the 5 and Iguodala at 4. It was Iggy’s first start of the season and he didn’t disappoint, scoring a season high 22 points on 4 of 9 from three with 8 rebounds. Green finally looked like a better version of himself after a couple off games; more buckets and less chirping. And after seeing a lot of bench during the playoffs, David Lee has been contributing big minutes in the last two games. On the flip side, Festus Ezeli sat and Bogut only got 2 minutes last night.

Cavs gotta go low:

The smaller lineup had been great for Golden State all season and it is what helped them establish and keep tempo in Game 4. But it also hurts their ability to bang with the big boys down low. Mozgov and Thompson had no problems dominating the post when Golden State went small. Mozgov led all scorers with 28 points (a career high for him) and also added 10 rebounds. Thompson grabbed 13 boards and added 12 points. When both your big men get double-doubles, that ain’t bad. And the Cavs will need more of that to win the series. With Love and Irving out, the Cavs lost their two biggest scoring threats behind the King. Although the Delly was open for business and cooking something mean in game 3, he can’t be always be relied on for offense. Last night Dellavedova was 3-14. JR Smith is just as streaky as ever, going 2-12 in game 4. If the guard play can’t be consistent, then the Cavs have to go down low.  It’s only game 4 and LeBron looks tired, understandably. He probably can’t do this all on his own, but if anyone can it is King James.