Finals Game 5 Recap: Golden State 104, Cleveland 91 (or, Maybe Save Something for the Swim Back?)

In a fantastically contested game, the Cavs hung with the Warriors for 43 minutes, until two straight Andre Iguodala threes gave the Warriors a seven-point lead. Steph Curry then destroyed the Cavs’ chances with a dancing, playground style, three-pointer and then a layup to put the Dubs up ten. LeBron tried valiantly to bring the Cavs back with a 27-footer, followed by a successful Hack-guodala strategy, but Matthew Dellavedova missed a three that would have cut it to five at 1:39. Then, Steph Curry slung an ice dagger at the net from 29 feet, and routed the armies of the North Coast.

The other lousy bookend to this game, the first five minutes, looked like a plate full of baby puke as the Cavs had only a Delly junkball deuce and five turnovers on their tray. But Cleveland went small, relegating Timofey Mozgov to the bench, and ran with the Dubs till late in the fourth to the tune of 20 lead changes and 10 ties. Cleveland just turned the ball over five more times the rest of the game, but the 11 offensive rebounds surrendered to Golden State were the difference as much as Curry’s shooting.

LeBron James was the best player in the world for those 43 minutes, and only sat for 26 seconds at the end of the first quarter. He operated exclusively from the extended post on the left side and was backing down guys, setting up short dribble drives, and either setting up teammates or scoring in the paint. He even had a couple left wing triples. The King scored 40, grabbed 13 rebounds, and dished 11 dimes, and operated as the Cavs’ lone big for at least eight minutes. But, as the game got to crunch time, the weight of the ‘Land started to burden LeBron, who stopped rotating on defense and stopped rebounding. The Cavs refused to run at shooters, and despite dodging some bullets, Iguodala’s two crunch time triples hit vital organs. James and Co. were also too tired to box out, and the Warriors grabbed seven offensive boards in the final five minutes. Despite his late missteps, it’s hard to describe how good LeBron was tonight, except to say that Mr. James is the greatest point power forward in NBA history.

Stephen Curry finally had the breakout game all Cavs fans were dreading. Steph scored 37 and was 13-23 from the floor and 7-13 from three. Our boy Matty D did his best, but despite excellent defense, Curry worked the ball like a Duncan Butterfly in isolation and in the pick-and-roll, and used his dribble to hit some ridiculous threes that we all knew were coming eventually. We all just hoped they wouldn’t come till next season’s opener. Steph had his stat line despite Cleveland’s frequent trapping and double teaming, which led to more than a couple hockey assists for the MVP.

Matthew Dellavedova is my favorite player of all time because of his grit and heart, but he’s running on fumes at this point. He is too tired to push the ball or initiate the offense, and that makes the Cavs able to rely only on LeBron to get them into their “sets” (and I use that term loosely). Delly’s three point shooting has suffered too, and has abandoned him when the Cavs need it most. Delly was 2-9 from the floor, and 1-5 from three. I wish he was a more skilled player offensively, but to use my least favorite term, “it is what it is.” Matt’s fantastic as the Robin to Kyrie’s Batman, but he can’t stop the Joker by himself. I give him all the respect in the world, though. If I was Delly, and Curry was preening and strutting on me at the end of that game? I’d have clotheslined the cocky little bobble-headed cherub. Fortunately, Matt is more professional than I.

J.R. Smith gave the Cavs a much needed offensive boost in the first half with 14 points, mostly on downscreen curls and catch-and-shoot jumpers, but J.R. giveth and J.R. taketh away. He laid a goose egg in the second half, and ended up 5-15 for the game and 4-14 from behind the arc. I worry I might have figured out the book on J.R. He can be fantastic when you don’t need him to be fantastic, but if you do need him? Not so much. I don’t know if he puts too much pressure on himself, if he’s just a knucklehead, or what, but man does he do some stupid things. He had a really dumb flagrant foul running through a screen in the first quarter that was called more on reputation than anything, but it wasn’t helpful. He also just needs to go to the bucket sometimes, but refuses to do so, even when guys are draped all over him outside. He was lost on several rotations when the Cavs went super small, and gave up some bad layups.

Iman Shumpert is hurting. That much is clear. He shot 3-6 from three, and gave the Cavs 10 much needed points, but he missed three layups. He can’t finish at the rim, and even passed up a layup late to get the ball to a trailing Tristan. He also got smoked on a couple drives, and was responsible for some of the defensive breakdowns (a cringe-inducing Barbosa layup on an inbounds play was the worst of it). His worst offensive play of the game came in the second quarter, when he bricked a heat check in transition and it led to free throws for the Dubs. That was probably a four point swing. Despite that, Shump’s playing on pure will. He’s giving Cleveland what he has. If only they could clone him, and would that the clone were healthy.

Tristan Thompson was Cleveland’s second leading scorer with 19 points and 10 boards, and was flashing that nifty little hook around the basket on put backs and when the Cavs took advantage of his size on post-ups.  Tristan even went 7-10 from the charity line, and seemed to be using his wrist more to shoot, but he had some big misses late. He chipped in two steals and two blocks too. TT got put on Steph Curry too many times on switches, but in his defense, he didn’t seem to do any worse on Curry than anyone else.

James Jones’ mere presence opens up the floor for LeBron. But Champ went 0-1 in 18 minutes, and only grabbed one rebound. He’s out of his depth, and consistently has to foul to play defense. The Cavs may have to give Marion some run. Mike Miller got off the pine, and hit a much needed three, but that was it for his 14 minutes (it would’ve been nice if Cleveland had run another play for him). The Cavs were in the positive during their minutes, though, so they dodged bullets. Blatt’s going to have to figure out some voodoo with them for Game 6.

Speaking of David Blatt, his rotations and game plan are going to come under fire. I’m torn over whether they should. The Cavs were exhausted late, because they don’t have anyone to spell LeBron, TT, or Delly, who played 45, 42, and 40 minutes respectively. But Blatt also refused to find any minutes for Mozgov, who had 9 minutes and 0 points after scoring a career high 28 in game four. At the very least, Mozgov needs to be playing, and be the center of the offense, for every single second that Curry isn’t on the floor. In addition, TT was -22 on the game. Moz could’ve spelled him for at least a few of those 42 minutes. The question with Blatt is: are the Cavs are doomed because their guys are exhausted, or because Blatt can’t trust the Cavs’ bench or big lineups? I have to think that the Cavs could use Marion’s rebounding (not to mention Mozgov’s).

But what choice do the Cavs have? How the hell are they going to run an offense without LeBron doing everything? Delly is gassed and apprehensive, Shumpert’s clearly hurt, and J.R. Smith is playing with his head up his bum sometimes. The Cavs generated points off of Smith’s ability to come off screens in the first half, but got nothing out of that in the second half. Where can Blatt get more offense? Maybe put Smith in the pick-and-roll with Moz and TT? The Cavs may have to do that. Also, they waited far too long to try Hack-guadala.

Ultimately, the Cavs have to play their bench more. If they get to five minutes left in Game 6, and LeBron’s exhausted, they’ve got no shot, unless they’re up by double digits. If they play their bench, they at least have a chance. I guess Blatt’s trying to do his best to lose the game in the fourth quarter and not the third. I can’t be too hard on him for that. No matter what he does, if the Cavs lose, he’ll get criticized.

Final Thoughts

This series is such a tough one because Steph is so impossible to stop when he gets hot. (Besides Hack-guadala) the only solution is to let the rest of the defense go three-on-four, and that is really tough when the Warriors go small. Blatt has chosen to go small to counter, but doesn’t have the bodies to sustain it (he clearly doesn’t trust Joe Harris). But the series is also a tough one for a different reason. The Cavs and Warriors seem to be bound by two different sets of rules.

The Warriors have returned to 1995, when hand-checking was legal, especially on LeBron and guys coming off screens, and the Cavs seem to be playing by rules that govern basketball in this millennia. I’ve seen Klay, Iggy, and Draymond all get away with holds on screens on offense, and holds on guys coming off screens on defense, not to mention the jersey grabbing, the over-the-back fouls, the pushes, and the moving screens. Draymond Green might get away with using his hands on screens and box-outs more than any other player in the league. Heck, he forearmed Delly in the back of the head and drove him to the floor last night during s rebound. (The alternative reading was that Delly was pulling him from the front, Olynyk style).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghPZiGqGuC4

The Warriors play right to the edge. Check out my favorite play by Curry, the “knee screen” on Shump when Klay Thompson hit a three to put the Dubs up, 85-80. Kerr has done a good job of coaching them that way, but I feel like I’m watching a series from the 90s half the time. Heck, the defining play of the series was a foul. You remember: the play when Klay went knee-to-knee with Kyrie and took him out for the series, and the foul wasn’t even called.

And I know it’s not Kosher to complain about the officiating. I’m sure I feel like every losing fan ever, but I don’t see Steph getting held and hand checked all over the place, or having to deal with all the contact LeBron has to at the rim. The Cavs seem to be playing cleaner. Maybe they need to play dirtier. Maybe that’s on Blatt. Of course, part of this is because the Cavs no longer have an attacking guard to force officials to make calls. Delly isn’t that guy. Furthermore, he allows Steph to rest on defense an order of magnitude more than Kyrie would have. For as much as we’ve all praised David Griffin, not pulling the trigger to get a third point guard is looking like a mistake right now.

But finally, it’s important to note that the Warriors also played a short rotation heavy minutes. Steph, Iggy, and Klay played 42, 42, and 40 respectively. How were they still frosty at the end, while the Cavs were gassed? Can the Dubs get away with it because they’re younger (aside from Iggy)? Is 42 minutes the max LeBron should be playing? Have the Cavs had tougher sets of series leading up to this? Is it just injuries? Should Cleveland be blood doping? Are the Warriors just mentally tougher? The Cavs were tired, and rebounding and defensive lapses cost them the game as much as the Warriors’ execution. The Cavs have to solve the exhaustion question if they want to have any shot at coming back in this series. I believe they will.