Blog

It is finally here. After seven months, thousands of games and a mostly perfunctory and boring playoffs, the NBA Finals start tomorrow night. The biggest stage in world basketball with the biggest stars is on tap before us. Legacies will be written and rewritten; a champion will rise. Who will take home the Larry O’Brien Trophy?

Here is the official Inspector Pumphead Preview.

The Teams and Players

The Warriors

It is no surprise to see the Golden State Warriors and Cleveland Cavaliers at this point in the season. This will be the third straight NBA Finals for this matchup, a record. The rubber match will go a long way in determining how NBA history for this decade is remembered.

The Warriors are probably the most talented team in NBA history. They have three All-NBA players (Kevin Durant, Stephen Curry, Draymond Green) and a fourth (Klay Thompson) who was an All Star. No team – not Russell’s Celtics, Magic’s Lakers, Jordan’s Bulls – has had this many great players all operating at peak performance. As hard as it may be to believe, Curry is the oldest at 29.

The wealth of talent has allowed the Warriors to play an eye catching, ball sharing style of basketball. While Curry is still the primary ball handler, the Warriors don’t rely on his penetrations. They can use a variety of actions to free up space for their deadly shooters. Durant and Thompson are snipers on the wing, while Green gives them a valuable presence inside. Green is the team’s best passer and when double-teamed can easily find the open man.

The team’s unselfishness and willingness to pass, the dangerous outside shooting and general athleticism all operate in a smart, well-designed offense that allows players to shine and helps them get easy baskets. Thus, the Warriors are almost impossible to shut down or even slow down. The only real weakness they may have are turnovers. The team tends to be a little careless with the ball, but that might be because they can usually afford to be.

What’s really scary is that in addition to the unstoppable offense, the Warriors are the league’s best defensive team as well. Length, athleticism, frequent communication and intelligent rotations make the Dubs’ defense a buzzsaw. Curry is decent at defending opposing ball-handlers, Thompson works hard at tracking opposing off-ball wings and Durant uses his incredible wingspan to close quickly on shooters. The anchor is Green who is probably the best defensive player in the NBA today. He can guard big men, point guards and athletic wings and is always in the right place at the right time.

So with all of that going in favor of the Warriors, do the Cavs have any realistic chance to take the series?

The Cavaliers

The Warriors may have four of the best five players in the series, but the Cavs have the best player on the planet. In his 14th NBA season, James has looked just as good if not better than ever. He can still score virtually whenever and however he wants, whether on a drive, post-up or from the outside. His jumper has never been more consistent.

What really makes him dangerous, however, is his ability to see the floor and find shooters in space and in rhythm. And James is surrounded by dangerous shooters; the Cavs were actually the best three-point shooting team in the NBA this season.

Dangerous scoring guard Kyrie Irving is back after taking a leap in last season’s finals. Few can forget his incredible performance and game-winning moonshot over Curry. Irving still has the best handles in the games and is even starting to rival Curry as an incredible shotmaker. After struggling to fit in the past two seasons, power forward Kevin Love is back to looking like the dominant player he was in Minnesota. His deadly three-point shooting makes him the ideal trailer on fast break opportunities and the Cavs have attentive to giving him scoring opportunities inside.

The problem with both Irving and Love (and indeed the Cavs as a team) is their defense. It has been markedly improved in the playoffs, but they still showed lapses. Poor communication, half-hearted effort and incorrect rotations have hurt the Cavs against many teams over the course of the regular season and playoffs. Against a team as potent as the Warriors, those lapses could be killer.

Few teams with the (regular season) defensive profile and statistics of the Cavs have won the NBA title, much less against a team as formidable as the Warriors. Can Lebron put on another superhuman performance with the odds stacked against him?

Bench and Role-Players

The health of Warriors’ sixth man Andre Iguodala will be key. Iggy won the Finals MVP award two seasons ago, largely because of his work defending James. Center Zaza Pachulia is a strong screen-setter and a physical defender who does the dirty work that allows the stars to shine. Backup center Javale McGee has been one of the surprise stories of the season, with the former wayward character contributing solid minutes. Solid role players like Shaun Livingston, David West, Ian Clark and Patrick McCaw fill out the rotation.

Meanwhile, the Cavs might have the best NBA role player in forward Tristan Thompson who rebounds voraciously, protects the rim and ably defends bigger players. Cult hero and people’s champion J.R. Smith always provides a three-point shooting boost at the most unexpected times. He will need to be more consistent. Iman Shumpert is probably the team’s best wing defender after Lebron and will probably get a chance to try his hand at slowing down Durant. Backup point guard Deron Williams isn’t that far removed from being an elite player and could provide some decent playmaking looks off the bench. Kyle Korver and Channing Frye are great shooters but poor defenders, so it will be interesting to see how much they play.

Coaching

Brilliant Warriors coach Steve Kerr will likely miss the series due to a persistent back problems. Interim coach Mike Brown has plenty of experience, having gone to the finals with Lebron and the Cavs back in 2007. He will provide a steady hand, but can he be as creative and make adjustments the way Kerr can?

Meanwhile, Cavs coach Ty Lue displayed surprising flexibility and ingenuity in last year’s championship run. He has a much tougher task this year and will need to fix the sometimes porous defense.

The Pumphead Pick

This should be a fun, tough and competitive series that will hopefully make up for the dull playoffs. Lebron is great, but the Warriors have too much firepower and will exploit the Cavaliers’ defensive deficiencies. Look for the Warriors to blow a few games open, while the Cavs will pick up two wins in tight games.

Warriors in 6

How to Watch

Game 1 in Oakland on Thursday (06/01), 9:00 PM EST on ABC

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