People in this thread: Acting like a team losing its 2nd and 3rd best players in a Finals is common and happens every season when really it has never happened ever.
Perhaps people are skeptical that two high usage no defense stars with no meaningful playoff experience would have made the difference.
To be honest, I think Cleveland was actually helped by the injuries. Playing slow, grinding out possessions, and dominating the glass while LeBron did absolutely everything on offense was probably the Cavs' best look against the Warriors.
If Kyrie and Love had been out there, taking possessions from LeBron and getting torched by Curry, Klay, and Dray, I suspect the Finals might have been over in 5 games.
Maybe that's not how it would have gone. We'll never know -- though perhaps the Finals this year will give us a clue. The bottom line is, the Warriors won in 6. Rather convincingly, too, once Kerr made his lineup adjustments.
The playoffs always involve injuries. The Cavs still had LeBron, and they played tough and close with the Warriors for the first few games by playing a style the Warriors didn't expect, and by taking advantage of the fact that the Warriors were inexperienced and unused to the Finals stage.
The Warriors were the best team in the league last year in the regular season. They earned a Finals win. Then they went on to dominate the league even more completely in the regular season this year. They've made the Western Conference Finals again.
Why there are still those who question the validity of their accomplishments is beyond me.
I understand this line of thinking, but I don't find much validity to it. It was apparent by game 3 that James was too tired for Cleveland to win the series. He needed the help offensively. It just wore him out. Additionally, GS didn't have to work very hard on the defensive end of the floor outside of marking James.
Delledova did well against Curry early in the series, but he was in over his head and Curry dominated him the last few games (because he was in over his head). Having Irving would have made Curry work on both ends of the floor and Delly would have been fresher for the crunch time defensive possessions on Curry.
Love would have likely replaced Mozgov. Mozgov wasn't all that effective defensively (except against Bogut) and was Cleveland's 2nd best offensive player. Love dwarfs Mozgov on the offensive side of the floor. Love is also a better rebounder than Mozgov. Cleveland probably would have lost a bit defensively, but once GS went small Mozgov was very ineffective on that end of the floor because he couldn't guard Green or any of the wings. Love would have been a bit better in that regard because he is a bit quicker than Mozgov.
I believe Cleveland would have won the series if they had Love and Irving, but wouldn't have been surprised to see the Warriors win. It would have been a much more competitive series though because GS would have had to actually work more defensively and Cleveland would have been able to better effectively play match-ups on both ends of the floor.
I'm really looking forward to a Warriors/Cavs finals, of course the Thunder (and maybe the Raptors - I know ha ha) might disrupt that.
Topic: if Cleveland beats GSW to win NBA does GSW 2015 chip get an asetrisk (Read 11059 times)