5 Most Important Keys to a Cavs’ Finals Win Over the Warriors

2. Ugly up these games

Trying to out-Warrior the Warriors has been a task many teams before these Cavs have taken on. They have all failed, eventually. The Warriors’ all small lineup (commonly referred to as the “death lineup”) consisting of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala/Shaun Livingston, Harrison Barnes, and Draymond Green has repeatedly shown us that no one can play an up and down, visually appealing style of basketball up to their standards. They are too fast, too smart, too versatile, and too lethal from the three point line for anyone who has stood in their path the past two seasons.

Let’s consider the teams who have come the closest to beating Golden State in a playoff series the last few seasons. Last year, the Memphis Grizzlies had them down 2-1. Two of the Grizzlies’ three best players are bang-it-out-down-low tough guys, and Tony Allen is one of the most annoying defenders to be guarded by in the NBA. Last year’s pseudo-Cleveland team brought the game to a painfully slow pace, and Matthew Dellevadova knocked Curry off his game for a while.

It darn near worked, but eventually Golden State executed well enough in the half court and sped the game up enough to win the series. This year’s Oklahoma City Thunder featured heavy doses of Steven Adams, Serge Ibaka, and Kevin Durant, who turned into the elite multipositional defender we’ve all been fearing he could become for years during the last few weeks of his season. A common thread between all these teams: being physical with the Splash Brothers. If you can’t make them work hard to get open and score, your ship has sunk before you’ve even set sail.

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