NBA Finals: This one Warriors play likely ended the Cavaliers' season
Everything that makes the Warriors the Warriors is in this sequence.
By
Matt Moore
•
5 min read
In an NBA game, there's not always a defining moment. Sometimes it's just all the possessions together making a mosaic for whatever team winds up with more points. Sometimes, though, there are plays, often subtle ones, that offer a window into so much more -- microcosms, really, of a much bigger story, one that under the right circumstances can wind up up shifting championship fortunes, and thus, legacies.
One of those plays happened in the Warriors' 108-97 victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers in Game 4, which effectively ended the NBA Finals, as not a single one of the 32 teams who have gone down 3-1 in the NBA Finals have come back to win.
With 6:10 to go in the fourth quarter, the Warriors held a six-point lead. They'd managed to climb out of an eight-point deficit to take a small lead going into the fourth, but the Cavaliers kept fighting them off, staying within two possessions at most. The Warriors were surging, but on the road, they just couldn't put Cleveland away. Or Cleveland couldn't get over the hump. However you choose to look at it.
Either way, the game was there for either team's taking ... and then this happened. In the play below, watch the Cavaliers' body language. Watch the whole mosaic, the whole sequence, the big picture. It's like an impressionist painting. All the little details seem meaningless but it's all so important together when you step back and look at it. This play right here defeated the Cavs.
Let's look at it step by step, because the details are part of what makes the Warriors champions. First, as you can see in the shot below, Curry gets the edge on J.R. Smith. Smith has played the best defense of his career this season, but has struggled in the Finals. It's a familiar theme, Smith coming up smallest in the most crucial moments, even when he's stayed out of the off-court trouble that plagued him for years.
You can also see in that shot that Kyrie Irving's back is turned. It has to be so that he doesn't lose Klay Thompson in the corner. This is the spacing problem you face with the Warriors' shooters. Look beyond Irving, and you already see LeBron James in a tough position, caught in no man's land between Iguodala and the rim. There's no rim protection with the Warriors' "Death Lineup" having stretched Tristan Thompson above the key to guard Draymond Green.
James should already be aggressively helping on Curry to force the pass and then recovering to Iguodala. If he did that, Curry likely passes to Thompson, who would be stuck without a clear option, and maybe Kevin Love wouldn't foolishly be on his way to help despite there being nothing he can do. See below, Curry starts to lean back into Smith with his hip, LeBron is out of position, Love is starting to leave Harrison Barnes, and everything has already started unraveling.
This maneuver Curry uses is sometimes called "putting the defender in jail." It secures them against the player's backside. If they try and maintain position, they foul, pushing the ball-handler forward. Their only option is to surrender the space, which Smith does, and now, as you can see below, Curry is at the rim before LeBron can get there.
Curry bumps J.R. back. You notice Smith peeling his arms back trying not to foull. James makes like he's going to go up to contest the shot, but he doesn't. It's here that James' basketball IQ actually works against him.
He knows that Curry isn't going straight up.
Curry, as you can see, doesn't go straight up, instead shifting in mid-air to go for a side layup. But James is planted. He's caught. He can't leap, he'll foul Curry. All he can do is watch and hope Curry misses, which, amazingly, he does. James doesn't leap to rebound, though. He is oddly stuck. Fatigue, a momentary lapse, trying not to leave himself out of position, whatever it is, he doesn't jump. One rebound. That's the difference. Look below, Andre Iguodala leaps not just straight up, but from the far side of the block all the way to the opposite side of the rim.
Notice Kevin Love is now about three steps off Harrison Barnes.
Iguodala has this rebound the second it comes off the rim. LeBron is watching him do so. There's just nothing to be done. James has been stationary this entire time. A grand total of four Cavaliers -- James, Smith, Thompson, and Love -- are just watching Iguodala slip inside and beat them to the board.
Kevin Love is now five steps off Harrison Barnes.
See above, Iguodala comes down with the board, on one leg, leaning back into James, off-balance, trying to draw the foul. Curry's covered in the corner. Iguodala knows he can't go back up, he's too far under the basket, with both James and Thompson there to block his shot. But this is the great thing about the Warriors. On an offensive rebound, they're never looking for the "easy" shot. They want the home run, the big play, the back-breaker.
Iguodala sees it.
Kevin Love is now six full steps off Harrison Barnes, who is ready to catch a fire.
This is the Warriors. These are the shots they hit routinely. If the Cavs secure this board, they are going the other way with a chance to cut it to a one-possession game and send the crowd through the roof. Instead, as soon as Barnes rises up, you know it's good.
And it is. A six-point game goes to nine. The Warriors would go on to win by nine points. James' body language says it all:
That was it. That was the backbreaker. The finishing move. That was the separation, the "We're going to beat you with effort, with brains, with execution, and yes, we're going to shoot the unholy lights out and there is (once again) nothing you can do about it" play.
One team was faster, smarter, hungrier, sharper, and in the end, they hit the shot. The other team was hesitant, out of position, and too late to do anything about it.
Game 5 is Monday night, but the NBA Finals sure felt like they ended right there.
