Cleveland Cavaliers: What To Do Against The Golden State Warriors

Step Five: Crash the glass

The Golden State Warriors, who are capable of playing elite defense for long stretches of the game, will forces misses from Cleveland’s side. When that happens, the Cavs need to be ready to crash the glass so that they can get another chance to score. With three elite talents on their side, it’s unlikely that they’ll be held from scoring again and the Cavs need to take advantage of that.

Last game, the Cavs were outrebounded 58-35 by the Golden State Warriors. They were completely unable to get to the offensive boards as Kevin Love went out early in the first half.  Love had as many offensive rebounds in 16 minutes as James had in 35 minutes and as many as Thompson had in 30 minutes. With Korver and Frye playing instead of Love, there were going to be differences in the rebounding output by the Cavs because even if James could replicate Love’s ability to gather rebounds, Korver and Frye wouldn’t have been able to replicate James’.

This could be the evidence David Griffin needs to prove the Cavs need another big man because while playing the four may be an important part of the Cavs offense, so is being able to play big when other teams play small and dominate on the boards.