Are The Celtics really harder to plan for than the Warriors?
The Cavaliers are now one game away from a third straight Finals appearance against the Golden State Warriors. Cleveland Cavaliers head coach Tyronn Lue isn’t thinking much about the NBA Finals, because Boston has shown that they can compete with Cleveland, from ESPN’S Dave McMenamin:
"“I don’t even think about them. We’re just focused on Boston."
Indeed, Coach Lue is right on point. After Isaiah Thomas went down in Game 2, Boston was forced to change-up their plays on offense. The Cavs were caught off guard which resulted in a Game 3 loss. Coach Lue says they didn’t have time to prepare for a new Boston offense and an improved defense:
"Like, we didn’t know what they were going to run. Isaiah goes down and they’re running a totally different offense than we prepared for so it’s been tough on us. And defensively, they’re a lot better. They don’t have a lot of weak links to go to, to go at.”"
After that, Coach Lue said something that caught us all a bit off guard:
"The stuff they’re running, it’s harder to defend than Golden State’s [offense] for me, as far as the actions and all the running around and all the guys who are making all the plays, so it’s a totally different thing.”"
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Yes, Tyronn Lue said that he thinks game planning for Boston’s offense is more difficult than preparing for Golden State’s. The same team that added Kevin Durant even though they went to the Finals in 2016.
A look at the stats.
The undefeated Warriors have led the NBA in points per game in both the postseason and regular season, on a league best 50.2% field goal percentage. Also, Golden State is not afraid to move the ball, as they have led the league in assists in both the postseason and in the regular season.
Boston hasn’t had as much success on offense in the postseason. They are just eighth in points per game and sixth in field goal percentage, but they do rank second in assists.
It’s hard to imagine that a team with no All-Stars would be a tougher cover than a team with four.
It makes me wonder if Coach Lue is trying to get into the Warriors team’s heads after Golden State’s owner, Joe Lacob, said that the Warriors were a better team than the Cavaliers last year. Either way, this Finals rematch will be a once and a lifetime occurrence.
Must Read: Cavs-C's: What We Learned in Game 4
Do you think that the Celtics are a more difficult team to defend than the Warriors? Leave your thoughts in the comment section or on Twitter @KJG_NBA.