Cleveland Cavaliers: A guide to coming back from a 3-1 deficit
By Zac Robin
If in doubt, deepen the Rotation
When have the Cavaliers ever played too many guys in a finals game? As Slam breaks down, in the 2015 finals, Coach David Blatt left Shawn Marion unused on the bench the whole time. Why sign a versatile defensive veteran like Marion, if you were not going to use them in the last series of the season?
Richard Jefferson was signed the following year to replace Marion as a veteran LeBron-backup at the small forward position. If Jefferson worked out in the 2016 finals, hard to imagine Marion failing too hard. There was nothing to lose, for a team that was down to its replacements once Kevin Love and Kyrie Irving were hurt.
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In the 2015 finals, Matthew Delladova had to have an IV after game 3, as Fox Sports reports. They could have played the 9th man. 9th makes it sound better than it was too. They had 6 players going over 30 minutes in Game 3 – James, Delladova, Iman Shumpert, J.R. Smith, Timothy Mosgov and Tristan Thompson – with Mike Miller and James Jones combining for just 15 minutes too.
That’s absurd for an NBA finals game against the Warriors, who had a solid 10 playing double-digit minutes. If you are going to run with the Warriors, you have to at least supply the ammunition.
At least the Warriors lost their bench depth when they signed Durant, so the super-man strategy is a little safer. They really just have a constant 5 wing-player rotation with Andre Iguodala and Shaun Livingston off the bench when they go small. And then, for about half the game, the Warriors will play a designated big man by committee between Zaza Pachulia, David West, and Javale McGee. “Strength in Numbers” sold out for “Strength in Durant.”