OAKLAND, CA - JUNE 03: LeBron James #23 of the Cleveland Cavaliers attempts a layup against Draymond Green #23 of the Golden State Warriors in Game 2 of the 2018 NBA Finals at ORACLE Arena on June 3, 2018 in Oakland, California. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) Ty Lue says he considers Rodney Hood to be a big part of Cavs future by Quenton S. Albertie Cleveland Cavaliers forward LeBron James is now second on the NBA Finals list of all-time scorers. After scoring 29 points in Game 2 of the 2018 NBA Finals, Cleveland Cavaliers superstar LeBron James has passed NBA legend and five-time NBA champion Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for the second-most points in NBA Finals history. James, a three-time NBA champion who has been to the NBA Finals nine times (with eight consecutive trips since 2010-2011), has now scored 1,327 total points in his Finals career. Abdul-Jabbar, who reached the NBA Finals ten times in his career, retired with 1,317 total points in the Finals. James still trails, and will still trail NBA legend Jerry West after this Finals series is over, even if he averaged 50.0 points per game for the rest of the series. West, arguably the best scorer of his era, scored 1,679 total points in the NBA Finals (nine appearances). Ironically, James’ Finals record is often compared to West’s, who went 1-8 in the NBA Finals thanks to a string of Finals defeats at the hands of Bill Russell’s Boston Celtics. Like West, James has found himself playing against a dynasty team. After years of battling with the San Antonio Spurs dynasty, led by Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich and five-time NBA champion Tim Duncan, James now is facing arguably the best team in league history in the Golden State Warriors. James went 1-2 against the Spurs dynasty and is already 1-2 against the Warriors dynasty, with him team trailing the Warriors 0-2 in the series despite averaging 40.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 10.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game on 55.8 percent shooting the field, 45.5 percent shooting from the perimeter and 85.0 percent shooting from the free-throw line. When you see numbers like that, it’s nearly unfathomable to process James’ 3-5 NBA Finals record. He had a couple of duds in his first two experiences in the NBA Finals (2007 and 2011) but since been the best player on either team, without question, in every appearance. Even in 2017, as James became the first player in NBA history to lead both teams in points, rebounds and assists. It’s honestly a travesty as he’s played well enough individually to be 6-2 in the NBA Finals. James also has the most career points in postseason history (6,855 points) and the seventh-most career points in NBA history (31,038 points) among many other records. *All stats gathered from www.basketball-reference.com<doc-sep>LeBron James played the last three games of the NBA Finals with a serious hand injury. LeBron James played the last three games of the NBA Finals with a bone contusion in his right hand after punching a white board after Game 1, according to Sam Amick of USA Today and Brian Windhorst of ESPN. Game 1 ended with J.R. Smith dribbling out the clock with less than five seconds left in regulation. The Cavaliers ended up losing 124-114 in overtime and then were swept by the Golden State Warriors. James was visibly frustrated with Smith on the court. James reportedly was in a soft cast and underwent two MRIs on his hand. He told reporters that it was a "self-inflicted" injury.' "The way we played, the calls that were made, I had emotions that the game was taken away from us," James said. Windhorst said that James had not been practicing. During press conferences, James hid the injury from the media by tucking his arm in. Windhorst added that the swelling on James' hand was "so bad after Game 1 that the imaging that they took couldn't even determine if it was a break." "Pretty much played the last three games with a broken hand," James told reporters in the press conference. James has a $35.6 million player option for next season. If James declines his player option, he will test free agency waters for the third time in his career.<doc-sep>When two football teams with great quarterbacks play each other, TV networks put their faces next to each other in a graphic and celebrate the “matchup,” even though the two players will never be on the field at the same time. For the past three years, there’s been a similar dynamic between LeBron James and Steph Curry, the two most famous faces of the two franchises that serve as the NBA’s current duopoly. We pit them against each other, even though logic stands that the two will rarely ever wind up guarding each other. The NBA Playoffs Check out The Ringer’s coverage of the 2018 NBA playoffs But something odd has happened in these Finals: In critical situations, the Cavs have sought to force Curry to guard James, just as they have in the past three. But the Warriors are allowing the mismatch to take place—and James, who has scorched everybody in his path all series long, has struggled to score when getting his (allegedly) most favorable matchup. According to NBA.com/Stats, James has had 26 possessions with Curry as his primary defender in the first three games of the Finals, almost nine per game. These possessions have come primarily toward the ends of games, when James methodically slows the offense, points at Curry’s man, and calls for a screen, at which point the Warriors’ switching defense demands Curry switch onto James. In the 26 times this has happened, James has zero points. He’s taken five shots, missing all five, and he’s never been fouled in the act of shooting. This from a player averaging 37.7 points in the Finals—but, apparently, zero against Golden State’s worst defender. Curry’s defensive reputation is complicated. He rarely faces the best players on opposing teams and much prefers to gamble for steals rather than defending players straight up. But that’s what he should be doing as part of this Warriors team, alongside the long arms of Kevin Durant, the defensive genius of Draymond Green, and the perimeter locksmanship of Andre Iguodala and Klay Thompson. Curry is probably a little underrated because we don’t want to think of the baby-faced gunner as being an intimidating defensive presence, but still, he is generally the worst defender on the floor for the Warriors. When the other team has the ball, Golden State wants to hide Curry so he can preserve his energy, stay out of foul trouble, and keep launching 3s at the other end. And when the other team has LeBron James, Golden State definitely wants to hide Curry. James is a dynamic playmaker who has 7 inches and 60 pounds on Curry. He routinely breaks down the best defensive players in the league and should easily be able to attack the weakest Warriors. Presumably, James can back Curry down for a bucket, use his first step and muscle to power past him, or simply shoot over the teensy superstar. As such, the Warriors used to go to great lengths to avoid the Curry-LeBron matchup. Ahead of last year’s Finals, Mike Prada of SB Nation addressed the premise of Curry guarding LeBron in a pick-and-roll with a simple “not happening.” BBallBreakdown examined several of the schemes Golden State cooked up to deal with Cleveland’s attempts to get Curry to switch onto LeBron—most of which did not involve Curry serving as LeBron’s primary defender. Here’s one possession from Game 6 of the 2016 Finals when everything broke down and Curry ended up one-on-one with LeBron—it went poorly: But this year, Golden State has often chosen to switch every screen on defense and live with the results, even if that means Curry will wind up guarding somebody he shouldn’t. During the Western Conference finals against Houston, Curry acknowledged that the Rockets were likely going to attack him “on every single play,” and Houston coach Mike D’Antoni said that going after Curry was “obviously one of our things we like to do.” James Harden scored 51 points in 87 possessions with Curry as his primary defender, hitting six 3s and 15 free throws. The Cavs are trying to do the same thing. In the final minutes of these Finals games, they are actively hunting the Curry mismatch. Here’s where I have to admit the NBA.com/Stats data from earlier is a little wonky. There have definitely been several possessions when the Cavs got the Curry switch and LeBron scored, but Curry wasn’t credited as the primary defender—like this and-1 bucket from Game 1, when James blew by Curry and got fouled by help defender Kevon Looney, or this dunk from Game 1, when James blew by Curry and dunked over Kevin Durant. But on almost every possession, the Cavs are having James go at Curry, with relatively little to show for it. In Game 1, James attacked the Curry mismatch on 10 of 12 possessions from the three-minute mark of the fourth quarter to the two-minute mark of overtime. (On the other two, the Cavs faked like they were hunting the Curry switch, but attacked the Warriors defense before the switch could be made.) With Game 3 in the balance, James attacked the Curry mismatch on back-to-back possessions with under two minutes to go. James scored on just two of the 10 possessions in Game 1 and neither of the two in Game 3. Meanwhile, the Warriors put these games out of reach, essentially clinching the Finals in those moments. How is this happening? Is the greatest LeBron stopper a scrawny 6-foot-3 shooter? Is LeBron just choking in the clutch? Let’s look at some of these key possessions: Steph Isn’t Working Alone When James starts to go to work on Curry, he’s not exactly going one-on-one against the little guy. Here, it looks more like he’s going one-on-five: When James picks out his mark, the Warriors’ four other defenders know that their weakest link is about to get tested. They also know that their defensive assignments are significantly less dangerous than James. So when Curry stares down a man he absolutely cannot guard, eight other eyes stare with his. The most obvious way for James to beat Curry would be backing him down. But since most of James’s possessions start with the ball at the top of the key, that means he needs a quality three or four seconds with Curry on his back, all headed into a sea of help defense. Here, that results in a double-team and an awkward 17-footer. Driving on Curry doesn’t mean hitting a layup over Curry; it means hitting a layup over Durant, whose arms are like regular arms with yardsticks taped to the end. Golden State’s non-Curry defenders are truly incredible, and when Curry is on LeBron, they’re on LeBron too. James’s Teammates Are Letting Him Down But what else is new? The Warriors’ strategy this series has essentially been a gamble that James’s unguarded teammates are less dangerous than James, and it’s working. His teammates are getting wide-open looks, James is giving them the ball, and they are missing. The most common result of James’s possessions against Curry is a pass—by which I mean, the most common result of James’s possessions against Curry is a missed shot by one of his teammates. Here’s Jeff Green! James got the Curry mismatch on the final possession of regulation in Game 1, and Golden State completely locked in on James. With the game on the line, all five players watched the ball—allowing George Hill to cut freely to the hoop. James made the pass to Hill, one that could have won Cleveland the game. But Thompson fouled Hill, and Hill famously missed a go-ahead free throw, and then J.R. Smith did what J.R. Smith did. Some have criticized LeBron for passing there, but I’d rather have a wide-open layup or two free throws than James attacking a player with four help defenders lying in wait. The Cavs lost, though, so it feels like James shouldn’t have passed. Blame him if you must, but Cleveland’s failures are reminders that LeBron’s teammates are tremendous disappointments. The Matchup Slows Down LeBron<doc-sep>
There are certain statistics that tell the whole story of the 2018 NBA Finals through two games. LeBron James has put up historic numbers to give the Cleveland Cavaliers a chance, but a record-setting game by Stephen Curry and the performance of role players on each team have given the Golden State Warriors a 2-0 series lead. Kevin Durant, Klay Thompson and Draymond Green have played like stars for Golden State. Kevin Love and Larry Nance Jr. have had their moments for Cleveland, though it hasn’t been nearly enough for the underdog Cavs. Here are the stats that best encapsulate the first two games of series between the Warriors and Cavaliers: LeBron's Scoring James had the sixth 50-point game in NBA Finals history in the series opener, dropping 51 points in an overtime loss. The other five players that reached that milestone all won their respective games, though James was masterful in defeat. In addition to making 19 of his 32 field-goal attempts, the league’s top star added eight rebounds and eight assists. He’s averaging 40 points per game and a near triple-double following Cleveland’s Game 2 loss. Steph’s Threes The greatest shooter ever continues to make history for his prowess from three-point range. Curry hit a Finals record nine threes in Game 2, making more than half of his 17 attempts from behind the arc. He’s 14-28 from three in the series, becoming the frontrunner to win the Finals MVP award, despite making less than 40 percent of his two-point attempts. Curry could hold the record for all-time playoff three-pointers before the series ends, currently sitting 15 threes behind Ray Allen with 370 makes. Photo: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images The Other Cavs There’s only so much James can do. He can’t beat a team that has two of the league’s three best players and two other All-Stars by himself. His teammates are 14-53 (26.4 percent) from three-point range and 52-137 (37.9 percent) overall, missing plenty of open looks that James has created. That’s not to mention the missed free throw by George Hill and the subsequent blunder by J.R. Smith in the final five seconds of Game 1 that cost Cleveland their chance to steal a win at Oracle Arena. LeBron had 27 potential assists last night. The Cavs shot 14-32 off his passes but just 5-16 from 3. They're shooting 8-33 from 3 off his passes in the series -- part of the reason he has 50 potential assists but only 21 actual assists — Mike Zavagno (@MZavagno11) June 4, 2018 The Other Warriors The Warriors are nearly impossible to beat when Curry and Durant are playing well. If their role players are also contributing, there’s almost no point in even trying. That was the case in Game 2 when JaVale McGee, Shaun Livingston and David West combined to shoot a perfect 12-12 from the field for 25 points. Golden State struggled without Andre Iguodala in the Western Conference Finals and Game 1 against Cleveland, but the fifth member of the “Hampton’s Five” wasn’t missed in Game 2 when just about every Warrior that played made a positive contribution.