Some interesting comments from the Cavs’ head coach.
According to Cavs coach Tyronn Lue, the Boston Celtics are harder to defend to gameplan for than the Golden State Warriors.
Yes, really.
"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," Lue said per cleveland.com. "Like, they hit the post, Golden State runs splits and all that stuff but these guys are running all kinds of (stuff). And Brad's (Stevens) got them moving and cutting and playing with pace and everybody is a threat.
This, on paper, doesn’t wholly check out. The Warriors have been the league’s best offense the last few years, beat the Cavs in the 2015 Finals, had the Cavs on the ropes before blowing a 3-1 lead last year and then added Kevin Durant this summer and got even better.
If and when Cleveland and Golden State square off for the third straight time in the Finals, the Cavs will have their work cut out for them. A large portion of the Cavs’ defense strategy in the playoffs has revolved around letting LeBron James play safety and roam around. He probably won’t be able to do that against the Warriors, where he’ll likely defend Durant or Klay Thompson with some time on Draymond Green mixed in. And that’s just one of many decisions Lue will have to make in the Finals.
Even still, Lue says he hasn’t started game planning for a Warriors matchup just yet.
"You can't," Lue said, when asked if he's begun to think about Cavs-Warriors, per cleveland.com. "As much as you want to, it's not over. [The Celtics are], like I told you guys before, it's like we're preparing for a whole new team. Like, we didn't know what they were going to run. Isaiah (Thomas) 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."
It seems unlikely that the Cavs haven’t started thinking planing for a matchup against the Warriors yet. Ad while he’s right about the Celtics being less predictable without Isaiah Thomas, that still isn’t on the same level as dealing with the Warriors.
Either way, a Cleveland win in Thursday’s Game 5 will give Lue time to start preparing for Golden State in full force.