It has been a while guys! Welcome in to your 2015 NBA Finals preview on the True Raider Laker blog provided by yours truly. This year's finals should be an exciting matchup as this year's finals pits the Golden State Warriors, the best team in the NBA and the #1 team in the West vs. the Cleveland Cavaliers, the #2 team in the East. This finals is providing a lot of headlines: rookie head coaches going against each other in Steve Kerr and David Blatt, two cities that are longing for an NBA title, and the incumbent MVP and the most exciting player in Stephen Curry going up against the former 4x MVP and the consensus best player in the world in LeBron James.
Golden State Warriors
Since the beginning of the offseason, nobody expected the Warriors to be the top team in the West. When a rookie head coach like Steve Kerr is coming in, everyone expected it to be a process that the Warriors are going to keep building and it will take years for them to be a legit contender. They proved a lot of skeptics wrong this season. Heck, I wasn't even considering Golden State to be a top-tier team as long as the Spurs, Thunder, Grizzlies, and Clippers were on top and the alpha dogs in the West. But the way the Warriors manhandled the West, especially for a team with a young core, it's very impressive. Steve Kerr has done everything right for this team. He has coached this Warriors team to its strengths with the personnel they have and he has emphasized on tough, stifling defense and getting the players to play with discipline. Steph Curry has played at a high level all season long and deservingly so, won the NBA's MVP award. The guy just figures out ways to make plays for his teammates and he can score at will. To say the Warriors had a very easy time in the postseason is an understatement. Against the Pelicans, Anthony Davis had his best season in his young career and will continue to develop to be a future star with a winning head coach. The Grizzlies are the Grizzlies; they will play tough, physical defense and slow the pace down in their favor. The Rockets had their runner up MVP in James Harden and Games 1 and 2 in the conference finals could've gone either way. The West is still tough. There were some times the Warriors were tested and they managed to pass those tests to advance to their first finals since 1975 when the Warriors were lead by Rick Barry and former Laker, Jamaal Wilkes way before he actually signed with the Lakers.
Cleveland Cavaliers
Forgive and forget was the motto of the Cavs when LeBron James dropped the bombshell heard around the world that he's leaving the Miami Heat and coming back home to Cleveland in hopes to deliver a title to the city, their first since forever. Five years ago, LeBron spurned the Cavaliers with "The Decision" of taking his talents to South Beach, now he's back and the city of Cleveland has welcomed his return with open arms, including that of Cavs owner Dan Gilbert. The Cavs had the #1 overall pick in the offseason and drafted Andrew Wiggins and they subsequently traded him to the Timberwolves for Kevin Love to form a new big 3 with LeBron, Kyrie Irving, and K. Love. Unlike the Warriors, the Cavs went off to a very slow start, losing the season opener to the eventual dumpster fire, New York Knicks and LeBron losing in his first game back in Miami during a Christmas Day matchup with the Heat. Then, in the middle of the season, the team acquired J.R. Smith and Iman Shumpert from the Knicks and acquired Timofey Mozgov from the Nuggets. Add those acquisitions plus a couple of scoring barrages by Kyrie Irving and the Cavaliers started to find their footing. Credit to coach David Blatt for hanging in there. His seat was definitely hot when the Cavs were underachieving expectations, but he made the necessary adjustments. However where true credit is due, it goes to the Cavs GM, David Griffin as he made these kinds of bold moves to put the Cavs in the position of where they are at now. Come postseason, LeBron dominated and the Cavs easily dispatched the Celtics, handled the Bulls again, and just dominated the best team in the East in the Atlanta Hawks in the conference finals. We could go on a record of how weak the East is, but this doesn't change that Cleveland has never tasted a championship this close. 2007 doesn't count since San Antonio had all the experience in the world. Now, LeBron heads to his 5th straight finals appearance and will look to pay off dividends of experiencing winning titles in Miami.
Keys for the Dubs
The key formula for the Warriors all season long was give the ball to Curry and let him work his magic. The Warriors are sticking to that and they are not going to change that anytime soon. When Curry is doing his magic, whether it's draining threes or creating plays, the Warriors' offense is virtually unstoppable. Not only that, they have a great defense as the Warriors have an outstanding record when they hold their opponents under 100 points scoring. The next key for the Warriors is that Klay Thompson has to start hot. After putting up great shooting exhibitions in the regular season, Klay has disappointed much in the postseason. The Warriors have to rely on their supporting cast as well as they have an excellent blend of youth and experience. Look for guys like Harrison Barnes, Draymond Green, Iguodala, Bogut, and Livingston to be that X-factor to go alongside the dynamic Splash Bros.
Keys for the Cavs
LeBron James has been on this ride not once, but five consecutive times and he's captured two championships in that span. Look for the Cavs to rely on his experience and let them feed off of it. The next factor is whether or not Kyrie Irving is 100%. He's missed the majority of the Eastern Conference Finals before giving it a go in helping close out game 4 against the Hawks. A healthy Kyrie means the less load for LeBron when it comes to scoring and it allows him to do the all-around things such as rebounding, dishing out assists, and scoring when it matters the most. Some X-factors included for the Cavs are the performances of Tristan Thompson and J.R. Smith. Thompson has been hustling like a madman so far in the playoffs and Smith can score and get buckets whenever he shoots the ball.
Prediction
As usual, predictions are always tough to do because only the real thing can determine the outcome. It is the inexperience of the Warriors vs. the inexperience of the Cavs because none of the roster has had never been in the finals. However, the Cavs do have LeBron to provide them with that experience and that should give them edge, but we can't also deny that coaching and coaching adjustments play a key factor. David Blatt of the Cavaliers may have lead teams to a couple of titles overseas, but leading a team to an NBA title brings a lot more pressure. Meanwhile on the flip side, Steve Kerr of the Warriors has won titles as an NBA player, making key plays at opportune time so he knows what the pressure is like in an NBA Finals game. In addition, Kerr has played under championship-caliber coaches like Phil Jackson during the Bulls' 2nd 3-peat run and Gregg Popovich when the Spurs won championships in 1999 and 2003 and he has used some of their philosophies to blend to his coaching. It's going to be an exciting finals, could be down to wire, but at the end of the day, defense wins championships and I look for a new era of basketball to open up when Curry gets the torch from LeBron a la Jordan over Magic on the NBA's grand stage.
Warriors in 7
Game 1, Q-by-Q, Halftime, and Full Recap posts starts on Thursday June 4.
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