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Who in the hell is Matthew Dellavedova? Oh, he’s the undrafted kid that is under the skin of the greatest shooter in NBA history. Take away Dellavedova and LeBron and what is left of Cavs?
Cleveland (but mostly just LeBron) fans have been loving social media and all the “no splashing” memes. The Splash brothers averaged a combined 48 points during the regular season. They are still making a splash in the finals by averaging 43 points through game four. The newly nicknamed “the Trash Brothers” (Cleveland’s Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith) combined, only made 4-of-21 baskets to total 9 points in game four.
Old man LBJ can’t hang the entire game. And when he’s on the bench, the depth of the Cavs is exposed. Take away LeBron and you take away a chance at another NBA title for King James. Having cramps and trying to take a selfie caused LeBron to miss minutes on the court. This sounds more like a Kim Kardashian headline. Yes, there was blood and he needed stitches during game four from the camera selfie. But, I remember a picture of Houston Texan’s J.J. Watt’s face covered in blood from a broken nose on the field and he never missed a down. Moral of the story, LeBron’s team needs him to suck it up because without him, they will lose. And I’m okay with that. (Sorry, Byron.)
The Warriors coach Kerr used the difference in size matchup and applied a secret game plan for game four. He started small and let small things come in big packages. Kerr started Andre Iguodala (his first start all season) instead of Andrew Bogut. The strategy was if they start the game smaller then they could play quicker, faster, Warrior basketball. This change made it a nightmare for the Cavs defense. Iguodala put up 22points in the Warriors 103-82 victory in Cleveland.
The irony in this lineup change was that Kerr was asked before the game if Bogut would start and Kerr responded with “there would be no changes in the starting lineup”.
At the post game press conference Kerr was asked about his little white lie to the media. Basically, Kerr had three choices in how to respond to the pre-game question: 1) He could tell the truth and give the Cavs his game plan with time to prepare. 2) He could avoid the question. Or 3) he could tell a little white lie. “Sorry, but I don’t think they hand you the trophy based on morality,” Kerr said. “They give it to you if you win. So sorry about that.”
And I see nothing wrong with how Kerr handled it. There are no rules saying you have to share your game plan. Sorry, Cleveland. While your city is reading fairytale books on how your city can be saved by a returning King, Golden State is studying MoneyBall and using strategy to win games.
The series is tied 2-2 and game five is in Oakland.