LeBron James Happy to Let Golden State Warriors Pick Their Poison in NBA Finals
Ever the courtly opponent, LeBron James is happy to let the Golden State Warriors pick the poison by which their defense will overdose.
There is nothing especially wrong with Golden State's points-preventing program in the early going of its 2015 NBA Finals sparring with the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Warriors are limiting the Cavaliers to 37 percent shooting and allowing just 92 points per 100 possessions, a mark that dwarfs their regular-season-leading 98.2.
James specifically isn't embarrassing Golden State's defense. He is not exploiting glaring weaknesses or torching shoddy, ineffective strategies.
No, the Warriors are, in fact, successfully dictating the way James plays—the shots he's taking, the looks he's receiving, the decisions he's making. He's shooting a manageable 39.7 percent from the floor (29-of-73), and with more than half of his field-goal attempts qualifying as contested looks, nothing has been particularly easy for him.
Almost 70 percent of his shot attempts are coming outside eight feet for the series. James is shooting 37.3 percent when stationed more than eight feet from the hoop during the Finals and 29.4 percent for the entire playoffs.
Everything is going according to plan.
Except for the part where James takes the Warriors' plan and makes it his own.
Not even James' suboptimal shooting percentages are enough to overshadow the impact he's having, both in these Finals and on an historical scale.
It took everything he had to help the short-handed Cavaliers secure a 95-93 overtime victory in Game 2 and tie this best-of-seven series at one game apiece. He tallied 39 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists through 50 minutes of action, postseason benchmarks no other player has ever matched before, per SI.com's Ben Golliver:
This marked the 13th playoff triple-double of James' career. He has now passed Magic Johnson for the most postseason triple-doubles since 1985. The 83 points he totaled through Games 1 and 2 put him in some historical company as well, according to ESPN Stats & Info:
Numbers like those, performances such as these, suggest that James is having his way with the Warriors when, really, he's just adjusting and adapting to what they give him.
Game 1 saw the Warriors stray from defensive designs used against James from series past. The Boston Celtics, Chicago Bulls and Atlanta Hawks all elected to collapse on him, sticking multiple bodies between James and the basket, perfectly content with letting Cleveland's cast of also-rans (and a hobbled Kyrie Irving) try to beat them.
Blessed with more individual versatility than any of those three units, the Warriors seldom sent double-teams his way. It became clear early on that, while they would let paint protectors roam whenever possible, swarming James wasn't the priority:
The Warriors stayed true to that method all night—even in the fourth quarter and even when James bullied his way deep into the post:
That's the luxury of employing defensive dynamos such as Draymond Green and Andre Iguodala and even Harrison Barnes. The Warriors can put one body on James and still feel as if they have a fighting chance.
Playing him one-on-one isn't a bad idea when you have that confidence. James is a playmaker first and foremost. To obstruct his passing lanes is to impede a pivotal dimension of his game. He has never once been portrayed as the ultimate aggressor, someone who feels comfortable taking shot after shot even when they aren't falling.
But, as SI.com's Rob Mahoney explained, James wasn't about to let the Warriors get away with single coverage:
"For James, in particular, the work of dominating the ball in this fashion must be both foreign and satisfying. LeBron's instinct is to make plays, but the overriding logic of his game is to make the right play. Given the Warriors' defensive strategy and the structure of the team around him, the right play for James is so often to attack his man in isolation. That Golden State didn't collapse hard on his drives and post-ups forced LeBron to both initiate and complete many plays on his own.
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Out of character though that is, James didn't shy away from shooting in volume. He attempted a career-high 38 field goals, hitting 18 en route to scoring 44 points.
Some of his makes were just instances the Warriors will have to get over. More than half his shots came outside the paint, where he's shooting 28.1 percent for the postseason and shot 7-of-22 in Game 1.
It's the frequency with which James was able to bully his way inside that became problematic. He went 11-of-16 in the paint, closing the distance between himself and the basket at will.
Take the below play in which James squares off with Iguodala from beyond the three-point line:
Stephen Curry and Harrison Barnes flirt with providing help, but they're more concerned with closing out on the orbiting Iman Shumpert and J.R. Smith as James barrels his way inside:
Iguodala forces James into what's a tough shot for most players. But James, as we know, isn't most players. He creates just enough space to drill a baby fallaway, a high-percentage look for someone of his caliber:
Now, James' 44-point outing didn't prevent the Warriors from picking up the win and jumping out to a 1-0 series lead. They could have kept rolling with this one-on-one strategy, fully confident in their ability to offset his 40 burgers.
But they came awfully close to losing. If not for James' questionable shot selection late in the game—he was 2-of-8 in the final five minutes of the fourth and through overtime—the Warriors could have entered Game 2 with the burden of staving off a 2-0 hole.
Irving's injury also changed things. His left knee surgery bilked the Cavaliers of a deadly spot-up shooter; he was shooting 65.4 percent on catch-and-shoot treys this postseason before going down.
Without having to account for him in Game 2, the Warriors collapsed on James more, a tactic that worked to some extent. He shot just 11-of-35 from the floor while coping with the additional pressure.
Far less efficient? Absolutely.
Less effective? Not exactly.
On most possessions, James used the extra barriers in front him as an advantage. He absorbed a ton of contact, earning himself cyclical trips to the charity stripe, where he was 14-of-18.
Those foul-line excursions didn't bail him out down the stretch, and he did shoot 2-of-12 through the fourth quarter and overtime. But he also picked apart the Warriors with his passing, dropping 11 assists, many of which were the direct result of Golden State sending help.
Most opponents don't send help as shrewdly as the Warriors. They're smart enough to mostly stray from cross-court assignments. If James is going to beat them with his distributing, he must do so while making crazy-difficult passes.
That, unfortunately for the Warriors, is something he can do.
And something he did.
Complicated still, James mustered 39 points in Game 2. He may not have shot well, but he showed flashes of effectively eluding double-teams and traffic jams by firing up jumpers before the Warriors could swarm him.
"I was knocking on the 40 door again. So they let me score 40 again," James quipped after Game 2, mocking the assumption that Golden State is wholly controlling his performances, per CBS Sports' Ken Berger. "I'm happy to be able to do that in a win."
James' jokes are the Warriors' greatest fear: They haven't yet been able to stop or contain him, despite the fact that he's doing exactly what they're daring him to do.
That may not matter in the end. The Warriors will make even more adjustments moving forward. They are still the superior team on paper.
They are still title favorites.
It's just that in order to hoist the Larry O'Brien Trophy, they have to go through James—a superstar who's not only impossible to stop, but one who, win or lose, is prepared to beat the Warriors on their own terms.
Stats courtesy of Basketball-Reference.com and NBA.com unless otherwise cited.
Dan Favale covers the NBA for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter: @danfavale.
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