After three blowouts and a 2-1 lead for the Golden State Warriors, we have arrived at Game 4 of the 2016 NBA Finals tonight in Cleveland. The Cavaliers will try to build upon their drubbing of the dubs in Game 3 and protect their home court by tying the series 2-2.
The best way for them to do that is by starting veteran forward Richard Jefferson, even if star forward Kevin Love is cleared to play.
Jefferson at the age of 35 and as a player who signed to only play a few spot minutes for the Cavaliers, has become a vital piece of their puzzle in the postseason and has provided a spark with his hustle and high basketball IQ.
Jefferson provided 9 points, 8 rebounds 2 assists and 2 steals in 33 valuable minutes for the Cavaliers in Game 2 and his insertion into the lineup allowed the Cavaliers to go small and put LeBron James at the four much like he did in his Miami days, which made the Cavaliers much quicker and more athletic defensively.
Jefferson and Tristan Thompson were tracking every lose ball and Jefferson’s well-timed backdoor cuts have been a nice weapon for the Cavaliers the past two rounds.
Starting Jefferson at the three also enabled LeBron James to defend Draymond Green in Game 3. Green was clearly bothered by James’s length, strength and athleticism and was held to 6 points, 7 rebounds and 7 assists on 25 percent shooting after averaging 22-9-6 on 50 percent shooting in Game’s 1 and 2.
Draymond Green is the most valuable player for what the Warriors do and is the cog that makes the whole machine work. Putting your best defender and one of the most freakish athletes in NBA history on him in LeBron James is absolutely necessary for the Cavaliers to have an opportunity to come back and win this series.
Allowing Kevin Love to flourish in the second unit has its benefits for the Cavaliers as well. The Cavaliers bench has been outscored 2-to-1 by the Warriors in this series, or 118-55 to be exact, and having a player of Love’s caliber offensively to be a go to guy in those short stretches where the Cavaliers may have LeBron and or Irving on the bench would be a huge boost for a Cavaliers team that is sorely lacking guys who can create their own shots off the bench.
Bringing Love off the bench opens up a world of match-up possibilities for the Cavaliers and doesn’t prevent them from playing Love heavy minutes like he did in Game’s 1 and 2 if he plays at the all-star level he is capable of.
The shot to the head that Love received in Game 2 may have indirectly been the shot in the arm the Cavaliers needed in order to make the adjustments to get themselves back in this series.
Expect the Warriors to come back with their own adjustments in Game 4, possibly starting Andre Iguodala in place of Andrew Bogut much like they did after Game 3 in the 2015 NBA Finals, a move that turned the tide of that series and changed the NBA landscape.
