OAKLAND — Both the Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors have landed back in the Bay Area for Monday’s Game 5. Considering last season’s 3-1 collapse, the narrative, and the pressure, has shifted back on the heavy favorites.
Right?
Wrong, according to the key figures in the NBA Finals.
“I feel like this is the game we have to get,” LeBron James said on Sunday, “or shit, it’s over with.”
“You want to do exactly what we have done, win the first two and get a split,” Steve Kerr said. “So we’re right where we want to be.”
Okay, so maybe the pressure isn’t as much on the Warriors as it seems. But they certainly don’t want to experience another Game 6 in Cleveland — where an insane atmosphere will be difficult to overcome. While Kevin Durant continues to deliver knockout punches to Cleveland’s defense (34.3 points per game in the NBA Finals) it’s Steph Curry who found himself under the microscope on Sunday.
Three fantastic games to open up the trilogy in 2017 were followed by a stinker in Game 4 on Friday. Curry scored just 14 points (his lowest since February), hit 4 of his 13 shots, looked hesitant to launch and fire, was bantering often with the referees and turned the ball over a team-high four times.
Then there’s this: Curry has not exactly been a hero in previous closeout games against the Cavaliers. Including Game 6 from 2015 and Games 5, 6 and 7 last June, Curry’s averages are much lower than his customary numbers — 24.5 points per game, 30 for 79 from the field (37.9 percent) and a squeamish 18 for 53 from downtown (33.9 percent). Curry is lacking the signature championship closeout on his resume.
Some of the conversation Sunday shifted to how much Cleveland is letting Kyrie Irving play isolation basketball — and how much it’s working. In the last two games combined, Irving has posted 78 points, on 31 of 56 from the floor. Klay Thompson has been draped all over him defensively. There’s nothing the Warriors have been able to do.
“He’s one of the best one-on-one players in the game,” Tyronn Lue said before the Cavs hit the practice floor.
Can’t Golden State implement similar strategies to make sure Curry is in attack mode for Game 5? Kerr hinted that they can. The Warriors are planning on letting Curry create more for himself in what they hope is the final game of the series.
“There’s some things we can do to free him up, and we’ll try that tomorrow,” Kerr said.
Many in the Bay Area are hoping that means more pick-and-roll with the basketball in Curry’s hands. The time is now to unleash the Baby-Faced Assassin on the Cavaliers. He’s welcoming that challenge with open arms and expects to play like he did in Games 1, 2 and 3.
“I think when I have the ball in my hands, I just got to be a little bit more aggressive than I was in Game 4,” Curry said. “Just try to get in the paint, make plays, and not let them try to take me out of it.”
If the Warriors win Game 5 and bring home their second championship in three seasons, Curry will likely have played a major factor in ending the series. This is his moment. This is his chance to slam the door shut.
If the Cavaliers win Game 5 and shift the series back to Cleveland, we’ll be asking what the hell happened. And if Curry wasn’t put in position to to play more one-on-one basketball — or worse for him, if he’s missing shots — the scrutiny will only intensify.
And he knows it.
