The Cavaliers Need to Make the NBA Finals Ugly Again

LeBron James was magnificent. Kevin Love had his best championship-round game ever. The Cleveland Cavaliers forced the Golden State Warriors into 20 turnovers, won the battle for points in the paint going away, and even got Draymond Green into foul trouble.

And still, the Warriors blew their doors off in Sunday night's Game 2 of the NBA Finals.

Coming off a 132-113 shellacking and down 0-2 in the series, the Cavaliers face desperate times as they head home to regroup and attempt to defend their title. Desperate measures are in order.

Cleveland has forged their current identity around high-powered offense, but the Cavs are getting outgunned in a barrage of three-pointers and dunks, as well as a few self-inflicted wounds. It turns out that trying to outscore an opposing team that features Steph Curry and Kevin Durant isn't exactly a winning game plan.

To turn things around, or at least to have a chance, Cleveland should seriously consider departing from the style of play they have perfected all year. If last year's Finals taught us anything, it's that there's always time to make some needed adjustments.

Here are three key ones the Cavs can make for Game 3.

It's clear that Cleveland thought it could run with Golden State. It's also clear that Cleveland was wrong. During the regular season, the Warriors were one of just two NBA teams to average more than 17 fast-break points per game. So far in the Finals, they are averaging 29. It wasn't just volume that did opponents in—Golden State had a 133 offensive rating on possessions following a turnover, the most efficient mark in the league.

Everyone on Earth knows the fast break is the Warriors' deadliest weapon. Yet through two games, Cleveland has been either unwilling or unable to stop it. That has to change. Similar to what the Cavs did in the previous two Finals, they need to sacrifice their half-court offense for improved transition defense.

Cleveland has the pieces to make this adjustment on the fly. By himself, James can force a slower pace just by keeping the ball in his hands for the majority of every single possession—see the 2015 Finals. With proper spacing around James, defenders have to think twice before doubling or over-pressuring him. That fear keeps defenses honest, and allows James to milk clock before going into simple, deliberate half-court actions like elbow post-ups and late-clock pick-and-rolls.

Will Cleveland's scoring efficiency dip by mucking things up? Certainly and dramatically, but the trade-off potentially provides many benefits. First, it would give the Cavs more opportunities to get back on defense and maintain floor balance, stymieing the Warriors' transition attack. Second, it would allow James—who is averaging 39.7 minutes per game in the Finals and only resting in garbage time—to catch his breath. Given the burden he's carrying on both ends of the floor, any rest he can get while on the court is much needed.

Third, fewer possessions means a higher variance—worse odds for the Warriors to pull away with an offensive flurry, and better odds for the Cavs to keep the score within striking distance for as long as possible. In other words, Cleveland can create favorable conditions for some good luck.

Finally, slowing the pace will help Tristan Thompson attack the offensive glass. So far, Thompson has just five offensive rebounds in nearly 44 total minutes. That's not enough. In the chaos of an active half-court offense, Thompson has several responsibilities that culminate with him crashing the glass; in a grind-it-out, isolation-heavy half-court offense, his focus becomes narrower. Moreover, the Warriors have been able to cover ground in the half-court to challenge shots at the rim while still finding a body to put on him for rebounds. Ugly up the game, and maybe that changes.

One key to beating the Warriors? Keep help-side defenders as far away from the rim as possible. Cleveland's efforts to crash the offensive glass sometimes make this harder. In this clip, watch how Kevin Love's pursuit of rebounding position drags Kevin Durant into position to block Channing Frye. Now watch it again, and imagine if Love had stayed in the corner. The set worked in that it got Frye rolling toward the rim, but Love's decision to crash the glass blew up the spacing and made for an easy block.

This is just one example of the numerous difficult calculations that the Cavaliers have to make on offense. On the one hand, they desperately need second-chance points: the Warriors have outscored them in that department through two games despite offensive rebounding being one of Golden State's alleged weaknesses. On the other hand, Cleveland has to do everything in their power to maintain spacing in order to force help-side defenders to cover as much ground as possible. Can the Cavs find the right balance?

No other adjustments will matter if Cleveland keeps giving Golden State free points. Turnovers and fast breaks are the biggest issues here, but the Cavs also are committing silly fouls and having total lapses in focus on defense. That has to end.

In Game 2, J.R. Smith committed not one but two shooting fouls behind the three-point line, one of which led to a four-point play. Those two plays alone accounted for seven free points. Meanwhile, Curry went to the free-throw line a staggering 14 times. He's a 90 percent career free-throw shooter. Do the math.

Cleveland has struggled to communicate on screens and track shooters all year. The Cavs are more locked-in defensively now than they were through their first 86 games, but they still suffer from unnecessary breakdowns. Just watch Smith and Kyrie Irving lose track of Curry—arguably the greatest three-point shooter ever—for a wide-open three in the corner. Similar errors were made by James and Smith with Durant.

Some of these lapses can be corrected through energy and will, but others are habitual, built up over a long season, and not fully fixable by Wednesday night. That bodes ominously for the Cavs. They have their backs against the wall, and need quick answers that may not be forthcoming. Tweaks probably won't do. They need to change their game plan, or else they will drown under a tidal wave of fast breaks and three-pointers.

Cleveland wasn't built to grind, but that might be their only chance to compete with a Golden State squad that is hitting their stride. At this point, the Cavs have little left to lose.

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