NBA Finals Preview: Can LeBron James beat the Warriors?

The journeys that have led to each of the four consecutive Cavs-Warriors matchups have been entirely unique. LeBron James has had a stranglehold on the entire Eastern Conference for nearly a decade while the Golden State Warriors are a machine built to search and destroy everything in its place. For two of the last three years, that machine was able to work through enough of its minor kinks to eliminate James, too. This year, it’s hard to tell if the Warriors' struggles were driven by matchups or if there is enough vulnerability for James’ omnipresence on the basketball court to steal another one.

As we prepare for Game 1, we also prepare for the implications of those who may not suit up to start the series. For Cleveland, Kevin Love is still going through the NBA’s concussion protocol and isn’t a lock to play in the series opener. For Golden State, it’s Andre Iguodala, one of the myriad players who will be given a shot to slow down James. Both Love and Iguodala are capable of changing the series, and each team is going to have to alter their style of play should either miss significant time.

What we do know is that the Warriors win the series if they can find a way to slow down James. It’s an oversimplification to a complicated matter as no one this postseason has found a way to slow down James, and the Warriors hadn’t figured out the league’s most complex puzzle. Over the first three Finals matchups between the two teams, James led all players in scoring, rebounding and assists in 2015, was the Finals MVP in 2016 and became the first ever to average a triple-double in 2017. This year, he’s been on a tear, averaging 34, 9 and 9 with seven games scoring at least 40.

Golden State has multiple defenders they can throw at him: Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, Kevin Durant and Iguodala if healthy, but it may be wiser to make the philosophical decision to let James get his and keep the supporting cast at bay. The Cavs won the games in which James got help from unlikely sources. In the Boston series, it was Kyle Korver in Game 3, George Hill and Tristan Thompson in Game 4 with Jeff Green emerging in Games 6 and 7. James averaged 38-9-8 in the four wins, but he received help and that was all the difference.

The Cavaliers don’t have the gift (or the curse) to hone in on one guy who can make or break the series. The Warriors have multiple options who can create their own shot or shots for others. Steph Curry and Durant are the collective heads of the python, but Thompson and Green are its ability to constrict into submission while guys like Iguodala, Shaun Livingston and David West are the unhinging jaws working to finish teams off. This is a well rounded, fully functioning operation that is prone to taking plays, stretches and whole quarters off. It’s hard to tell if its fatigue or a general belief that at some point they’ll turn things around, but it is those lapses that Cleveland has to take advantage of, not players.

In the past two years, the Cavs have had a considerable amount of success putting Curry in situations in which he has to switch onto the P&R ball handler, whether it was Kyrie Irving or James, and we should see this happening on a grand scale in these Finals considering the success that the Rockets just had doing it as they took the Warriors to a Game 7 for the first time before the Finals during their current run and only the second time at all (2016 Finals).