The Warriors lost to the Cavaliers on Christmas Day, Steph Curry was on the bench during the final defensive possession and Kyrie Irving still looks like the most clutch scorer in the NBA.
But despite the result, ESPN analyst Brian Windhorst thinks Golden State — at this moment — has a critical advantage over Cleveland.
Depth.
“If I was evaluating this as a series — if it was 1-0 Cleveland and Game 2 was tonight — the Cavs have a disadvantage against the Warriors because of the depth,” Windhorst said Tuesday on KNBR 1050’s The Audible. “In my mind, the end of the third quarter, the reason it went from being a 1 point game to a 14 point game between the last three minutes of the third and the first three minutes of the fourth, was the Warriors’ depth.”
In the stretch of the game Windhorst is talking about, the Warriors used a roaming combination of Ian Clark, Shaun Livingston, Patrick McCaw, David West and Andre Iguodala. Those are a ton of interchangeable parts.
In turn, the only three bench players Tyronn Lue called upon were Richard Jefferson, Channing Frye and Iman Shumpert. Granted, all three played key roles in the win, but using only three bench players is a subtle sign of a protruding weakness.
“The Cavs got tired and they had to take LeBron off the floor. The Warriors have so much firepower,” Windhorst said. “Plus Steve Kerr plays 10-11 guys, the Cavs were essentially playing eight. Over the course of a seven game series, that would make a big difference. I find it hard to believe the Cavs could keep up over the long haul.
“Now, it isn’t a series. We don’t know how healthy the Warriors will be in June. The Cavs would obviously theoretically have J.R. Smith back healthy. They (might) get another player in-between — major depth advantage to the Warriors.”
Windhorst is concerned about one major cog within the Warriors, though: Steph Curry.
“I’ve now watched the ’15 Finals, the ’16 Finals and now this game and Steph, in general — he certainly had moments — but in general has not been himself against the Cavs on average,” Windhorst said. “He had a couple of moments and some really big games in the ’15 Finals. But he hasn’t been himself.
“And yeah, okay, his knee was off in the Finals last year, for sure. But the Cavs are able to bump him and be a little more physical with him and it seems to throw him off his game. The other thing is, the Cavs attacked Steph at the end of the game in Game 7. They physically drew up the play to attack him, to force Kyrie onto him with the switch, and Kyrie went at him. And you know, he played good defense on that, but the Cavs target him defensively. And that is why Steve Kerr took him out of the game.
“And one of the most alarming things to me about that game, regardless of the final score, is Steph didn’t even see the Kyrie shot because based on what I can tell, watching the replay, he’s the only guy on the Warriors bench sitting, and he’s got his head in his jersey — I can assume because he was taken out of the game. It might’ve been the correct tactical move. Because Kyrie trying to score over Klay is a lot tougher than trying to score over Steph.”