Golden State Warriors: 5 takeaways from Game 4 vs. Cleveland Cavaliers
David Richard-USA TODAY Sports
The Golden State Warriors lost for the first time this postseason, falling to the Cleveland Cavaliers 137-116 in Game 4 of the 2017 NBA Finals. The loss itself hardly tarnishes what has been an all-time great playoff run, but does create a sudden sense of urgency.
The Golden State Warriors played their worst game of the 2017 NBA Finals on the same night that the Cleveland Cavaliers played their best. The result was a 49-point first quarter, an 86-point half and a 137-point game for Cleveland, as well as the Warriors' first loss of the playoffs.
The best-and-worst nature of Game 4 does not make it an anomaly, however. Cleveland is capable of stringing together performances like this, as the Warriors learned last June.
Of course, the Warriors are in control of their own play, as they are of the series. If they return to their standard level of performance at home in Game 5, they'll likely be NBA champions in two days. If they reach their peak level, there's nothing Cleveland can do, short of replicating its all-time great Game 4 performance.
Our takeaways for Game 4 of this series focus on shooting, pace and rotations, three things the Warriors need to go differently to make this year's Game 5 erase the memory of last year's.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
5. Cleveland's offense can reach higher heights than Golden State's
The Warriors have the greatest offense in NBA history. The stats bear this out, though a look at their roster and scheme is enough to jump to this conclusion.
Still, Cleveland's offense is better in two areas: isolation scoring and depth of shooters. Because of this, it is able to reach levels that even Golden State cannot, or at least does not regularly.
Case in point: The Cavaliers hit 24 threes last night, shattering the Warriors' six-day-old Finals record of 18.
When you factor in volume, range and ability to hit against good defense, the Warriors may have the three best outside shooters in the league. After that, though, it's Ian Clark, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala and Patrick McCaw. Clark is the best shooter among them, but he's got limited size, a slow release, and no history of being able to heat up with volume.
In other words, the Warriors have three all-time great shooters, but also only three plus shooters. Cleveland has six — LeBron James, Kyrie Irving, Kevin Love, J.R. Smith, Kyle Korver and Channing Frye (though he did not play in Game 4). You have to get to their seventh, eight and ninth-best shooters — Deron Williams, Richard Jefferson, Iman Shumpert — to find comps for Golden State's fourth, fifth and sixth guys.
When James and Irving are going off in isolation like no one else can (this includes both pull-up threes and drives), the Cavs have a base from which to build a historic night on. When the defense collapses and leaves heat-check legends like Smith (5-of-9 on threes in Game 4) and Love (6-of-8), there is potential for fireworks that even the Warriors cannot create.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
4. Warriors not reliant on threes, but need smaller disparity
That Cavaliers' ceiling says nothing of median outcomes. It requires both Irving and James to go off, and at least two of Cleveland's shooters to go off.
Golden State's offense is still better. It creates higher-quality looks on a night-in, night-out basis by not only taking and making threes, but leveraging its shooters to create better looks at the rim and for others.
The Warriors are also miles ahead of the Cavaliers defensively. If both teams are shooting at something close to a normal level, the Warriors will generally generate more turnovers, block more shots and force less favorable looks for Cleveland than the other way around.
In Game 4, that level was not close to normal. The Cavs were 24-of-45 from deep (53.3 percent) and the Warriors were 11-of-39 (28.2 percent).
If those numbers get close in Game 5, the Warriors will have the advantage, even if Cleveland's stays higher. That the Warriors lost by 21 in Game 4, while being outscored by 39 from three, supports that theory.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
3. Tight officiating again hurts Warriors
Takes that "the NBA is rigged" are bad ones. Equally bad are the takes that "anyone who believes the NBA is rigged is an idiot." It's possible.
The better take is this: There is usually a better, more likely explanation for something happening than rigging. For example, the Los Angeles Lakers getting the No. 2 pick is more likely a result of them finishing with the third-worst record in the league than it is of a conspiracy to give them Lonzo Ball.
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Similarly, the success Cleveland derived from the officiating Friday night was more likely due to style of play than intentional bias on the part of the officials.
The Warriors play better the fewer whistles there are. Their offense doesn't rely on creating contact, but rather creating space. Their defense is aggressive, and thus better when the refs "let them play." The same is true for their box-out oriented, gang-rebounding scheme. They build momentum in the flow of the game. This is nothing new.
The first three games were officiated fairly loosely. Game 1 had 47 fouls and 41 free throws. Game 2 had 37 fouls and 43 free throws. It ramped up when the series shifted to Cleveland, with 53 fouls and 49 free throws in Game 3, and then 51 fouls and an absurd 67 free throws in Game 4.
The Cavs love whistles. It gives their two relentless drivers time to rest. It artificially slows the game to the tempo they want to achieve naturally.
More important than anything, whistles take away the cross-matches that the Warriors generally destroy the Cavs with. Even when the Warriors are the ones drawing fouls, the opportunity it affords Cleveland to reset its defense is likely a net-negative for Golden State.
The more the refs get involved, the more it helps the Cavs. Warriors fans (and most basketball fans) prefer less whistles and more flow, but that doesn't mean that Game 4 was rigged, any more than the lack of whistles in games 1 and 2 meant it was rigged the other way.
2017 NBA Finals
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2. Previous outcomes are overrated
Entering Game 4, a sweep felt imminent. People were looking at Games 1-3 and seeing one trend: the Warriors winning.
What they were not seeing, or at least not prioritizing, was another trend: Cleveland getting better every game.
Being down 3-0 well could have broken the Cavs. It also could have fired them up. Because they dropped 137 points, the latter is the easy answer. But explaining the game in those terms does a disservice to both teams.
It discredits the Cavaliers, who have, just as last year, arrived late to this series. It may well be too late, but their Game 4 win was more than a statement of pride. It was a statement of what they can be when they control pace, when their role players contribute and when they are at home.
It also ignores what should be the key takeaway for Golden State.
Kyle Terada-USA TODAY Sports
1. Up 3-1, the Warriors need to get desperate
Once you accept that Game 4 was not a pure aberration, that the Cavaliers have improved every game, that these teams have comparable shooting talent and that tight whistles favor Cleveland, you realize that this is not an ordinary closeout Game 5 at home.
That says nothing of the parallels to last year, the confidence it may give the Cavs and take from the Warriors.
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For the Warriors to make sure this thing doesn't go back to Cleveland (and oh man, do they not want this going back to Cleveland), they need to overreact to Game 4. That means Steve Kerr prioritizing matchups over familiar rotations and prioritizing time and score over normal rest cycles.
In Game 4, the Warriors fourth-quarter starting unit — Patrick McCaw, Klay Thompson, Andre Iguodala, Draymond Green and David West — managed an opening 8-0 run, cutting the Cavs lead to 115-104 with 9:41 remaining.
Kerr had the chance to bring Curry and Durant back right there. It was a minute before he wanted to, but the moment seemed to be there. Instead, he chose to favor freshness and the long view over momentum. By the time Curry and Durant returned, Irving had hit a three, Iguodala missed an 18-footer, and Irving scored in the lane. The Warriors were back down 16.
This was semi-defensible in Game 4, but barely. In Game 5, it will not be at all. The Warriors learned last year that each closeout game may be your last chance to actually close a series out. There is no excuse for Kerr to not play his best guys, and best lineups, as much as possible on Monday night.
