National Basketball Association

The Cavaliers are not down and are not out

Published Jun. 12, 2015 11:17 a.m. ET

foxsports

by Will Gibson

It feels like the Cavaliers are on the losing end of the series after dropping Game 4 in Cleveland Thursday night. It feels like the Warriors shook off the early punches, went back to their corner, and remembered who they are. It feels like Andre Iguodala is too good to be left that open all the time, even if it has been a reasonable gamble by the Cavs. It feels like Game 4 counted for more than one game. It feels like the Warriors may indeed be better, and worse, that they’re starting to really believe it.

Even if it feels like they’re not out of it yet, it certainly feels like the Cavs are down.

But they’re not down. They’re tied. This thing’s 2-2. We got a three-game series on our hands.

Being tied is obviously worse than leading 3-1, but let’s not pretend that the Game 3 win meant the Cavs were gonna take this thing in five. There were reasons for optimism, and ecstasy obscuring reason is forgivable — I hope — but it was never going to be that easy. All that stuff about the Warriors being the best team this year was and is true. You’ve heard, know, and have gotten sick of their resume by now: 67 wins, No. 1 offense, No. 1 defense, MVP, blah blah blah. They’re not here by accident.

Even if you think some of them are a-holes — and it’s not a proper playoff series until you do — most all of them can play. Draymond Green hasn’t been great this series, but he went for 17 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists last night, and has come up with some monster defensive plays at the rim. David Lee’s defense has been a running joke for years, but he scored 9 points and grabbed 5 rebounds, and he forced the Cavs’ overworked big men to sprint with him for the 15 minutes he spent on the floor. Shaun Livingston is still a damn good passer, the sort who can conjure layups out of nowhere, especially if he’s the opposing defense’s No. 5 priority.

And Andre Iguodala. Man. He’s been straight-up great this series. The 22 points and 8 rebounds last night will get the most pub, but his defense on LeBron was superb. He didn’t stop him by any means, but he gave Golden State exactly what it needed. Even when LeBron got into the lane, Iguodala kept a body on him. He largely prevented easy looks at the rim, and he held the fort well enough to allow a cavalry of help defenders to arrive. LeBron getting his head cut open by a freaking camera may have had something to do with it too. I wouldn’t say Iguodala outplayed him — their roles are so different that it would be a silly comparison — but the former Sixer has been absolutely essential to the Warriors’ success.

Still, the Cavs ain’t dead yet. The Cliff’s Notes on Game 4 say that the Warriors hit their threes (12-of-30) and the Cavs didn’t (4-of-27), and that that was basically the ballgame. There’s surely more to it than that, but a 24-point difference in any single area is significant. The Cavs have dared anyone other than Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson to beat them all series, and it finally happened in Game 4. It was the first game of the Finals in which Warriors hit their regular season average of 40 percent on threes. If Iguodala and Harrison Barnes hit 6 of their 14 triples, the Cavs have to lay in the bed they made.

Meanwhile, the Cavs shot like a firing squad, but if the gunmen were blindfolded instead of the victims. Grantland’s shot chart guru Kirk Goldsberry has the gory details of their life outside the paint Thursday.

In addition to those gruesome numbers, they were 6-of-29 on uncontested shots Thursday1 — 20.7 percent. They shot over 40 percent on such attempts in each of the first three Finals games. The Warriors certainly looked better defensively in Game 4, playing with greater confidence and activity, but it stands to reason that the Cavs can hit a couple open looks, especially from outside. Matthew Dellavedova shot 40 percent from beyond the arc in the regular season, and Iman Shumpert 34 percent. Neither is a classic sniper, but they’ve hit enough shots to have earned a little belief.

As for J.R. Smith? All I’m advising there is spirited finger-crossing.

Game 4 leaves plenty of questions for David Blatt, LeBron James, and the Cavs to answer ahead of Game 5. How will they respond? Will they stay the course, keeping pressure on Steph and Klay, or will they show more respect to the Warriors’ tertiary threats? Can the Cavs hold the fort long enough for LeBron to get even a couple minutes of rest, or will he have to go all 48 for them to have a shot? Can Timofey Mozgov have his way with the Warriors smaller front line again? Most importantly, can somebody knock down a bloody shot?

Even if LeBron wasn’t at his best Thursday — and 20, 12, and 8 is still really damn good — the Cavs’ front line did all that could be asked of them. Mozgov and Tristan Thompson combined for 40 points and 23 rebounds on 15-of-26 shooting, and they’ve rendered Andrew Bogut unplayable. Bogut’s absence, however, raises all sorts of hairy matchup problems. Mozgov sagging way off of Iguodala led to lots of his wide open looks in Game 4, but that was a risk the Cavs were willing to take. In Game 5 and beyond? We’ll see.

It was a disheartening loss, and some of the good feeling in Cleveland has gone on vacation. But this series is knotted up after four games. The Cavs now need to take two of three. At least one of them will have to be at Oracle Arena. Fatigue will only become a larger issue. The better team generally wins out over the course of seven games. Things don’t look good for the boys in wine and gold.

And that’s fine. I still believe. I understand that I’m leaning on hope more than reason. I understand that I’ve allowed my love for this team to squeeze all objectivity out of my system. I understand that this is yet another argument predicated on “but, but, but…LeBron!”

I also understand that 2=2.

The Cavs aren’t down. And they certainly ain’t out.

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