Warriors Prepare For New Look Run-And-Gun Cavs
OAKLAND (CBS SF) – Warriors coach Steve Kerr can toss the game tapes of Golden State's two regular season wins over the Cleveland Cavaliers into the trash can as he prepares for Game One of the NBA Finals Thursday night.
The Warriors defeated Cleveland 89-83 on Christmas night and 132-98 on January 18th.
Since that rout the Cavs have made a change at head coach, evolved into a more up-tempo style of play, can bomb away from the three-point line and have added the deadly shooting touch and length of Channing Frye.
So when Kerr was asked to size up the current differences between the two squads on Wednesday on the eve of the rematch for the NBA title it was a rather long-winded reply.
"I think we're mostly the same team in terms of personnel," he said. "We have more confidence having gone through the whole run last year and then what we've gone through this year and the adversity we're faced with injuries. I think we are stronger at our core, but we are very similar as a basketball team."
As for the Cavs, Kerr believes they are a healthy, much improved team. In last year's Finals, Kevin Love was sidelined with a shoulder injury and Kyrie Irving was lost during Game One.
"They are dramatically different," Kerr said. "They are healthy, but not only are they healthy, they've changed their style. They tried to grind us to a pulp last year. Playing big and slowing the ball down, slowing the pace down."
"This year, they've added Channing Frye. They are not playing (former starting center Timothy) Mozgov. They can shoot from all over the place and they are playing at a faster pace. It's an entirely different team."
Kerr said the current Cavs are much like his Warriors, they play with great spacing freeing up the outside shooters.
"We have to be ready to cover a lot of the floors (with the Warriors bigs)," he said. "They have 3-point shooting bigs in Frye and Love. So you can't lose sight of them, but at the same time you have to protect the rim."
Klay Thompson agrees on the last comment citing LeBron James and Irving's ability to drive to the basket.
"They have two guys who can get into the paint at will in LeBron and Kyrie," he said. "They are really similar to us. They are just moving the ball so much better."