Jeff Zillgitt, USA TODAY Sports Published 12:54 p.m. ET June 6, 2018
LeBron James and Steph Curry were among the players and coaches who spoke out against Donald Trump, who recently disinvited the Philadelphia Eagles from visiting the White House. USA TODAY Sports
CLEVELAND – LeBron James doesn’t feel good about the 2-0 deficit against Golden State.
He made that clear.
“When you're down like this, in a deficit like this versus a team like this, there's no good feeling,” James said. “So, I don't feel good about it.”
He began to answer the next question, stopped and went back to the previous question about how being down 2-0 this time against the Warriors might feel differently than being down 2-0 in 2017 and 2016.
“I don't feel good how I feel right now, not how I feel about the rest of the series,” James said. “I know how clips can get broken up and somebody can clip that and be like, ‘Oh, LeBron said he doesn't feel good.’ I personally don't feel good today of the deficit that we have. Not about (Game 3). I feel great about our opportunity.”
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James has reason to remain positive headed into Wednesday’s game. Cleveland took Golden State to overtime and almost won Game 1 and played the Warriors well for three-plus quarters of Game 2.
Now, the Cavs get the next two games at home where they are 8-1 in the postseason. The Cavs are eight points better offensively and seven points better defensively per 100 possessions at Quicken Loans Arena than they are on the road.
“Well, first of all, you give a lot of credit to the fans,” James said. “The fans bring you so much excitement as well. I always believe like the role players play much better at home than they do on the road. They feed off the crowd. They feed off the familiarity with not only being home but being on their home floor, having their own locker and things of that nature.”
James and Kevin Love have been more than sufficient offensively, and George Hill has had his moments. But it’s been difficult for other players to find scoring. That’s because Golden State’s versatile defense makes it problematic.
Cavs shooting guard Kyle Korver has had a tough series. He has played just 16.7 minutes and scored just two points per game, far less than his 24 minutes and 9.8 points per game in the Eastern Conference playoffs. He made a team-best 44 three pointers in 18 games in the first three rounds. He’s 1-for-4 on threes against the Warriors.
“It's hard because they switch out on everything,” Cavs coach Ty Lue said. “So all the actions you run for Kyle, they just switch out to deny and take him away. When they are helping on LeBron's penetration, the one guy they're staying at home on is Kyle. They're not leaving his body.
“With him on the floor, they have to pay attention to him, know where he's at at all times. He gives us spacing offensively, but they're not leaving him. We try to run a lot of actions for him, but they're just switching out and taking it away.”
J.R. Smith and Jeff Green need to show more aggressiveness and improve their defense against Golden State’s role players after JaVale McGee and Shaun Livingston had it way too easy in Game 2. Steph Curry, Kevin Durant and Klay Thompson will score.
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Getting stops will help give Cleveland better offensive opportunities in transition, especially at the three-point line for Korver and Smith. Expect a more physical style from Cleveland in Game 3.
Lue also plans to give Rodney Hood a chance against Golden State. It’s a gamble Lue needs to take even though Hood has not played well in the playoffs and has not received meaningful minutes since Game 1 of the conference semifinals against Toronto one month ago.
Hood has struggled, shooting 41.8% from the field and 15% on three-pointers, and Cleveland has been outscored by 80 points with Hood on the floor in 208 minutes in the playoffs.
“We're going to give Rodney a chance. He'll get a shot and see how he does,” Lue said. “He's been working, staying ready. So, we'll see.”
The game plan is obvious. Executing it is Cleveland’s task in Game 3.
“The guys are engaged and locked in. Winning (Wednesday) is a step forward, but then going out with Game 4 also,” Lue sad. “We're locked into doing that, and we know we can. … We believe. We watched tape. We watched film and see the things that we can get better at, very minor things.”
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